Japan 8.8 Earthquake

[poosmate]

Thailand sent 2.3 Million Baht aid to New Zealand
Japan - Lets see what they are worth

[Nereus]

There are some very plausible explanations in the following link, by people that should know, as opposed to some squawking TV presenter.

Most of what we are seeing on the news channels is pure speculation. Nobody from inside the facility has been interviewed to try and obtain some "facts". The film of the explosion looks to be devastating, but it must be remembered that the building is over 40 years old, and a lot of what is blown into the air is probably dust and building debris.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wo ... ear-plant/

[STEVE G]

Apart from that, these reactors are designed to work at a high seismicity zone, although what has happened is beyond the impact the plants were designed to withstand.

That bit is a bit worrying, it basically says that they're not designed to survive larger earthquakes.

[JD]

Aerial photos taken over Japan have revealed the scale of devastation across dozens of suburbs and tens of thousands of homes and businesses.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan ... eafter.htm

[PeteC]

Here are some more amazing photos. I heard on the news that our Earth's poles have shifted because of the earthquake, but I don't recall if they said 9cm or 29CM? Can't find the exact data at the moment. Pete

http://poleshift.ning.com/profiles/blog ... hern-japan

[Nereus]

And this:

Quake moves Japan 2.4m

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/br ... apan-2-4m/

Japan's recent massive earthquake, one of the largest ever recorded, appears to have moved the island by about 2.4m, the US Geological Survey said.

"That's a reasonable number," USGS seismologist Paul Earle said. "Eight feet, that's certainly going to be in the ballpark."

Friday's 8.9 magnitude quake unleashed a terrifying tsunami that engulfed towns and cities on Japan's north-eastern coast, destroying everything in its path in what Prime Minister Naoto Kan said was an "unprecedented national disaster".

The quake and its tectonic shift resulted from "thrust faulting" along the boundary of the Pacific and North America plates, according to the USGS.

The Pacific plate pushes under a far western wedge of the North America plate at the rate of about 83mm per year, but a colossal earthquake can provide enough of a jolt to dramatically move the plates, with catastrophic consequences.

"With an earthquake this large, you can get these huge ground shifts," Mr Earle said. "On the actual fault you can get 20 metres of relative movement, on the two sides of the fault."

He said similar movements would have been seen for Chile and Indonesia.

In December 2004, a 9.1 magnitude quake off Sumatra caused a tsunami that killed an estimated 228,000 people. An 8.8 quake off the coast of Chile in February 2010 killed more than 500.

There was not a similar ground shift in the 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti in February 2010, Mr Earle said.

"A magnitude 7.0 is much smaller than the earthquake that just happened in Japan," he said. "We've had aftershocks (in Japan) larger than the Haiti earthquake."

Kenneth Hudnut, a USGS geophysicist, said experts read data including from global positioning systems to determine the extend of the shift.

"We know that one GPS station moved, and we have seen a map from GSI (Geospatial Information Authority) in Japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass," he told CNN.

[pharvey]

Here are some more amazing photos. I heard on the news that our Earth's poles have shifted because of the earthquake, but I don't recall if they said 9cm or 29CM? Can't find the exact data at the moment. Pete

http://poleshift.ning.com/profiles/blog ... hern-japan

Some frightening photos there Pete.

Mentioned in this report that the Earth's axis shifted 25cm and the main island of Japan moved 2.4m!!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... erges.html

Edit: Apologies Nerius - posted same time

[PeteC]

As a side note, various markets will be impacted by this event. Initially everyone expected the Yen to weaken almost immediately. It did for a day, then strengthened to new highs against the USD. The logic being that billions of Yen will be repatriated to Japan as assistance in the short term, weakening months from now to around 88-90 as a long term side effect of all of this.

Oil is another. Their nuclear plants are history and may never re-open again. What will they revert to, oil or coal? Do they still have the oil or coal power generating facilities available, in mothballs, or new has to be built. The ME mess and this is bound to increase the price of oil significantly.

What all this if going to do to Japan's GDP and other economic factors is unknown, but it probably won't be positive. Pete

[STEVE G]

Their nuclear plants are history and may never re-open again.

I've seen several reports that these reactors that have had sea water pumped into them will never be usable again.
I'm not impressed by the flaws in these systems as apparently at some of these sites the earthquake shut down the primary cooling and the back-up systems were halted by the Tsunami wave a couple of hours later. Seeing as how they're on the coast and Tsunamis are created by earthquakes, shouldn't that have been predicted when they were designed?

[PeteC]

Japan moving 2.4 meters gives rise to the thought of the millions of years it takes for continents to move around and realign themselves, as we see on HChannel what they looked like in theory in ancient times, and now. Almost too much time to comprehend. With an average life of 75-80 years we really see and experience nothing, except a few meters. Mind boggling. But....it's only taken us a few hundred years to turn this planet into a mess. Pete

[MrPlum]

Japan moving 2.4 meters gives rise to the thought of the millions of years it takes for continents to move around and realign themselves

Out of curiosity will it affect golfers GPS units? They will need to know whether to reach for a 5 or 6 iron. (Settle down. Just kidding.)

Here's a useful interactive map showing volcanos, earthquakes, tectonic plates...

http://mineralsciences.si.edu/tdpmap/

Dramatic...

[Nereus]

Oil is another. Their nuclear plants are history and may never re-open again. What will they revert to, oil or coal? Do they still have the oil or coal power generating facilities available, in mothballs, or new has to be built. The ME mess and this is bound to increase the price of oil significantly.

What all this if going to do to Japan's GDP and other economic factors is unknown, but it probably won't be positive. Pete

They have over 50 Nuclear plants, which supply around 30% of the load. They will have no option but to keep using them. Some of these plants are nearing the end of their designed life, so it is very probable that they have allowed for the older units to be withdrawn anyway.

Yes, it would appear that Tsunamis should have been taken more into account when the plants were built. But it must be remembered that the ones in question were designed around 50 years ago, and although there has been Tsunamis known about in history, recent years have enormously expanded the knowledge about them, and earthquakes also for that matter.

[hhfarang]

Latest AP news on the possible meltdown:

KORIYAMA, Japan – Japanese officials warned of a possible second explosion at a nuclear plant crippled by the earthquake and tsunami as they raced to stave off multiple reactor meltdowns, but they provided few details about whether they were making progress. More than 180,000 people have evacuated the area, and up to 160 may have been exposed to radiation.

Four nuclear plants in northeastern Japan have reported damage...

Full article here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110313/ap_ ... ear_crisis

[Takiap]

Some food for thought..........

According to my wife, Thai new channels have highlighted the fact that there is apparently no looting taking place in the areas devastated by the waves, unlike was the case with hurricane Katrina. I myself had not even thought about this, but the Thai news channels have discussed it, and apparently many Japanese quake victims have even had wallets and etc returned to them. So, why no looting in Japan, while there was such extensive looting with Katrina???????????


It can't be due to a wealth gap, as there were many poor/working class Japanese people in the areas worst struck. It will be interesting to see how this stark difference can be explained

[hhfarang]

^ I could probably answer that, but would be labeled a racist by some so will refrain from doing so... lets just say it's a societal difference brought on mainly by the lack of centuries of multicultural immigration into Japan as has been seen in America.