Massive earthquake in Japan-tsunami warning

[Tigger]

YouTube - Japanese Earthquake Tsunami Wave hits Emeryville
Thankfully the wave had become much smaller by the time it reached the US, but it's incredible that it has traveled so far!

 

[RetiredGypsy]

Got a phone call from AT&T at 0400 this morning with a tsunami warning. Apparently some property was damaged along the coast in parts of California, but I'm a little too far inland to have seen anything.

Any word on donations starting from any rescue and help organizations yet for Japan?

 

[omni550]

Any word on donations starting from any rescue and help organizations yet for Japan?

I was listening to a Windsor, Canada (across the river from Detroit) radio station this afternoon. The Canadian Red Cross is asking for financial donations only at the moment. They are awaiting word from the Japanese Red Cross to get details on anything else that might be needed.

omni

 

[TromboneAl]

Tsunami arrives in Calif., knocks boats loose - San Jose Mercury News

In that article "The Coast Guard searched for a man Friday who was swept out to sea by powerful waves generated by the tsunami in Northern California while taking photos near the mouth of the Klamath River in Del Norte County."

Sorry to be skeptical, but I'll bet the man was just caught by a plain vanilla big wave while taking pictures. That beach is 40 miles north of here, and I just looked at our beach, and just above the normal wave slope, there are footprints that were there yesterday. Here are the waves we've had recently (Crescent City buoy). That peak in height is coincidental, we see peaks like that all the time.

​

But apparently Crescent City's tiny harbor got a significant surge.

Also from the article:

Darren Lee, a photographer who surfs daily in Santa Cruz, carried his board down the narrow staircase at Cypress Point about 10 minutes before the tsunami was due and paddled out to his regular spot.



Immediately he could tell something was different.



"It was a low tide but it felt like a medium tide. It was real bouncy. There was a lot of current," Lee said.
After surfing for about a half-hour, he decided to come back in. Tsunamis, it seems, aren't conducive to good surf.



"It was really inconsistent," he said, "and I was like, OK, it's like this because there's a tsunami. Now I've been there."
​

I'm not buying it -- typical placebo effect.

 

[RetiredGypsy]

Update 6: Worse news from the Fukushima plant-the facility has experienced a "station blackout," meaning all cooling mechanisms have halted. This is "one of the most serious conditions that can affect a nuclear plant," says the Union of Concerned Scientists. And if cooling dies completely? A meltdown shortly thereafter. Japanese nuclear experts are scrambling to maintain the flow of coolant through portable generators-let's hope it works.

Japan Declares Nuclear Emergency as Nuclear Plants Cooling Functions Fail (Updated)

 

[Brat]

I see that they have a 2nd plant in jeopardy.

The industry is in deep do-do, can't blame this on the green-beanies.

TromboneAl, the harbor at Gold Beach (north of Crescent City) also got hit hard, at last report there are a couple people missing.

 

[ERD50]

8.9 ?
Wasn't sure that was possible.

That's a biggie. And remember that the Richter scale is logarithmic - a 9.0 is ten times more powerful than an 8.0, one-hundred times more powerful than a 7.0, and so on.

[-]I don't have the link handy, but [/-] I read earlier today that this shift in the plates affects the entire globe (ahh, here is the link):

What unleashed Japan's massive 8.9 earthquake? - CSMonitor.com

When quakes like this occur, they have a global impact on the planet, adds Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Based on initial estimates of the magnitude and location of Wednesday's quake, he calculates that the Earth's rotation slowed by about 1.6 millionths of a second, and the axis around which the planet's mass is distributed – some 33 feet away from the planet's spin axis – shifted by some 6 inches.

So I guess we all moved 6 inches today? Do I need to reset my atomic clock?

-ERD50

 

[clifp]

So I have question for you nuclear engineers. How much radioactive material is contained in nuclear power plants.

Best case this sets back nuclear energy in the US by 5 years... a lot more is likely.

 

[bssc]

Heard from family in Tokyo that all is well and power is back on, so some normalcy is being restored.

 

[Tigger]

BBC News - Huge blast at Japan nuclear power plant

Live updates:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698

 

[antmary]

A catastrophe - the quake and tsunami. But, if there is a nuclear meltdown, how does one cope? I have a hunch that the Japanese powers that be are downplaying events in order to deal with panic of the citizens.

At first, I was stunned. But, the antidote to fear is action, and we went ahead and sent in a donation to the International Red Cross.

 

[obgyn65]

Keep safe Rambler. Thanks for checking in.

Checking in from Tokyo.

 

[TromboneAl]

A catastrophe - the quake and tsunami. But, if there is a nuclear meltdown, how does one cope? I have a hunch that the Japanese powers that be are downplaying events in order to deal with panic of the citizens.

One of the experts on TV said that he thought a meltdown was unlikely.

 

[missionfinder]

Reports have come out suggesting a partial meltdown in at least one reactor.

 

[BigNick]

Reports have come out suggesting a partial meltdown in at least one reactor.

A contact in the UK whom I trust reports that they are working on the basis of a "4 out of 7" event, on a scale where Three Mile Island was a 5 and Chernobyl a 7.

 

[Tigger]

Reactor 3's cooling systems have failed. They have now started to release steam from it.

 

[antmary]

I just looked up the trade-wind patterns from Asia to the West Coast. There is a straight shot from Japan toward Canada, and then down the entire West Coast, before looping back toward SW Asia and North again to Japan. Right now I am seeking more clarity, and am mildly concerned.

I don't trust that there won't be a meltdown - or, that there will.

 

[BigNick]

I don't trust that there won't be a meltdown - or, that there will.

Much of Western Europe took a direct hit from the Chernobyl fallout and, 25 years on, it seems like the effects were greatly over-stated. (Of course, at the time, we were all lied to - especially in France, where the cloud officially stopped at the border, but then with 70% of French electricity coming from nuclear sources, the government probably didn't fell able to knock it.)

 

[bbbamI]

We've got free access to Japanese news on our tv until the 17th of this month. Unfortunately there are no subtitles.

Ahhhhh....so sad and scary.

 

[freebird5825]

When I see people going through horrific events like we are seeing in Japan, it really gives me perspective on how trivial our day-to-day problems are.
I've been visiting the Red Cross site for updates on search-and-rescue and aid efforts. I got a good feeling about those airline miles I donated to the Red Cross a few months ago. I hope they are being used.

 

[Tigger]

Reassuring: this article seriously downplays risks from the nuclear issues:
https://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/

 

[ziggy29]

Reassuring: this article seriously downplays risks from the nuclear issues:
https://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/

I've heard the belief is that the major nuclear fallout risk is minimal, but still... I'm not an enemy of nuclear power in the general case, but I lived in California long enough to question the wisdom of a nuke plant in earthquake country, especially having been five miles from the epicenter of the 1989 quake there. And this one, if it remains classified as 8.9, is about 100 times stronger than the '89 quake in CA.

 

[haha]

Reassuring: this article seriously downplays risks from the nuclear issues:
https://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/

Here is another good article at one of the sites linked on your original blog post.

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Battle_to_stabilise_earthquake_reactors_1203111.html

It is very hard for me to understand much of what is going on, but it appears that for sure this is no Chernobyl, and it is likely no Three Mile Island either.

It appears that many of the Japanese citizens interviewed are somewhat sceptical that they are getting the whole story, but this may of may not mean anything. Some people are always frightened and suspicious about events like this, and often but not always their scepticism is warranted.

Ha

 

[sheehs1]

Just horrified by this. Words can not express...and am praying for all.
Am watching what is unfolding with the nuclear reactors.

For all Japanese friends... as a suggestion and if you have not already done so....please see if you are able to get your hands on some iodine tablets or liquid iodine pharmaceutical grade. It will protect your thyroid...preventing or limiting any radiation uptake. Disclaimer: Please talk to your doctor or medical personnel about this prior to taking... regarding dosing and timing.
In the event you can not get your hands on any...eat as much fish and shell fish as possible as the iodine in it...will also help.

Stay as safe as possible.

 

[BTravlin]

I can't imagine being one of those engineers working on saving those damaged reactors. Not only are their own lives on the line but they know that if they're not successful, then who knows how many people may die and how many more may die early deaths due to radiation exposure. Talk about working under pressure.

They had prepared for earthquakes such that when they lost power the generators were there to provide backup power but then the generators were taken out by the tsunami. An awful one-two punch.

I'm rooting for these people working under extreme pressure at a time when most of the infrastructure for many, many miles around them has been destroyed.