7.9 and 8.8 Earthquakes in Japan

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/03/13/article-1365569-0B27067100000578-153_964x654.jpg

xp yeah I started seeing those stories yesterday... really sickening... "fortunately most of the damage has been in an area that is of low economic value"... go die, economists.

so, the water has receded, yeah?

I had the impression that there was devastation along the entire East coast of Japan extending for miles inland when viewing the early videos, until I saw the post-tsunami satellite imagery. One can easily see the extent of damage by the inundation of fields with water and debris, to discover that the wall of debris flowing for miles was very atypical, occurring only at just around Sendai. 50 miles north or south and the debris fields are far more limited in extent. The videos we've been watching with awe are often the same action from different angles. I spent the first 6 months after Katrina in New Orleans, occassionally driving a press photographer staying at my father's about and saw much the same thing, with most media imagery and press events taking place in the devastated 9th Ward ghetto. The experience just a few miles away was radically different.

Not discounting the suffering of the affected, or the difficulty of search rescue and rebuilding when so much infrastructure (electricity and water) offline. Its just that looking at the big picture (from orbit) can give a sense of perspective.

xps another completely blind guess about the black water: being such a mountainous area, i would imagine japan maybe has a lot of black sand beaches? so it may be that getting churned up.

thanking u Sanpaku

http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/hawaii-five-0-production-not-impacted-by-tsunami/

ain't that a load off

was just going to start a thread for an update on that

and now a volcano is erupting http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-japan-quake-volcano-20110314,0,2486939.story

it's really just grim lols for me at this point. it really is the end of the world, isn't it?

Some seismologists are speculating that by relieving compressive stress on the western edge of the Pacific plate along the slip zone, the pressure on the eastern edges that delays transverse slippage is reduced incrementally, raising the likelyhood of major quakes in California and Chile.

But hey, those of you living in places where the very Earth grinds against itself also get mountain views and rich soils that we in the clay flatlands are deprived. It's a package deal.

I was reading that the largest-ever 'quake in the contiguous US was in Kansas or St Louis in about 1800 - how can that be?

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 ... until someone quotes that Uncle Tupelo song.

largest-ever is def not true---there was a quake in kansas in 1867 that measured 5.1

here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1867_Manhattan_earthquake

think u are thinking of this Ismael:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_New_Madrid_earthquake

Yes, New Madrid is the one - a fault buried way down deep below where the land currently is it seems. I thought these areas were completely stable - how on earth can you plan for things like that?

I know this is somewhat beside the point, hope this is okay to post here.

Last week, my g/f and I booked our honeymoon in Japan for late May and I have no idea what to do about it now. We are planning to spend time in Tokyo, Takayama, Kanazawa and Kyoto/Nara, apart from Tokyo we will be fairly out of the way I guess. Thinking about postpoing it to the other side of the summer, would appreciate anyone's thoughts.

I'd go as planned, presumably it ties in with wedding after all. Those areas should be unaffected. We were in Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka in May and it seemed an excellent time to be there.

Go and spend your money.

Tourists often avoid disaster-affected areas longer than they should (and sounds like these areas weren't affected?) Putting money into the economy is a good thing.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/images/new_madrid.gif

Earthquake prone areas don't spout unbidden in historic times. There's an aborted rift valley (akin to the incipient one in East Africa) from over a billion years ago stretching from Arkansas to Minnesota that takes a 90 degree turn around New Madrid. Old rifts and eroded mountains roots retain their weaknesses for that long.

How do you deal with with a sagging bit of continental crust that supports pretty much all East-West rail, roads, and pipelines south of Chicago? Raise Missouri earthquake-coverage premiums by as much as 266 percent and hope the next one happens after you are gone.

Yeah, absolutely go. We're still planning to go next year. One of the best things you can do for disaster-ravaged countries/cities/etc (apart from saving lives, rebuilding infrastructure and so on) is to visit and spend loads and loads of money xp

i've been tentatively thinkin about doing a study abroad in niigata sometime next year...

(just don't be a disaster tourist obv xp)

'er indoors is going NUCLEAR NUCLEAR at me, probably a good idea to wait a day or two to see how that pans out tbh.

I'm trying to think of the tourist attractions of Sendai and all I could come up with from top of my head is my coworker races motorcycles up there and that the area is very well known for beef tongue.

mmmm beef tongue

We did cancel a holiday to China at the height of the Sars paranoia right enough - but that was because it appeared that public life had completely shut down for a period, which would've made for a terrible visit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdbtzpD2cjU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJI3MsjpQrg

I'm a complete nerd because I keep thinking of the fictional Ono-Sendai corporation from William Gibson's sprawl trilogy :/

I guess the biblical level of chaos and suffering in the footage and pictures seen over the weekend has made us fearful, but there's no way we're not going. Def going to wait for a few days and see how the situation in Fukushima pans out. Thanks for the positive answers, making us feel a bit more galvanized.

Cities in Miyagi prefecture like Sendai/Fukushima are pretty far off the tourist grid. Tokyo was back in business <24 hours after a 9.0 earthquake hit 350km away. Airports, trains, shipping ports are all open and running.

Yeah, and the whole southern strip of the country should all be as good/safe/open to tourism as you could expect.

I guess japan has the best infrastructure out of any country to deal with earthquakes, so much of it will be back to normal soon, even if parts of the country are still affected.

Get ready to see one zillion Komatsu products in use on the news for the next few months.

sendai itself is mostly a working town, there isn't all that much for tourists. but within an hour by train are
matsushima and kinkasan, both very much worth visiting.

Hitchhiked through Tohoku a few years ago to see the midsummer festivals: Nebuta matsuri in Aomori, Kanto matsuri in Akita, and then Tanabata matsuri in Sendai. Went to Matsushima -- it rained all day, but none the less beautiful for it.

Wow that Tanabata festival sounds lovely.

I'm a complete nerd because I keep thinking of the fictional Ono-Sendai corporation from William Gibson's sprawl trilogy :/

― mh, Monday, March 14, 2011 4:41 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

heh, yeah, and the fact that chiba was one of the affected areas

Cars, which were swept together by a tsunami then caught fire, are seen after an earthquake in Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture March 12, 2011. (REUTERS/Yomiuri) #

it just doesn't sound real

Re: travel

Try to find out your country's official recommendations. Belgian foreign office's one is that all non-essential travel to Japan is to be avoided at the moment.

http://grab.by/9skf

cracks

NYT's before and after satellite image slider is worth a look.

Why did the FOX News anchors say there may be a second tsunami? This is the only related evidence I've found of that so far:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFVt3HPuoJo

Just saw headlines saying there was a new one hitting in the next 5 minutes (Chicago Sun-Times).

BBC says helicopters have seen an (est) 3m-high tsunami off ne coast.

BreakingNews Breaking News
AP: Officials believe a hydrogen explosion has occurred at Fukushima Dai-ich plant

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/14/3163383.htm?section=justin

Japanese Met say tsunami a false alarm.
xp Reactor 3 said to have exploded.

or what that link said, basically