Earthquake & tsunami hits Japan

[Woodsey]

Wiki says 10x horizontal amplitude, not energy.

Er well.......you know what I mean't, I just knew it was 10x for each point up the scale.

[Longines]

Yeah, sorry if that came over the wrong way. I thought the same as you, was surprised to see just how scarily quick the energy increases.

[Woodsey]

24 hr news has made a massive difference to this kind of stuff. If I remember correctly the Indonesian Tsunami was the first one they ever really caught on camera properly to study.

[kinboshi]

Looks like the tsunami isn't going to be anywhere near as bad for other countries such as Indonesia - which is a huge relief.

Unfortunately, it looks like the numbers of dead in Japan will be in the thousands rather than hundreds.

[rex008]

Nuclear Plant  in Northeast Japan on fire!! - And they're saying they can't pump water to cool the reactor down!

That's why they shut the reactors down when there's an earthquake of significant force, so they don't need ongoing cooling.

There are four nuclear power stations on the East coast of Japan, and quite a few other nuclear-processing plants, etc. in that area.  You'd hope that they're all safe.

It was an oil refinery that was on fire, looked like a gas leak (according to the chaps here who know about these things).

Shutting down a reactor doesn't stop it producing heat, unfortunately. Somewhere between 5-10% of the energy is purely from radioactive decay (for enriched uranium) rather than induced fission, so there will still be a fairly big heat load. Japanese reactors are pretty decent though, should be able to cope. Simple convection will cope with a fair bit, even if your pumps fail.

[Woodsey]

Jeeeeeeez these new pics are pretty dramatic stuff!

[Longines]

The official Kyodo news agency is reporting that about 88,000 people are missing. 

[outragous76]

The official Kyodo news agency is reporting that about 88,000 people are missing. 

not surprised at all and only enforces my point about rediculous report of "36 dead" etc

think we just need to be thankful that it appears the knock on effects on other countries and islands isnt being reported as too catastrophic atm

[kinboshi]

Nuclear Plant  in Northeast Japan on fire!! - And they're saying they can't pump water to cool the reactor down!

That's why they shut the reactors down when there's an earthquake of significant force, so they don't need ongoing cooling.

There are four nuclear power stations on the East coast of Japan, and quite a few other nuclear-processing plants, etc. in that area.  You'd hope that they're all safe.

It was an oil refinery that was on fire, looked like a gas leak (according to the chaps here who know about these things).

Shutting down a reactor doesn't stop it producing heat, unfortunately. Somewhere between 5-10% of the energy is purely from radioactive decay (for enriched uranium) rather than induced fission, so there will still be a fairly big heat load. Japanese reactors are pretty decent though, should be able to cope. Simple convection will cope with a fair bit, even if your pumps fail.

The pics were of the oil refinery in Tokyo, but there was a fire at a nuclear plant as well.  Apparently there's no radiation leak.

Although there was an accident at a processing plant in Ibaraki prefecture not long after I'd come back to the UK.  Someone had put the wrong bit of something into some acid (not sure on the details) and it had given off a dangerous cloud of radioactiveness.  The authorities didn't alert the public for hours, and then told people to stay indoors (hours too late).  Just makes me a little anxious when the authorities say it's all OK...

Found something about it here:
http://www.isis-online.org/publications/tokai.html

[gatso]

Although there was an accident at a processing plant in Ibaraki prefecture not long after I'd come back to the UK.  Someone had put the wrong bit of something into some acid (not sure on the details) and it had given off a dangerous cloud of radioactiveness.  The authorities didn't alert the public for hours, and then told people to stay indoors (hours too late).  Just makes me a little anxious when the authorities say it's all OK...

Found something about it here:
http://www.isis-online.org/publications/tokai.html

reminiscent of chernobyl where the soviets didn't admit anything had happened until the radiation was detected in sweden

[The Camel]

Deadliest earthquakes from recent times (taken from BBC site):

26 Dec 2004, Sumatra, Indonesia: 9.1 quake and tsunami kills 227,898 across Pacific region

12 Jan 2010, Haiti: 222,570 killed, 7.0

12 May 2008, Sichuan, China: 87,587 killed, 7.9

8 Oct 2005, Pakistan: 80,361 killed, 7.6

20 June 1990, Manjil, Iran: 40,000 killed, 7.4

26 Dec 2003, Bam, Iran: 31,000 killed, 6.6

16 Jan 2001, Gujurat, India: 20,023 killed, 7.7

17 Aug 1999, Izmit, Turkey: 17,118 killed, 7.6

30 Sep 1993 Latur, India: 9,748 killed, 6.2

16 Jan 1995, Kobe, Japan: 5,530 dead, 6.9

This list is a quite shock indictment on the Western news media.

Of those 10 I recall heavy news coverage of the top 2 and a bit about number 3.

I can't remember the other 7 being covered at all.

[gatso]

some amazing photos from the ny times

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/11/world/asia/20110311_japan.html?ref=asia#19

[kinboshi]

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/03/powerful-japan-quake-sparks-ts.html

State of nuclear emergency!

[kinboshi]

some amazing photos from the ny times

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/11/world/asia/20110311_japan.html?ref=asia#19

Frightening.

[Royal Flush]

Deadliest earthquakes from recent times (taken from BBC site):

26 Dec 2004, Sumatra, Indonesia: 9.1 quake and tsunami kills 227,898 across Pacific region

12 Jan 2010, Haiti: 222,570 killed, 7.0

12 May 2008, Sichuan, China: 87,587 killed, 7.9

8 Oct 2005, Pakistan: 80,361 killed, 7.6

20 June 1990, Manjil, Iran: 40,000 killed, 7.4

26 Dec 2003, Bam, Iran: 31,000 killed, 6.6

16 Jan 2001, Gujurat, India: 20,023 killed, 7.7

17 Aug 1999, Izmit, Turkey: 17,118 killed, 7.6

30 Sep 1993 Latur, India: 9,748 killed, 6.2

16 Jan 1995, Kobe, Japan: 5,530 dead, 6.9

This list is a quite shock indictment on the Western news media.

Of those 10 I recall heavy news coverage of the top 2 and a bit about number 3.

I can't remember the other 7 being covered at all.

lol what 10 was a huge news story when i was a kid.

3 4 8 and 6 i remember very well, Bam especially so.