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Massive 8.8-magnitude quake strikes Japan

This is a surreal aerial video. Watch as the water carries homes, cars, boats away.


 
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Quit with all the 2012 crap.

Japan just happens to have the bad luck of being on or near the fault lines of 4 tectonic plates, so it will always have to suffer earthquakes.
 
Foreign and Military Affairs
Chinese rescuers on standby for relief
By Qiu Bo, Wu Yiyao and Peng Yining (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-12 06:35
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BEIJING / SHANGHAI - Chinese rescue workers are on standby to fly to Japan after a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake unleashed a destructive tsunami.

The powerful tremor that struck off Japan's Pacific coast on Friday was felt in China's eastern coastal region and as far away as Beijing, but Chinese authorities said the country faced no threat of a "disastrous" tsunami.

Chen Jianmin, director of the China Earthquake Administration, said authorities had put relief personnel, equipment and medicine in place, "ready to depart for Japan at any time", Xinhua News Agency reported.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu also echoed the comments.

China is well versed in disaster relief work, particularly with earthquakes. A massive 8-magnitude tremor hit the southwestern province of Sichuan in May 2008, leaving nearly 87,000 dead or missing.

Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday conveyed China's condolences to Japan over the tragedy and expressed willingness to offer help. In a phone conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Wen said that on behalf of the Chinese government he extended deep condolences to the Japanese government and people.

China is ready to provide Japan with necessary assistance to deal with the aftermath of this devastating natural disaster, he said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also offered condolences in a phone conversation with his Japanese counterpart, Takeaki Matsumoto.

The National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center at one point issued a blue tsunami alert and advised local governments along China's east coast to warn residents to stay away from the shore.

Zhang Rongjun, spokesman of China Maritime Search and Rescue Center, told China Daily on Friday his center had not received any missions.

Taiwan authorities said on Friday that minor tsunamis set off by the earthquake in Japan reached the island's coastline without causing any damage.

Waves about 10 centimeters high hit Taiwan's east and northeast coasts in the evening, the local weather bureau reported. It later lifted its tsunami warning.

Earlier on Friday, schools and offices in several coastal cities were closed, while coastguards patrolled ports and told fishermen to take shelter on land, officials said.

The tsunami reached Xiamen, a coastal city in East China's Fujian province, on Friday night but did not cause any damage.

"The government warned ships to stop offshore operations and rig the wires," said Zheng Rongmin, deputy director of Xiamen maritime department's control center.

On Friday, office workers in the Chinese capital, more than 2,500 kilometers from the earthquake's epicenter, reported via chat rooms that they had felt the tremor. However, no injuries or damage were immediately reported in China.

Beijing's seismological bureau said it had received reports from residents across the city who said they felt the earthquake. Many white-collar workers in skyscrapers also posted messages about their experiences on micro blogs.

"I was in the bathroom when the tremor came. When I came back to my office, all my colleagues had fled as they thought it was an earthquake," Chen Xin, a 37-year-old working in Dongcheng district's Fifth Piazza, told China Daily.

Wang Jianjun, spokesman for Shanghai Seismological Bureau, said it is normal for residents in high-rises to feel quakes in Shanghai.

"I was dizzy and had a strong feeling the building was shaking," said Shanghai resident Lin Jinying, who works at an office building in the central Xujiahui district.

Due to the disrupted telecommunications in Japan, many Chinese posted micro blogs to find their loved ones.

A micro blog, which had been shared 2,920 times as of 9:30 pm, was set up to find 28-year-old Tan Lili, an exchange doctoral candidate from Zhejiang University to Sendai.

Two Air China flights were delayed as Tokyo's Narita International Airport was closed after the tremor. CA 926 took off at 8:42 pm for Beijing, and Shanghai-bound flight CA930 departed at 7:25 pm.

Air China said they canceled five scheduled flights from Beijing and Shanghai to Tokyo.

The Ministry of Commerce has called on Chinese enterprises with operations in Japan to ensure their workers are safe. Companies should keep in close contact with China's consulate and embassies in Japan, and hold off sending staff members to earthquake-hit areas, the ministry said in an emergency statement on its website.

Xin Dingding and Shi Yingying contributed to this story.

Chinese rescuers on standby for relief
 
2 quake-hit power plants to release pressure

TOKYO —

Radiation rose to an unusually high level in and near Tokyo Electric Power Co.‘s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant Saturday following a magnitude 8.8 earthquake that hit northern Japan the previous day, the nuclear safety agency said.

But the agency denied the radiation amount will pose an immediate threat to the health of nearby residents.

Given the adjacent No. 2 plant also has quake-triggered malfunctions, the operator of the two plants in Fukushima Prefecture is set to release pressure in containers housing reactors under an unprecedented government order aimed to ensure the plant’s safety, an action that could lead to the release of radioactive substances.

The amount of radiation reached around 1,000 times the normal level in the control room of the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. The discovery suggests radioactive steam could spread around the facility.

The agency also said radiation has been measured at more than eight times the normal level near the main gate of the plant.

The authorities expanded the evacuation area for residents in the vicinity of the plant from a 3-kilometer radius to 10 km on the orders of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who visited the facility.
 
Another 6.6-magnitude earthquake has struck Japan

An estimated 6.6-magnitude earthquake has struck Nagano and Niigata prefectures in Japan, Kyodo news service reported a short while ago (around 1.20 am Saturday, Sri Lankan time). This is in addition to the 8.9 magnitude quake that hit the country’s East Coast of Honshu on Friday morning.

According to the Sri Lanka Geological Survey and Mines Bureau, the Friday morning earthquake in Japan was recorded in Sri Lanka at the seismic stations in Pallakale, Mahakanadarawa in Anuradhapura and Hakmana 14 minutes after it occurred. However, the Bureau said that there was no threat to the island from the tsunami waves.

The official death toll stood at 151, with 539 injured and 351 missing, according to Kyodo, citing police, but that death toll seemed almost certain to rise, according to Japanese TV NHK, which cited police as saying the victims may have been struck by a massive tsunami. Kyodo said the death toll is likely to surpass 1,000.

Friday’s quake is the strongest in recorded history to hit Japan, according to U.S. Geologic Survey records. The previous record was an 8.6 magnitude earthquake that struck near the Chubu Region near southwestern Honshu on October 28, 1707, that may have killed 5,000 people, according to CNN meteorologist Sean Morris.

Sri Lanka News-Adaderana-Truth First - Following aftershocks another quake hits Japan - Reports
 
Reminds me of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake tht struck us back in 2005...about 86,000 died while 10000+ injured.


And the 7.4 magnitude earthquake tht occured in 19th jan in Pakistan thnk god not much destruction occured like the past.
 
natori_500323f.jpg


CATASTROPHE: A ferocious tsunami, triggered by a massive earthquake of magnitude 8.9, slams the Natori coast in Japan on Friday.
 
Japan has the worlds best infrastructure prepared and engineered to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis. They also have in place earthquake and tsunami safety measures and civilian evacuation programs. I have no doubt, the capable Japanese will perform competently during this tragedy.
 
It was a massive earthquake with some suggesting that they might have to revise the power of the quake upward from8.9 to 9.1.

In fact the earthquake was so powerful that it caused some pretty major geological changes. Scientists from the United States Geological Service (USGS) shared some startling information while answering questions from the public today.

Earth’s axis has reportedly shifted 10 inches as a result of the quake
Japan’s coast is said to have permanently shifted 2.4 meters
100+ aftershocks measuring 5.0 magnitude or more have hit Japan following the initial quake
The quake was 900 times stronger than the one that hit San Francisco in 1989
Shaking was felt as far away as China
St. Louis, Missouri media outlets are reporting the city has moved an inch as a result of the quake
Waves from the tsunami caused by the quake reached 32 feet
Japan’s earthquake causes earth’s axis and Japan’s coast to shift

Astonishing...
 
The first thing I would worry in case of an earthquake are the human casualties... rest comes later... nothing more valuable than human life.

It's Pakistan which sits close to the junction of the Eurasian and Indian plates.
800px-Plates_tect2_en.svg.png


Worse off are Sindh, Baluchistan and Gujarat (Kutch). They're at the junction of Indian, Arab and Eurasian plates !

Overall India is relatively insulated
 
It's Pakistan which sits close to the junction of the Eurasian and Indian plates.
Worse off are Sindh, Baluchistan and Gujarat (Kutch). They're at the junction of Indian, Arab and Eurasian plates !
Overall India is relatively insulated
But some people won't stop wishing ill for us... will they.

I pray that another earthquake of this magnitude does not ever strike the subcontinent. Without much earthquake proof building codes, the human toll will be unimaginable.
 
It's Pakistan which sits close to the junction of the Eurasian and Indian plates.
800px-Plates_tect2_en.svg.png


Worse off are Sindh, Baluchistan and Gujarat (Kutch). They're at the junction of Indian, Arab and Eurasian plates !

Overall India is relatively insulated


For your betterment you may want to fully analyze that map and look over it carefully. Look at vulnerability of coastline, population density at coastline (which this particular map doesn't show), length of coastline (ties to vulnerability), and other factors.
 
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