Double Earthquake!... and now an 8.8 Mag + Tsunami in Japan

[ajtribick]

Seems to have claimed some lives on the other side of the Pacific as well

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

[Fenerit]

I've finally been in touch with my parents and they are ok. My mother said that was the scariest quake she has experienced and they are in Tokyo away from the center of it.

Glad to heard that, Reiko.

Quite horrible to watch the struggle of the people in Japan, a country where the preparations for such catastrophic events is as good as it can be!

I've been many times in Japan, including a several months stay. I only experienced a weak quake (4.4) once for < 30 secs. Today's disaster demonstrates once more that the people (along the "ring of fire") really live on a time bomb all the time...

Fridger

PS: While it is said that such severe quakes tend to increase the chances for further quakes within a radius of around 1000km it is usually denied that there might be long range correlations as well.
Like is it accidental that the quakes in Christchurch/NZ and in Japan happened in such a narrow time window? I was always convinced that such long range correlations (along the ring of fire) do exist...

I've noticed a thing. Such big events happens around the equinoxes and the solstices. 26 December 2004, September 2010 (NZ-1) March 2011 (NZ-2)...

[Chuft-Captain]

I've finally been in touch with my parents and they are ok. My mother said that was the scariest quake she has experienced and they are in Tokyo away from the center of it.

Glad to hear that.
From the footage I've seen so far it appears that the shaking in Tokyo was not as violent as in CHCH, but lasted much longer. (Luckily for Tokyo the epicenter was many hundreds of miles away)

While it is said that such severe quakes tend to increase the chances for further quakes within a radius of around 1000km it is usually denied that there might be long range correlations as well.
Like is it accidental that the quakes in Christchurch/NZ and in Japan happened in such a narrow time window? I was always convinced that such long range correlations (along the ring of fire) do exist...

The geologists are already saying there is no direct connection, but what do they know.
I agree with you. It seems totally counter-intuitive to suggest that a sudden release of tension at one part of the Pacific plate boundary (Sep 4 Canterbury quake - up to 5m movement) would not have consequences at another part.
The geologists need to get their heads out of the sand!

[Fenerit]

...
I agree with you. It seems totally counter-intuitive to suggest that a sudden release of tension at one part of the Pacific plate boundary (Sep 4 Canterbury quake - up to 5m movement) would not have consequences at another part.
The geologists need to get their heads out of the sand!

Geologist usually (for what I'm aware of) replies to such concerns with the example of the bullets through the sand. Why a bullet doesn't penetrate deeply through the sand? Because its energy is depleted by the hits amongst grains-to-grains. For distant plates/rocks the mechanical/elastic energy should be depleted quickly. Instead, I think that the gravitational forces are understimate in such a matters, though.

[Fenerit]

Well, I will expose my hypothesis so that I will show all my limits in geology and more (please Fridger, do not beat me!).
The Earth's inner core behaves like an independent body from the mantle under the gravitational aspect, since it rotates within a liquid. At the four critical orbital points (or around) the inner core and the external shell could be in different gravitational ratio (what about some calcolus with the Gauss's costant?). Such gravitational discrepancies could bring toward a trasformation between gravitational to SOUND energy. Such loud "music", rising up from the deep, could break whereas the situation is already critic (tectonics).

[Chuft-Captain]

Three NZ search and rescue teams are on their way to Japan. I doubt that they will be many in number considering what they still have to contend with here, but they will do what they can to help.

Latest, I've heard is that there are fears of an impending meltdown at a nuclear power plant in the north of Japan whose cooling system has failed.

That is something our people will not be able to help with.
(NZ does not have any expertise in nuclear technology as NZ is nuclear free).

[Chuft-Captain]

Brings home how fortunate those of us who don't live within range of tectonically-active regions are.

Switzerland... so boring!

[ajtribick]

We do get some activity. Fairly rarely.

There was a magnitude ~6.5 one back in the 14th century

[Chuft-Captain]

Here's an article about a Kiwi who was in CHCH for the 6.3, and back home in Tokyo for the 8.8: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/4759883/Kiwi-escapes-Chch-and-Japan-quakes

and about the return of the Japanese USAR teams to Japan: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/japan-earthquake/4761635/Japanese-USAR-team-heads-home
I just want to thank these guys for what they did here to save lives in CHCH, and I feel very sorry for what they are going to encounter back home in Japan.

Now, a volcano has erupted in Indonesia: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/4760575/Indonesian-volcano-erupts
Could this be related?
Disaster Clusters: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/japan-earthquake/4761548/Disaster-clusters-keep-scientists-guessing

[ajtribick]

More bad things

Building nuclear power plants on a subduction zone always struck me as being a really bad idea...

[bh]

Pictures on TV are heartbreaking...

[Chuft-Captain]

Details of NZ response to this disaster: Japan-bound USAR team repaying Chch kindness

(The Japanese were one of the first countries to send USAR teams to Christchurch)

[t00fri]

Today the magnitude of the japanese quake was officially upgraded to M 9.0!!

Horrible....

Fridger

[Fenerit]

Geologists calculates that whether such a quake would have hit a big european country whatelse, 1/3 of the whole buildings should have been completely destroyed.

[Milosz21]

Earthquake in Japan was something what people who living there will remember for very long time. World will remember too.
Images and videos from there are breathtaking, my brain refuse accept thereof that my eyes see. We are only dust for mother nature, and nothing more.

http://vlep.pl/1sjvad.jpg

http://vlep.pl/fvr1cj.jpg

http://vlep.pl/k91enb.jpg

http://vlep.pl/zbd5mp.jpg

http://vlep.pl/6ui7wv.jpg

http://vlep.pl/xa7mk1.jpg

http://vlep.pl/u8sgpf.jpg

[Milosz21]

Some more pictures....

http://vlep.pl/rwpdmb.jpg

http://vlep.pl/e1mgu0.jpg

http://vlep.pl/eqymru.jpg

http://vlep.pl/r17qsz.jpg

http://vlep.pl/ouksax.jpg

http://vlep.pl/9ohdcb.jpg

http://vlep.pl/y05bu4.jpg

http://vlep.pl/ltbzk5.jpg

http://vlep.pl/odlbgr.jpg

http://vlep.pl/ltqfxz.jpg

http://vlep.pl/pc38ua.jpg

http://vlep.pl/jif15x.jpg

http://vlep.pl/1abvom.jpg

http://vlep.pl/c1bq58.jpg

http://vlep.pl/i9szpb.jpg

http://vlep.pl/yaeigb.jpg

http://vlep.pl/5fbh3k.jpg

Horrific...

[Reiko]

My mother and grandmother are coming to stay with us. They found some cracks in the house and don't feel safe there anymore.

[ajtribick]

Those are some of the most terrifying images I have seen. Definitely would think twice before living on the Pacific Ring of Fire.

[t00fri]

Milosz21,

the images about the quake in Japan that you copied from somewhere are very impressive. But for sure they are under copyright! So you and|or this forum might well encounter problems without inclusion of proper references... Moreover it is a matter of fairness to quote the origins/photographer/...

Fridger

[Milosz21]

Milosz21,
the images about the quake in Japan that you copied from somewhere are very impressive. But for sure they are under copyright! So you and|or this forum might well encounter problems without inclusion of proper references... Moreover it is a matter of fairness to quote the origins/photographer/...

This pictures what you see, you can find everywhere in Internet (Google and search Japan tsunami) on different pages, even on polish forum where i saw this pictures first time. So i m not expected any problems after show this pictures here.

My mother and grandmother are coming to stay with us. They found some cracks in the house and don't feel safe there anymore.

Are you from Japan? I hope you are okay and everyone in your family.