Massive 8.8-magnitude quake strikes Japan

[hembo]

7.47pm GMT: Felicity Carus is on the west coast of the US, watching the reaction to the huge waves generated by the tsunami arriving there:

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from coastal and low lying areas along the west coast of the US this morning as seven-foot waves generated by the 8.9 earthquake near Japan first struck the US mainland coast at Crescent City, 20 miles south of the Oregon border.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Centre issued a warning for the California coast after waves travelled at 500 miles an hour across the Pacific, hitting Hawaii with waves up to 11ft high.

The first surges hit the US mainland at around 7.30am local time. Schools, highways and national parks were closed as authorities urged people to stay away from beaches, jetties and harbours.

Sirens sounded across Crescent City in far northern California in the early morning and police went door to door evacuating homes in the tsunami impact zone along the coast as fishermen left the busy harbour. A tsunami in 1964 devastated Crescent City and killed 11 people. Surges were expected continue to hit the California coast for up to 12 hours.

In the event, Crescent City experienced increasingly large waves from 3ft at 8.15am rising to 8.1ft at 10.15am. Some 6,000 people were evacuated from Crescent City town and police have sealed off the harbour.

In San Francisco police closed the city's Great Highway and the National Park Service closed Ocean Beach, Baker Beach, China Beach, Fort Funston and Aquatic Park tucked inside the bay. Transport services to these areas were stopped and boats took shelter within the bay. There were also concerns that surging waves would pass under the Golden Gate Bridge and flood low-lying areas within the Bay Area, but low tide was expected to reduce their full force.

 

[hembo]

8.16pm GMT: Friday's earthquake in Japan was the the strongest quake in the area in nearly 1,200 years, the Associated Press reports:

David Applegate, a senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards for the U.S. Geological Survey, said the 8.9-magnitude quake ruptured a patch of the earth's crust 150 miles long and 50 miles across.
He said the earthquake, which also spawned a massive tsunami that hit Japan before racing across the Pacific to Hawaii and the west coast of the United States, likely caused tens of billions of dollars in structural damage in Japan.

 

[Karachiite]

It's a sign of 2012.

 

[K^se]

The Japanese government is saying the death toll will be well over 1,000.. The Tsunami from Japan hit Northern California, Crescent City. Some 6 foot waves hit the docks swept boats away.. This is just ridiculous, the amount of damage done to Sendai is Cataclysmic.

 

[VelocuR]

Japanese are making fun of earthquakes, praising building withstand against earthquakes, they are full praise of their engineering and architects!!

They said, Science 1 Prayers 0, Engineers 1 Earthquakes 0.

 

[DV RULES]

10-degree Map Centered at 40°N,145°E

Shakemap usc0001xgp

PAGER - M 8.9 - NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program: Seismic Hazard Map: NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

 

[DV RULES]

Seismic Monitoring

Seismic and earthquakes information monitoring page on HEWS


Earthquake Is Biggest in Japan’s Recorded History | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

[DesiGuy]

2012..........?????????????

 

[DV RULES]

2012..........?????????????

Not sure now. It just an idea.

Tectonic activities increase in Pacific ocean shows strange behavior but we can't say end of time.

 

[FreekiN]

>The Tokyo Electric Power Company has said the cooling systems of three reactors at second nuclear power plant, Fukushima-Daini, are malfunctioning, according to the Kyodo news agency. The plant is 11km (7 miles) to the south of Fukushima-Daiichi, where the cooling system one of its reactors is not working and pressure is rising.

>"There is completely no control over the pressure in the reactor"

 

[FreekiN]

Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide

 

[IBRIS]

bloody hell these quakes are getting common now silly question but there must be an impact on earth when extracting oil !?

Will the March 19 'Supermoon' Trigger Natural Disasters?

On March 19, the moon will swing around Earth more closely than it has in the past 18 years, lighting up the night sky from just 221,567 miles (356,577 kilometers) away. On top of that, it will be full. And one astrologer believes it could inflict massive damage on the planet.

Richard Nolle, a noted astrologer who runs the website astropro.com, has famously termed the upcoming full moon at lunar perigee (the closest approach during its orbit) an "extreme supermoon." When the moon goes super-extreme, Nolle says, chaos will ensue: Huge storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters can be expected to wreak havoc on Earth. (It should be noted that astrology is not a real science, but merely makes connections between astronomical and mystical events.)

But do we really need to start stocking survival shelters in preparation for the supermoon?

The question is not actually so crazy. In fact scientists have studied related scenarios for decades. Even under normal conditions, the moon is close enough to Earth to make its weighty presence felt: It causes the ebb and flow of the ocean tides. The moon's gravity can even cause small but measureable ebbs and flows in the continents, called "land tides" or "solid Earth tides," too. The tides are greatest during full and new moons, when the sun and moon are aligned either on the same or opposite sides of the Earth.

According to John Vidale, a seismologist at the University of Washington in Seattle and director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, particularly dramatic land and ocean tides do trigger earthquakes. "Both the moon and sun do stress the Earth a tiny bit, and when we look hard we can see a very small increase in tectonic activity when they're aligned," Vidale told Life's Little Mysteries.

At times of full and new moons, "you see a less-than-1-percent increase in earthquake activity, and a slightly higher response in volcanoes."

The effect of tides on seismic activity is greatest in subduction zones such as the Pacific Northwest, where one tectonic plate is sliding under another. William Wilcock, another seismologist at the University of Washington, explained: "When you have a low tide, there's less water, so the pressure on the seafloor is smaller. That pressure is clamping the fault together, so when it's not there, it makes it easier for the fault to slip."

According to Wilcock, earthquake activity in subduction zones at low tides is 10 percent higher than at other times of the day, but he hasn't observed any correlations between earthquake activity and especially low tides at new and full moons. Vidale has observed only a very small correlation.

What about during a lunar perigee? Can we expect more earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on March 19, when the full moon will be so close?

The moon's gravitational pull at lunar perigee, the scientists say, is not different enough from its pull at other times to significantly change the height of the tides and thus the likelihood of natural disasters. "A lot of studies have been done on this kind of thing by USGS scientists and others," John Bellini, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey, told Life's Little Mysteries. "They haven't found anything significant at all."

Vidale concurred. "Practically speaking, you'll never see any effect of lunar perigee," he said. "It's somewhere between 'It has no effect' and 'It's so small you don't see any effect.'"

The bottom line is, the upcoming supermoon won't cause a preponderance of earthquakes, although the idea isn't a crazy one. "Earthquakes don't respond as much to the tides as you'd think they would. There should actually be more of an effect," said Vidale.

Most natural disasters have nothing to do with the moon at all. The Earth has a lot of pent up energy, and it releases it anytime the buildup gets too great. The supermoon probably won't push it past the tipping point, but we'll know for sure, one way or the other, by March 20.

 

[DesiGuy]

The 'Supermoon' Did Not Cause the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami


The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan early today (March 11) were "completely unrelated" to the approaching "supermoon," despite a news report that tied the earthquake to the upcoming lunar event, according to U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist John Bellini.

The supermoon will occur on March 19, when the moon is at or near its point of closest orbit — lunar perigee — and is also full. As we explained in our previous coverage of the upcoming supermoon, seismologists have found no evidence to believe that lunar perigees heighten seismic activity.

The best evidence that this earthquake was not caused by a supermoon is that it happened now — exactly a week away from the date the moon will be full, and almost a week after it was new, the two times that the moon exerts its greatest pull on the planet.

A very small correlation exists between full or new moons and seismic activity, because the stronger-than-usual tidal forces caused by the alignment of the sun and moon puts added stress on tectonic plates. [Photos: Our Changing Moon]

But this quake happened with the sun and moon askew — the time when tidal forces are weakest. Putting aside the fact that the moon doesn't trigger massive earthquakes, blaming this quake on the supermoon is like trying to pin a house fire on an arsonist who is out of town at the time of the crime.

The Japanese earthquake thus points to the fact that astrology — an astrologer was the first to suggest the supermoon could be a threat — isn't a science. That this earthquake occurred a week before an astronomical event is mere coincidence. The vast majority of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and natural disasters do not follow the lunar cycle or tides. "This is something that builds up over hundreds of years," Bellini told Life's Little Mysteries.

http://www.space.com/11105-supermoon-didnt-trigger-japan-earthquake.html

 

[IBRIS]

The 'Supermoon' Did Not Cause the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami


The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan early today (March 11) were "completely unrelated" to the approaching "supermoon," despite a news report that tied the earthquake to the upcoming lunar event, according to U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist John Bellini.

The supermoon will occur on March 19, when the moon is at or near its point of closest orbit — lunar perigee — and is also full. As we explained in our previous coverage of the upcoming supermoon, seismologists have found no evidence to believe that lunar perigees heighten seismic activity.

The best evidence that this earthquake was not caused by a supermoon is that it happened now — exactly a week away from the date the moon will be full, and almost a week after it was new, the two times that the moon exerts its greatest pull on the planet.

A very small correlation exists between full or new moons and seismic activity, because the stronger-than-usual tidal forces caused by the alignment of the sun and moon puts added stress on tectonic plates. [Photos: Our Changing Moon]

But this quake happened with the sun and moon askew — the time when tidal forces are weakest. Putting aside the fact that the moon doesn't trigger massive earthquakes, blaming this quake on the supermoon is like trying to pin a house fire on an arsonist who is out of town at the time of the crime.

The Japanese earthquake thus points to the fact that astrology — an astrologer was the first to suggest the supermoon could be a threat — isn't a science. That this earthquake occurred a week before an astronomical event is mere coincidence. The vast majority of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and natural disasters do not follow the lunar cycle or tides. "This is something that builds up over hundreds of years," Bellini told Life's Little Mysteries.

The Upcoming 'Supermoon' Did Not Trigger the Japanese Quake | Earthquake Unrelated to March 19 Supermoon | Astrology Not Science | Space.com

Every 18-20 years during 1955, 1974, 1992 when supermoons occurred. We had the most extreme disasters. While i will just take all the government mouthpieces with pinch of salt.

 

[Akasa]

Despite the differences between the two countries, it is essential that we help them when they are in need.

No cure is stronger than unity when humanity faces disaster.