Earthquake in Japan, Tsunamis in HI/CA/OR

[EBondo 232]

Been watching this since I woke up, these pictures that are coming in are unbelievable. Anyone on MSH from around there? Prayers are going out to you and your families, hopefully everyone is safe.

[xrickyb86x 1]

My friend is currently teaching out in Japan. He's alright. He felt some aftershocks but his area wasn't affected. He said everything is pretty tense over there right now.

[shoeshine boy 242]

I have 3 friends from Japan including a teammate. all relatives are safe and alive. one of my friends is there now visiting. fortunately she's on the Southeast side of the island where there is almost no damage.

[Tailboard Jockey 25]

Lots of damage to boats in the harbors here in Northern California.

[EBondo 232]

Just saw that there was another 6.6 quake reported in Japan, too. Scary stuff going on.

[Chadd 916]

My best wishes to those and their families that know people impacted by the quake and tsunami.

[RadioGaGa 162]

Amazing that so much damage and death can happen so quickly. What was the length of the 'quake itself? about 39-40 seconds?

Maybe the Mayans were right! The world seems to be telling that it's had enough.

[Thinkingjack 51]

This was bizarre, it was like 1am here in Tempe and i was changing channels, left it on cnn to see the news of the day and then it was like "breaking news we now take you live to japan" and it went off, i was watching that wall of water moving through land live, it was shaking i have a friend studying in japan and it freaked me out, and it was so sad, i felt terrible for all those families who lost people then hearing that it was an 8.9 and the the after tremors were 7.6? within the hour that was a little over intense

[burrn 0]

report from tokyo...

the quake itself lasted a few minutes(probably about 5 i think), aftershocks still coming every 30 mins or so.

since quakes themselves aren't uncommon in japan, most of the buildings are quake-resistant, so not much damage was done by the swaying, albeit the intensity. most of the damage was done by the tsunamis, which are said to have been over 20m high.

parts that are up to 10 to 20km inland from the shores that the tsunamis hit are all literally wiped out. total length of the shores that were hit is around 400km. so that 10km * 400km area is now basically just..nothing.

mos of the parts that were destroyed were fishery towns.

areas that the tsunamis didn't hit severely are mostly intact, including the three major cities: tokyo, nagoya, osaka.

these parts are rather quiet now.

another major problem is the nuclear power plants. most of them automatically shut down after the quake hit, however a few(2, as far as I know of now) of them could not cool down properly because of power shortages, emergency generator malfunctions, etc.

I dearly hope japan doesn't turn into Chernobyl.

the whole nation is in panic right, thats it for now.

I'll try to update if possible.

PS, there are probably more pictures or videos of the disaster in floating around in foreign media than what's being broadcast in the country.

shit.

a power plant just collapsed.

[flaming_june 2]

Current BBC newswire says containment of the Fukushima power plant has been blown off and a meltdown is feared to happen.

[henkka 0]

talking about hypocrisy!

[RiSeOnFiRe 0]

This is crazy. These power plants had adequate protection plans, just put in a poor location. It's obvious these facilities are very fragile and need to be placed in a geologically stable location.

[camhockey16 5]

here is a good video i saw

[flaming_june 2]

I like how they don't think to evacuate before this happened.

[DarkStar50 679]

The tsunami travels at 600/mph in the ocean. There was no time to evacuate. The tsunami traveled 3 miles inland in some places.

[number21 3]

Yeah basically no warning for those affected by the tsunami. Frighting.

[EBondo 232]

The quake hit, and 10-15 minutes later, the wave came in. This is the video I keep going back to. It doesn't even look real. Looks apocalyptic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmIFAuiaQY4

[henkka 0]

This is crazy. These power plants had adequate protection plans, just put in a poor location. It's obvious these facilities are very fragile and need to be placed in a geologically stable location.

There just isnt geologically stable location on these islands. Building power plants on bedrock itself beside sediment layers was the safest bet.

[flaming_june 2]

Well that's the thing. After the catastrophic tsunamis due to earth quakes in the eastern asian region in the past five years I would think people would be more prepared to say, hey earthquake just hit, we're in the coastal region, we better gun it.

[RiSeOnFiRe 0]

There just isnt geologically stable location on these islands. Building power plants on bedrock itself beside sediment layers was the safest bet.

Now there are hydrogen explosions... good god. Well yea even the most sturdy ground in Japan is not really safe. Perhaps some type of international energy field where countries can build their power plants in a safe environment.

[henkka 0]

Now there are hydrogen explosions... good god. Well yea even the most sturdy ground in Japan is not really safe. Perhaps some type of international energy field where countries can build their power plants in a safe environment.

Heh, yea, with these superpowers ie. USA, China and co. in charge, thats more than likely to happen :)

[burrn 0]

one of the coastal towns that were hit had seawalls 10m high (about 30ft), and they were nothing against the wave.

nuclear plants are in devastating condition, the jp gov. is saying it's intact, it's under control.

But that's probably only to calm people down. the situation with the plants is already a disaster.

[ggreen 0]

With the death toll expected to be as high as 10,000 and a second explosion at one of the nuclear power plants, my thoughts are with the people over there.

It certainly is amazing when mother nature decides to show us who's really in charge.

[burrn 0]

Personally, I think the toll will surpass 100,000.

[Axxion89 32]

The reactors are already in meltdown, luckily these plants were small and not operating at full power like Chernobyl. Unfortunately, the reactors will most likely need to be vented into the atmosphere to relive the pressures.