Japan's 8.9 earthquake

[3db]

A tsunai is expected to hit the BC coast at 6:00pm tonight as a result. I would expect that to hold true for the western seaboard of the US as well.

a freaky whirlpool as a result of the quake

 

[Matt34]

Yeah, some incredible footage so far. It's been all over the local Korean channels non-stop for the past few hours.

 

[its phillip]

Yeah, my little sister and brother in law are at Misawa AFB. They've got no power, but they're fine

 

[rnatalli]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-03/11/c_13773575.htm

They're having trouble scramming one of the reactors at a nuclear plant. Scary stuff...

 

[STRONGBADF1]

It's all just scary...

 

[mike c]

what's the proximity of Korea to Japan Matt? keep away from the coastlines.

 

[Midwesthonky]

One of the freaky aspects is Japan's technology meaning a lot of the country is covered by video cameras so much of the ongoing damage and tsunami waves were caught live. It looks really bad right and probably will only get worse as the damage is assessed.

Looks like the damage in the US isn't anything major. Mostly some hotel lobbies flooded in Hawaii and some boats broken loose. Be thankful for that!

It reminds me of why I don't mind living in the Midwest. Sure we get blizzards and ice storms, but we have equipment to handle that. Tsunamis and earthquakes? No matter how technologically advanced we get, Mother Nature is pretty good at reminding us who is in charge.

 

[Warpdrv]

They are talking like where the tsunami hit - was at about 6ft elevation and the onslaught of waves was reaching about 50ft

Absolute devestation.... Horrible...

 

[rnatalli]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8377506/Japan-earthquake-nuclear-disaster-fears-as-reactor-overheats.html

Update on the nuclear plant damaged by the quake.

 

[j_garcia]

USGS reporting that the coast of Japan has shifted by 8 feet! Wow.

 

[Crescendo]

The headquarters of the company I work for is located in Sandai, Japan. The owner and his son (who is being groomed to take over) as well as some family members of employees live there.

We hadn't heard anything from anyone there as of yet...

 

[Yamaheart]

Prayers for Japan. I love Japan, I was there for 3 years....

 

[hardal]

Quake in Christchurch and now this. That part of the world is shaking really bad.
My cousin and relatives were in Christchurch and lucky they were okay. I feel for the people of Japan though. Saw the quake off offices shaking that bad, would have been a teriffying experience for myself.

 

[haraldo]

The forces are something I cannot comprehend

The whole island of Japan moved something like 10 feet as a result of this quake, and the rotational center of the earth moved 4 inches, the tsunami passed the pacific to hit Chile in 21 hours... this is beyond scary...

So many families are destroyed now, and this is so horrible I feel puke about the cruel destiny so many people met, mother earth can be very unjust......

 

[CaliHwyPatrol]

Anyone care to explain why the emergency cooling systems in their power plants require power to operate? That doesn't seem very smart.

 

[Swerd]

The news coming out of Japan is staggering. It must be terrible to be anywhere closer to the scene. I once sat through an earthquake with a magnitude in the low 6 range. It was bad enough - I can't imagine something about 1000 times stronger.

Japan should be proud that its efforts to build earthquake resistant tall buildings, such as those in Tokyo, seems to have paid off. There seems to be little serious damage or loss of life in those large cities. They were certainly near enough to this very large quake. It could have been much worse. Their building codes should be a model to the rest of the world.

I wish the best to the people of Japan who have to recover from this. I think it may be time to send some money to the Red Cross or other charitable groups who will pitch in.

 

[Stereodude]

Anyone care to explain why the emergency cooling systems in their power plants require power to operate? That doesn't seem very smart.

What else would they run on? Hopes and dreams?

Many newer reactor designs don't have these sorts of problems.

 

[CaliHwyPatrol]

The emergency cooling systems in our reactors run on natural circulation, so when the power goes out, you still have something. I only know my platform, and I'm sure there's a reason they didn't do it, the pocket protectors know a hell of a lot more about that stuff than I do haha.

 

[haraldo]

Even then..... why is there no power for cooling, when there's a nuclear reactor there?
Why is there not double or triple emergency cooling?

 

[majorloser]

Yeah, some incredible footage so far. It's been all over the local Korean channels non-stop for the past few hours.

Are any dog handlers getting deployed?