7.9 and 8.8 Earthquakes in Japan

We're being told some low-lying areas of Hawaii are being evacuated, but I don't know enough about Hawaiian geography/topology to make any sort of call on that.

fuckkkk not the kind of thing you ever want to wake up to. footage is unbelievable/awful - floating fires in residential areas, horror as you see cars getting swept away live

So apparently this is the 7th most powerful quake in recorded history, and the only one of the 7 to strike near a populated area.

That can't be good.

― Johnny Fever, Friday, March 11, 2011 3:46 AM (41 seconds ago) Bookmark

the chile earthquake from last yr?

I'm just going by what the guy on Al Jazeera is saying.

sometimes footage looks not so bad until you catch sight of a house or something and suddenly realise the scale. awful.

6 deaths being reported (not counting the 2 deaths from the earthquake 2 days ago).

Hawaii local news also reporting this is larger than the chile one fyi

Chile was 8.8 it seems, and this is 8.9.

That might not seem like a big difference, but it is.

Each 0.1 escalation is x100 right?

tsunami watch for washington and oregon coasts

LA Times says it's the world's fifth largest since 1900, according to USGS

Watching the Busena Terrace webcam (north shore of Okinawa) to get a sense of how large the tsunami will be across the Pacific. ETA in 12 minutes.

Are you kiddng? Some caller just "baba booey'ed" the MSNBC coverage.

death toll up to 19 according to al jazeera according to "japanese media"

Hawaii's Department of Emergency Management issues tsunami refuge locations

And Google updates its Person Finder webapp, again: http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

Huh. We're in the 4th floor and they might be moving us up to the 6th floor which is kinda o_O

places like Tuvalu & Vanuatu could be in serious trouble :(

footage of that japanese newsroom, there's a moment where the intern-lookin' boy shifts his attention from his keyboard, boss gives him the pointy finger of doom and he returns to frantic typing

this is as the newsroom is shaking like a 70s disco

Guy on Japanese TV says this was 180 times the strength of the Kobe earthquake

There's been no discernable wave at 3 webcams around Okinawa (expected arrival at 0912Z), so it seems most of the energy was directed towards the Honshu shore and central Pacific, rather than towards the Philipines/South China Sea...

this video is nuts (starts around 1 min mark)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwb_1U5yfBY

also at the end there's some amateur footage that gives you an idea of how fast the water is actually moving

That's like having whitewater rapids coming AT you.

death toll up to 19 according to al jazeera according to "japanese media"

this seems surprisingly low - testament to japanese earthquake prep and building regulations, i guess?

Um.

http://twitter.com/adriennemong/status/46140399038894080

it looks so fucked up that i can't see them having a real death toll for some time. i *think* death tolls mean the bodies are accounted for so.

A very basic description of said plant:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_I_Nuclear_Power_Plant

^^^this is true, as we have recently seen in christchurch xpost

okay that nuclear plant shit is too scary not gonna think about that at all thanks

Oh man, I just watched that video on the guardian homepage and I just want to puke.

http://twitpic.com/48edb1

Fuck fuck fuck, what a disaster. Hope everyone with friends or relatives in Japan is okay.

xpost

holy shit!!!

Also I really want that nuclear power tweet to be bullshit but I fear otherwise.

Pic upthread is this:

"A large fire erupted at the Cosmo oil refinery in Ichihara city in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo and was burning out of control with 100-foot (30 meter) -high flames whipping into the sky."

The coolant malfunction just means it will take weeks/months before Fukushima can restart. The control rods already have the core shut down.

Related:

Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant - If we can re-install power for the cooling system within 8 hours, it will be ok.

So basically, ease back a bit for now.

thanking u sanpuku

Ha no cel service whatsoever here but the hotel wifi is strong and unrelenting so hi ilx

hey jjj, apparently 'threads' is on google video

(hoping gallows humour isn't amiss here...in all srsness please stay safe)

Hahaha

I think we will be hosting a grip of peeps from the bottom 3 floors here in a bit

...you all grip onto each other and pray?

if there's one thing worse than a tsunami it's predictive text

Oh you adorable limey

if there's one thing worse than predictive text it's not consulting urbandictionary before posting

See I'm from the streets so I know what's up

the streets, in a few hours

Btw if I die I am happy to go out quoting "I ain't the one"