Japan quakes

[Alexandr0s]

The tsunami hitting parts of Japan looked totally surreal. My hopes are with all of you .

[Buckeye]

All though nothing like what hit Japan, the California coast was hit today and is continuing to see effects of this.

Cresent City had something like ~7 foot surges and sank 30-35 boats.
I was watching TV when surges went though Santa Cruz and did a fair amount of damage.
Marina Del Ray also had big surges that did a fair amount of damage.

So many people out here just shrug off these things when the warnings come, but I think this is the worst I have seen in my life along the California coast after big earth quakes.

[antiacid]

This is part of it, look at all of the global events - not just natural disasters. It's difficult not to bring politics into this but I'll try by not mentioning countries' names. Look at all the war on "terror" going on. Look at the unrest in third world countries. The verge of civil war. Religious or not, things are falling together and it's scary.

I think that "bad stuff" is happening all around the world just as much as before, however we're a lot more aware of those events with up-to-the-minute coverage on the internet/tv/radio/newspapers. I don't want to take away anything from the tragedy that is this epic earthquake, mind you. It's just that if you only got your news from one source only and had to prioritize between all possible news items of interest, you probably would end up with a narrow selection and think that the world is a pretty safe place (i.e. the "good old days").

[570091D]

I think that "bad stuff" is happening all around the world just as much as before, however we're a lot more aware of those events with up-to-the-minute coverage on the internet/tv/radio/newspapers. I don't want to take away anything from the tragedy that is this epic earthquake, mind you. It's just that if you only got your news from one source only and had to prioritize between all possible news items of interest, you probably would end up with a narrow selection and think that the world is a pretty safe place (i.e. the "good old days").

+1,000,000

natural disasters have been happening for a long long time, but thanks to satalite tv we can now experiance the carnage in HD. it's so good, you can almost taste the brain matter.... TURN THE TV OFF.

say a prayer for the people of Japan and make a donation to your favorite charity.

how to help the vicitms of the earthquake in Japan

[Knight203]

Any concrete news on the nuclear plant issues? Last I heard the number one and number two plants are in a state of emergency because they can't get them cool.

[Aerwidh]

Watching the news all day of the horrible tsunami destroying everything that comes into its way really made me realize how lucky I am living in a place on the earth that is neither prone to earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes (yet at least, who knows how it'll look like in future with the climate changes etc).

Yeah, we sure are well off up here. I don't think the climate change could bring tsunamis or earthquakes of any significance, either, seeing how far we are from the edges of our tectonic plate.

[thematrixhazune]

Any concrete news on the nuclear plant issues? Last I heard the number one and number two plants are in a state of emergency because they can't get them cool.

They're venting pressure from one of the plants. They said some radiation will be present but minimal. Problem is even though the reactor is shut down, the radiated ore is still active and very hot. Thats where the issue is trying to cool it down.

[josh1980]

Venting pressure from the plants is a good thing long term. Short term there may be a minimal release to the environment, but that means no permanent core damage(aka meltdown). I've been trying to find more info since I work at a nuclear power plant myself and I just can't find any .

Edit: Some news agencies are commenting that levels are 1000 times normal and that pressure in the reactor is 1.5 times "normal". That's really NOT that big of a deal so don't worry about that stuff. These systems are designed to handle some serious . Everything is overbuilt and with multiple redundancies. Of course, this is the 5th most powerful earthquake ever recorded. I guess we'll see who wins in this battle of man versus nature.

[G H Z]

All though nothing like what hit Japan, the California coast was hit today and is continuing to see effects of this.

Cresent City had something like ~7 foot surges and sank 30-35 boats.
I was watching TV when surges went though Santa Cruz and did a fair amount of damage.
Marina Del Ray also had big surges that did a fair amount of damage.

So many people out here just shrug off these things when the warnings come, but I think this is the worst I have seen in my life along the California coast after big earth quakes.

4 people missing and one confirmed death last I heard. Yeah it's pretty bad, even over here.

[thematrixhazune]

Venting pressure from the plants is a good thing long term. Short term there may be a minimal release to the environment, but that means no permanent core damage(aka meltdown). I've been trying to find more info since I work at a nuclear power plant myself and I just can't find any .

Edit: Some news agencies are commenting that levels are 1000 times normal and that pressure in the reactor is 1.5 times "normal". That's really NOT that big of a deal so don't worry about that stuff. These systems are designed to handle some serious . Everything is overbuilt and with multiple redundancies. Of course, this is the 5th most powerful earthquake ever recorded. I guess we'll see who wins in this battle of man versus nature.

The ideal thing to happen now is that everything slowly goes back to normal and people recover from this. They don't need another quake messing things up even more.

Question: since you work @ a plant, do they need heavy water to cool it down or can any water be used?

[josh1980]

The ideal thing to happen now is that everything slowly goes back to normal and people recover from this. They don't need another quake messing things up even more.

Question: since you work @ a plant, do they need heavy water to cool it down or can any water be used?

It depends on the design. For power plants designed solely for producing electricity, heavy water has no value. Obviously, water chemistry is important. During an emergency if you don't have pure water available you use whatever you can get. Whether it be drinking water, lake water, river water, etc. It's better to ruin the water chemistry in the reactor(which is recoverable) than to melt a reactor core(not so recoverable).

Heavy water is useful for certain designs when attempting to produce certain isotopes. However if just trying to cool the reactor any water will do.

[e-Killer]

Guys i just submit a record in google person finder for Miahallem, if someone know something about him please update the status.
http://japan.person-finder.appspot.c...llen&role=seek

[Boissez]

What happened today is obviously a tragedy and my thoughts goes out to the victims, their families and friends. Yet I feel that the Japanese government(s)/institutions must be commended for their past efforts in quakeproofing the country during the past decades. The devastation could have been much much greater than what we're witnessing today if it weren't for them.

[STEvil]

So the east coast of japan moved 8 feet apparently...

did the west coast move too?

[Mats]

This reminds me of the Indian ocean tsunami in 2004, which killed over 200000 people, although that happened in an area much less prepared for tsunamis.

With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the third largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. This earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 cm (0.4 inches) and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska.

People who worked with medical care didn't know what to do with patients who had sand in their blood vessels, which had entered the body because of the extremely high water pressure!
Large land areas got unusable for agriculture for years, since it was all filled with seawater, killing pretty much all vegetation.

There are just so many side effects of a tsunami that most people can't even imagine. I guess it's much easier to be prepared for earthquakes than tsunamis.

[kjeldoran]

Fiance is in Japan until August of this year, but is studying in Osaka. She actually got to Tokyo last night (for a meeting today...that did not happen) and the earthquake happened. She said it wasn't bad where she was at. I know she lost communication with her cell phone for about an hour (or longer...). I'm glad she is okay.

[[200]]

Anyone know if duck is okay?

[K404]

I've only seen a little bit of news coverage. I saw the water + debris mix moving across the land a taking out a village with no effort whatsoever. There weren't any people visible, but a couple of cars trying to get away. One car was doing alright, but the debris front swirled around and cut off the road in front, while the bulk took out what was behind. The footage cut away, but I can't imagine how ****ing scary and hopeless that situation would feel for the person/people in the car. I was a bit sad because realistically, that was footage of someones impending death

My sympathies to the people, families and friends of anyone caught up in it. I hope the search and rescue mission isn't just a soul-destroying body hunt

[sin0822]

I hope everyone and their families are ok!

Japan is really very well prepared for earthquakes, the building are designed to sway back and forth during an earthquake i watched a documentary about it.
But you can never prepare for the worst

[IvanAndreevich]

I hope everyone and their families are ok!

Japan is really very well prepared for earthquakes, the building are designed to sway back and forth during an earthquake i watched a documentary about it.
But you can never prepare for the worst

As far as I could see, the main problem was with the tsunamis. Proofing against one of those would probably be a trillion dollar project.

[STEvil]

This reminds me of the Indian ocean tsunami in 2004, which killed over 200000 people, although that happened in an area much less prepared for tsunamis.


People who worked with medical care didn't know what to do with patients who had sand in their blood vessels, which had entered the body because of the extremely high water pressure!
Large land areas got unusable for agriculture for years, since it was all filled with seawater, killing pretty much all vegetation.

There are just so many side effects of a tsunami that most people can't even imagine. I guess it's much easier to be prepared for earthquakes than tsunamis.

Quake upgraded to 9.1

St. Louis moved: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/a...7a4a78c22.html

[bot@xs]

i just got word from MIAHALLEN. he is ok but communication is limited because of power outages, internet access etc
he should be back on soon

[OMEGA3]

FUGGER-san , CAL930-san, and all,

Thank you for worrying,
We had blacked out around here for just 24 hours.
Able to use electricity now.

There are a lot of victims more in the northern country....

Now, a telephone and the Internet are downed from Tokyo on the north.

Miahallen prays his safety which lives in the northeast.

[sin0822]

glad to hear you guys are all right.

[AceBaran]

I wonder why the galactic federation hasnt stepped in yet to prevent the meltdown ! >_<

On a serious note, i wish all the best to those who have survived this drama.