There was a 6.6 a bit up and to the left that was not showing in the original close up. I’ve added a second:
Quakes, Japan close up, More North
Japan Local Map, Near Honshu
Live Maps
A live view of Eurasia so you can see if anything happens ‘more westward’:
Quakes in Japan / Eurasia
Original with clickable regions to zoom in
Some Image Captures of The Close Ups
Early in the process. The 8.9 is the big blue square closer to the island.
Japan 8.9 and early aftershocks
Later on, as the aftershocks, some up to 7.2 and dozens smaller (over 40 over a 5.x last I heard), start racking up. I find this one interesting as you can see the linear layout of this set:
Quakes Japan Aftershocks On a Line
Then, later on, they start “popping” all over the place. Just amazing as it’s a few hours into it and things are STILL popping…
Quakes Japan 11 Mar 2011 Aftershocks 8:18
AND we get another “Line Structure” as this set pops:
Quakes Japan AS 11Mar2011 13:47
What it looked like when I commented that they looked to be getting a bit smaller:
Quakes Japan Aftershocks 11Mar2011 19:00
Then, just a few minutes later, we get a 6.2 on the OTHER side of the Island along with a 6.x aftershock in the swarm … This puppy is not settling down just yet…
Quakes Japan Aftershocks 11Mar2011 19:25
One shifted a bit more north where you can see the 6.6 that happened there:
Quakes Japan Aftershocks shifted North with 6.6
Australia / New Zealand
This is a map of the Australia / Indonesia / New Zealand area:
Australia / Indonesia / New Zealand Quake Map
Original with clickable regions to zoom in
Here is a “live view” of South America so you can watch anything “new” that develops there:
Southern South America Hemispheric View
South America with “clickable” areas for more details.
Southern Hemisphere
A view of Earthquakes from the South Pole
Original Image with Clickable Details
Northern Hemisphere
North Polar Earthquake Map
Original Image with Clickable Details
Reminder
Take a look again at the Iceland Volcano Watch Metric posting. The total seismic energy line continues to go ever more vertical.
Some Volcano Stuff
This page:
http://pangea.stanford.edu/~dsinnett/Pages/Links.html has a nice collection of links to volcano monitor pages. Just click the pictures for the different volcano observatories.
The Smithsonian page:
http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/
is listing new activity in Guatemala and Kyushu, but is only updated on Wednesdays… while
http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~jaherric/Observatories.html
claims to have an exhaustive list of observatories that does include a Filippino one. That link tells you the original site no longer exists… but assuming the rest of the links are valid, it’s still a nice list to have.
I put that link into a google search and got what I think is the new, valid, address:
http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/
FWIW, it has some nice maps and general information, but does not look to be oriented toward “breaking news”…
At any rate, there’s some volcano links, but looks like the general news is a better source for “It JUST Blew UP!”…
North America
North America and Mid Atlantic Ridge Quake Map
Original with clickable details
In comments on the Christchurch quake posting I’d noted that the Cascadia had a 4.x down at the bottom end and suggested closer watching. It’s now got a 4th quake in about as many days. Watch closely for a while… The 4.9 is almost on top of an earlier 4.8, then the two “bookends” at each end of the zone.
And remember, I have a dedicated CSZ page with closeups
California Map
Action Closer to Me
As I live in California, it makes it easier for me if I keep them in the list where I can see what’s shaking near me.
Current quake map in California
Original Image, with captions and description. The original is interactive with clickable regions for ‘close ups’.
This was shown as a pair of 7.9s early on. I grabbed a few screens:
http://level-head.livejournal.com/517301.html
Lots of tsunami damage, buildings on fire:
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/japan-tsunami-damage-follows-89-earthquake-20110311-1bqym.html?from=smh_sb
It looks bad.
===|==============/ Level Head
Off the Japanese coast: 8.9 with 7.x aftershocks! Now I see why you have not yet responded to my critique of your last post!
Look at all those 6+ quakes all over that area since the big one went off.
@Level_head:
Nice screen caps. I’ve got one from about the time of your last one. Your images show the progression better, though…
Yeah, quakes often have ‘revisions’ as time passes.
I’m swapping between CNN and FOX (MSNBC has the same video and not very interesting comments) and it shows loads of water / tsunami damage. One refinery like tank (oil?) in flames in a large tank farm…
It also puts the entire Pacific basin at risk of Tsuname damage, even as far as California…
@boballab:
Yeah… and the “big one” landed right on top of that 7.2? from a couple of days ago…
Now you know why I pay attention to the ‘smaller’ ones in an area even though it may look silly to be watching 5.x or 6.x events… Sometimes they end up being “foreshocks”…
The Precursor Events (from comments on the other quake thread) from:
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/quakes-asia-to-europe/#comment-13899
Well, it’s a big one! 7.2 near Japan!
Magnitude 7.2 – NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
2011 March 09 02:45:18 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 7.2
Date-Time Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 02:45:18 UTC
Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 11:45:18 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 38.510°N, 142.792°E
Depth 14.1 km (8.8 miles)
Region NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances 168 km (104 miles) E of Sendai, Honshu, Japan
193 km (119 miles) SE of Morioka, Honshu, Japan
216 km (134 miles) E of Yamagata, Honshu, Japan
413 km (256 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 12.8 km (8.0 miles); depth +/- 1.8 km (1.1 miles)
Parameters NST=464, Nph=469, Dmin=390.7 km, Rmss=1.06 sec, Gp= 29°,
M-type=”moment” magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=B
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usb0001r57
With a 5.3 aftershock already:
Magnitude 5.3 – NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
2011 March 09 04:45:54 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 5.3
Date-Time Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 04:45:54 UTC
Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 01:45:54 PM at epicenter
Location 38.543°N, 142.740°E
Depth 27 km (16.8 miles)
Region NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances 165 km (103 miles) ENE (78°) from Sendai, Honshu, Japan
190 km (118 miles) SE (133°) from Morioka, Honshu, Japan
218 km (136 miles) ENE (65°) from Fukushima, Honshu, Japan
415 km (258 miles) NE (39°) from TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 19 km (11.8 miles); depth +/- 2 km (1.2 miles)
Parameters NST=111, Nph=121, Dmin=387.4 km, Rmss=1.57 sec, Gp=122°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=6
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usb0001r77
EM:
Fox is getting it’s pictures from NHK one of Japan’s broadcasters and I got NHK’s World Broadcast in English feed up: http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/6810.htm
And they confirmed that is an Oil Refinery
I don’t know if the Carrier, that is homeported at Yokosuka Naval Base (Tokyo), is in homeport or not but whatever 7th fleet ships that are there are probably expediting to sail for the Senndai. Those ships would bring much needed clean water, food and medical facilities as well as helicopters to rescue people. So expect to see USN ships and helicopters showing up in the next couple of hours.
Don’t forget the major airbase in Okinawa too…
Neat trick with the TV feed BTW!
Fox reporting a 10 M or about 33 foot Tsunami couldhit a northern location, I think it said North Island…
Reports of a 13 foot (likely a 4 meter) tsunami has hit man island 30 minutes after the quake…
EM:
There is a USN Airstation (Misawa) in northern Honshu, The USAF airbase (Yokota) just outside of Tokyo , this is a big Transport airbase so expect US relief supplies to be flowing into it shortly. Then there is the USN Air facility at Atsugi just SW of Tokyo and a Marine Corp Airstaion at Iwakuni in southern Honshu Island.
On the Island of Kyushu there is there is the Naval Station at Sasebo where they have Amphibious assault ships stationed (Ships to carry marines including a LHA baby carrier with lots of helicopters). I was stationed at this base for 2 years from 1987 to 1989.
Then besides the AirForce base on Okinawa there is the big Marine Corp base down there.
So if the ships are in their homeports atm expect the gator freighters in Sasebo to rush to Oki and pick up the Marines and rush up to the disaster site to provide rescue workers. the first to arrive should be 7th Fleet from Yokosuka and start ops. Then you would get relief supplies flown into Yokota and taken off the C-141′s, 5′s and 17′s and loaded onto helicopters and rushed to either the carrier or the LHA if they are there. Those two ships could play a huge roll as a floating rescue hub providing transhipment of supplies and two very modern emergency surgical suites.
correction Misawa is on Hokkaido not Honshu
LOL I got this screen up, one for NHK and one for a station out of Hawaii while having Fox u on TV.
The Hawaii station just reported that they are under Tsunami Warning and they say they will get a wave at 2:59 am Hawaiian time.
http://www.kitv.com/video/12517300/detail.html
Wow three more 6+ quakes have fired off in the last hour including one where the 7.1 was.
Hawaii just closed alot of their airports including Hilo and Honolulu.
Yeah, it’s like watching popcorn pop… things just keep popping up…
BTW, on CNN they showed the refinery, it’s now got several large sperical tanks engaged. It’s turning into a firestorm at the refinery. I hope it doesn’t spread from there.
Japan earthquake occurred at the end of the latest geomagnetic storm, the longest and strongest in the latest series, still going on 23 hours after it started.
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/gms.htm
Watch now in effect for the entire West Coast of the US
Tsunami watch for west coast about 7:00am pg
EM
NHK has been showing the Tokyo Fire Department is wetting down the surrounding area so the fire doesn’t spread from the refinery
This quake is the largest one to ever hit Japan that they know off according to NHK. Japan is also the most prepared country in the world for quakes so the aftermath and the damage assessments to buildings an such is going to be a real wake up call to San Diego, LA, San Fran, Seattle and Anchorage (if they listen) on what the “Big One” will do to them if it hits the 8 to 9 range.
NHK has reported that the Japanese government has been expecting an 8+ quake in that area, like San Fran or LA is expected to get a big one some time in the future, and had been prepping that area for it. So this will be interesting in how there preparerations worked out.
National Weather Service is now saying that damage IS expected along the Oregon and Northern California coasts from the tsunami.
@AlBoeNEWS: Japan Meteorological Agency: Town of Kurihara has been completely destroyed
ALso, expected tsunami arrival times:
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/01/webetalhvpd9-01.txt
Kurihara isn’t a town it’s a city of about 75,000 to 80,000 people. If that report is correct that death toll could be huge.
At this stage the places where the damage is greatest is where you are hearing NO reports.
TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 5
NWS WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER PALMER AK
135 AM PST FRI MAR 11 2011
THIS MESSAGE KEEPS THE ADVISORY AND WARNING AREAS THE SAME AND
ADDS MORE TSUNAMI OBSERVATIONS.
…THE TSUNAMI WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL
AREAS OF CALIFORNIA AND OREGON FROM POINT CONCEPCION
CALIFORNIA TO THE OREGON-WASHINGTON BORDER…
…
A TSUNAMI HAS BEEN GENERATED WHICH IS EXPECTED TO CAUSE DAMAGE
TO THE WARNING AND/OR ADVISORY REGIONS LISTED IN THE HEADLINE.
Just saw a report that 200 people are stuck in a landslide in Japan.
Utility reports fire at turbine building at nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan – AP
Just saw a shot on NHK that showed a road split right down the middle and one side looks like a roller coaster going up and down, up and down.
I wouldn’t be sleeping late if I lived in Alviso!
The NHK world service is showing now video of the aftermath in a town/city from the Tsunami:
http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/6810.htm
And when you see tree, cars and BOATS clogging the streets now with no water in it is something to see.
Caught this from the Hawaii station I also got live streaming: they are now expecting a wave up to 6 ft high there.
Got to love a comp with 6 Gig Ram that can keep two live streams going while you converse with other people on a third window you have open.
NHK just had a confirmed report that one of the Tsunami waves was 7.3 meters in height (24 ft) when it hit the Sendai area.
NHK just reported that one of the Nuke Reactor plants has lost it’s emergency power and the pumps have shut down and is no longer cooling down the plant and a Nuke emergency has been issued.
Preliminary from Midway the first wave was 2.5 m (about 8ft) this being reported from Hawaii
Heard on Fox that several ( I think they said something like all 11 ? ) nukes had shut down and many places were without power…
Also, just to make it more interesting, Hawaii had a quake:
Magnitude 4.6 – HAWAII REGION, HAWAII
2011 March 11 08:58:25 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 4.6
Date-Time Friday, March 11, 2011 at 08:58:25 UTC
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 10:58:25 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 19.340°N, 154.992°W
Depth 9.3 km (5.8 miles)
Region HAWAII REGION, HAWAII
Distances 17 km (10 miles) SSW (207°) from Leilani Estates, HI
18 km (11 miles) SSW (193°) from Pahoa, HI
20 km (13 miles) SSW (204°) from Nanawale Estates, HI
42 km (26 miles) SSE (166°) from Hilo, HI
368 km (228 miles) SE (126°) from Honolulu, HI
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.9 km (0.6 miles); depth +/- 0.5 km (0.3 miles)
Parameters Nph= 35, Dmin=9 km, Rmss=0.08 sec, Gp=216°,
M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=1
Source U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
Hawaii National Park, Hawaii
Event ID hv60222496
as has the area just off Mexico… So folks getting ready for a Tsunami are now shaking just a bit:
Magnitude 4.5 – REVILLA GIGEDO ISLANDS REGION
2011 March 11 04:05:40 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 4.5
Date-Time Friday, March 11, 2011 at 04:05:40 UTC
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 09:05:40 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 19.586°N, 109.136°W
Depth 10.2 km (6.3 miles)
Region REVILLA GIGEDO ISLANDS REGION
Distances 213 km (132 miles) ENE of Socorro Island, Mexico
366 km (227 miles) SSE of Cabo San Lucas, Baja Calif. Sur, Mexico
424 km (263 miles) WSW of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico
1046 km (649 miles) W of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 29.5 km (18.3 miles); depth +/- 1 km (0.6 miles)
Parameters NST=111, Nph=111, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=1.33 sec, Gp=194°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=6
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc0001xew
In fact, if you look at that line on the little plate just at the bottom of Mexico, there are “3 in a row” across it…
Thank you for the information.
It is a remarkable coincidence how Mother Nature has its own, forceful way of teaching politicians that they are not in control.
I recall the disappearance of Sunspots about the time Al Gore and NASA finished telling us that they could predict Earth’s future climate with great certainty.
Again, thanks for the story.
With kind regards,
Oliver K. Manuel
This station had a really good shot of Diamond Head where the ocean receded BIG TIME:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/Global/category.asp?C=176904&nav=menu55_1_1
I’ve added some images of the sequence of aftershocks.
NHK have been impressive in their reporting of this disaster. The aerial shots of the tsunami racing across farmland and through port areas, carrying all before it, are the most dramatic and terrifying I have ever seen. Add to that the exploding oil/LPG terminal and the risk of nuclear facility meltdown and it becomes clear that many hundreds if not thousands will have lost their lives as a consequence of this earthquake.
@Oldtimer:
Now you know why I’m sort of “obsessive” about watching quakes. As it is possible for this scale of event to happen in the California to Cascadia arc, and that kind of damage could easily happen here.
So yeah, a “little” 5.x or 6ish lets loose, and I watch the area. Simply because sometimes it is a warning of things to come…
Note enough data to say if it’s anything or just random spots, but it is worth noting that we had the Indonesia quake / Tsuname, then the ones in Chile, then it went back to the “other side” and we’ve had Christchurh south and Japan North… which leaves me looking at this side again.
And where has it not gone on this side?…
Why, up “near me” in the Northern US / Southern Canada area…
No, it doesn’t need to do anything in particular, and can easily be subducting on one edge to “no problem” on another… but it just looks like it’s grinding around ALL the edges, with pauses…
Fox Business is showing night time pictures of massive fires at the oil refinery area. It’s now covering widespread turf.
IMHO, it looks like it’s escaped the refinery proper (either that, or they have at least 3 different refinery areas all on fire with hills in between them).
CNN is reporting thousands evacuated from near a nuclear plant where “cooling the core is not going as planned”.
They can’t get enough electricity to run the cooling pumps…
Emergency warning issued that they are “preparing for the worst”… while they work for the best….
Fear is a core meltdown…
( I can just hear our locals shouting about Diablo Canyon…)
That picture that Fox put up might not have been of the Oil Refinery. I’m still watching the NHK World service where Fox is getting it’s pictures from and they said that the big spreading fires are from the Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture area which is not where the Oil Refinery is and they have shown pictures of that fire but it is still confined to the plant.
“They can’t get enough electricity to run the cooling pumps…”
Great commercial for the AP1000. It can run 2 weeks with no external electricity with passive cooling. That won’t help them right now, though.
http://www.ap1000.westinghousenuclear.com/ap1000_safety_psrs.html
I wish them the best.
We’re under a Tsunami Advisory here in the Puget Sound area. My house is at about 220′, so I’m not worried. Though some folks along the western edge of Whidbey Island could have some storm surge-like effects, which could do considerable damage to their right-on-the-water houses.
NHK just put out updated casualty numbers. Besides the the 200-300 dead bodies the police found there is a missing passenger train, another 150 dead in Miyagi Prefecture and in the Prefecture south of Miyagi another 50 dead with 500 missing across multiple Prefectures.
Just saw a report of 88,000 currently missing:
http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-missing-people-2011-3
Crescent City harbor hit pretty hard. Surge apparently got focused by the lay of the harbor to 8 feet.
Well, the ‘wave’ got to California. At Santa Cruz harbor it messed up a few boats. I can live with that…
There are still aftershocks on the charts, but it looks to me like the are drifted a bit south and slowly getting smaller.
I’ve never seen such a dense swam of quakes before. (Then again, I’ve not been watching this kind of chart in this sized main quake). Kind of awesome. 135 count on the chart as I type…
Well, we can probably expect some increased volcanism in Japan over the next 10 years or so.
6.2 northwest of tokyo in the last hour.
Just had one pop on the other side of Japan and big enough to cause issues.
Magnitude 6.2 – NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 6.2
Date-Time Friday, March 11, 2011 at 18:59:15 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 03:59:15 AM at epicenter
Location 37.037°N, 138.355°E
Depth 1 km (~0.6 mile)
Region NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances 46 km (29 miles) NNE (21°) from Nagano, Honshu, Japan
95 km (59 miles) NW (318°) from Maebashi, Honshu, Japan
116 km (72 miles) SSW (212°) from Niigata, Honshu, Japan
197 km (122 miles) NW (321°) from TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 12.9 km (8.0 miles); depth +/- 0.2 km (0.1 miles)
Parameters NST=409, Nph=415, Dmin=55.7 km, Rmss=1.16 sec, Gp= 29°,
M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=9
Source U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center:
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver
Event ID usc0001z2a
While at almost the same time were still getting 6.x aftershocks in “The Swarm”.
That has just got to be making folks in the middle feel “sea sick” by now…
Magnitude 6.1 – NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
2011 March 11 19:02:58 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 6.1
Date-Time Friday, March 11, 2011 at 19:02:58 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 04:02:58 AM at epicenter
Location 39.372°N, 142.900°E
Depth 24.8 km (15.4 miles) set by location program
Region NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances 156 km (97 miles) ESE (104°) from Morioka, Honshu, Japan
173 km (108 miles) SE (136°) from Hachinohe, Honshu, Japan
215 km (133 miles) NE (54°) from Sendai, Honshu, Japan
497 km (309 miles) NNE (33°) from TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 14.7 km (9.1 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST=345, Nph=346, Dmin=295 km, Rmss=0.75 sec, Gp= 32°,
M-type=”moment” magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=8
Source U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center:
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver
Event ID usc0001z2t
Our parent company is located in Ibaraki, Northeast of Tokyo. I’ve e-mailed them but have not heard anything back yet.
They are close enough to the coast that they might have gotten wet – in a very bad way. I noticed one of the large aftershocks was right about where Ibaraki is.
Yeah that last 6.2 was on the opposite side of the Island of Honshu:
6.2
Date-Time
Friday, March 11, 2011 at 18:59:15 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 03:59:15 AM at epicenter
Location
37.037°N, 138.355°E
Depth
1 km (~0.6 mile)
Region
NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances
46 km (29 miles) NNE (21°) from Nagano, Honshu, Japan
95 km (59 miles) NW (318°) from Maebashi, Honshu, Japan
116 km (72 miles) SSW (212°) from Niigata, Honshu, Japan
197 km (122 miles) NW (321°) from TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty
horizontal +/- 12.9 km (8.0 miles); depth +/- 0.2 km (0.1 miles)
Parameters
NST=409, Nph=415, Dmin=55.7 km, Rmss=1.16 sec, Gp= 29°,
M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=9
Source
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center:
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver
Event ID
usc0001z2a
I suppose the “good news” is that the 6.x and 7.x aftershocks are “small enough” that the very good Japanese preparations ought to result in little to no damage.
That bad news being, of course, that the “big one” was big enough to exceed the prep and with things already damaged, the followon action can be more destructive.
So far I’ve been to exactly one country where I didn’t want to leave at the end of my time there. Not Germany, France, nor even England… but Japan. It was the first time I felt “at home” other than when actually at home. This hurts…
I just had the horrid thought: What if the swarm IS headed more south, and there is more to come, more or less under Tokyo…
Ah, well… with luck folks will look at this, then look at Cascadia, and do some serious thinking…
There were almost simultanious aftershocks on that one North of Tokyo and this point, just 50 miles East. That will be felt in Tokyo suburbs at least…
Magnitude 5.5 – NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
2011 March 11 19:24:28 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 5.5
Date-Time Friday, March 11, 2011 at 19:24:28 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 04:24:28 AM at epicenter
Location 35.770°N, 140.639°E
Depth 24.9 km (15.5 miles)
Region NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances 68 km (42 miles) SSE (168°) from Mito, Honshu, Japan
81 km (50 miles) E (82°) from TOKYO, Japan
146 km (91 miles) S (189°) from Iwaki, Honshu, Japan
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 14.5 km (9.0 miles); depth +/- 0.3 km (0.2 miles)
Parameters NST=360, Nph=361, Dmin=236 km, Rmss=0.79 sec, Gp= 54°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=8
Source U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center:
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver
Event ID usc0001z3b
Gee, and another “red spot on Hawaii” at about the same time one is happening in Japan. We had that earlier too.
I’d likely not notice, or care, but that my kid is in Hawaii right now… so he’s probably having fun learning about tsunami preparations and watching folks react to “little quakes”…
Havn’t heard from him, though… (but he does like to sleep in)…
Magnitude 3.3 – HAWAII REGION, HAWAII
2011 March 11 19:46:26 UTC
This is a computer-generated message — this event has not yet been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 3.3
Date-Time Friday, March 11, 2011 at 19:46:26 UTC
Friday, March 11, 2011 at 09:46:26 AM at epicenter
Location 19.341°N, 154.990°W
Depth 10.6 km (6.6 miles)
Region HAWAII REGION, HAWAII
Distances 16 km (10 miles) SSW (206°) from Leilani Estates, HI
18 km (11 miles) SSW (192°) from Pahoa, HI
20 km (12 miles) SSW (203°) from Nanawale Estates, HI
42 km (26 miles) SSE (166°) from Hilo, HI
368 km (229 miles) SE (126°) from Honolulu, HI
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 1.3 km (0.8 miles); depth +/- 0.6 km (0.4 miles)
Parameters Nph= 27, Dmin=8 km, Rmss=0.13 sec, Gp=220°,
M-type=duration magnitude (Md), Version=1
Source U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
Hawaii National Park, Hawaii
Event ID hv60222771
Here’s the close up map. It’s near Hilo on the Big Island (well, looks to me more like it’s ‘around the bend near where the lava flows’ and where there was a nice black sand beach before the lava ate it… but folks can find Hilo on a map better…)
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/10/205_20.php
A short geomagnetic disturbance again followed within minutes by two 6+ magnitude quakes;
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/J2.gif
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php
Back again – hope you’re not filtering on IP – I’m located (your tools will tell you) somewhere else.
Glad the tsunami in each location is less than alarmists forecast. I could make a comparison, but considering the devastation and the individual tragedies, who am I to comment? I’ll just say that, once again, Mother Nature puts the influence of man in perspective.
What does EM think of the ‘moon distance’ theory? (Postulated by ‘experts’ on Sky TV News [UK]). I greatly respect your judgement [ability to absorb and synthesize vast amounts of information?]).
It’s heartbreaking to hear this. My first ever school project was on Japan, and the help that I got from the Japanese Embassy was amazing. For instance, at the time half of all ships and I think 80% of all motorcycles were built there.
Then you see how these people went from what was then disparagingly called “Jap scrap” to arguably the best engineered “stuff” on the planet, and done in an honest way, and it only increases your respect for them.
On a related note, there’s a lot of talk around about this being caused by the moon coming to its closest to the Earth for a while, but was the moon at the same longitude as Japan when it happened?
It would make it easier to understand the mechanics of how it happened if it was (A lot of water bearing down on the Pacific plate while the Eurasian plate is getting lifted ever so slightly could be enough to release all the tension that had built up). Or is that not how it happens?
Also the quiet sun. What mechanics would be at play there? There seems to be too much correlation for it to be more than a coincidence.
Paul Hanlon
Also the quiet sun. What mechanics would be at play there? There seems to be too much correlation for it to be more than a coincidence.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center:
There is strong evidence of electromagnetic processes responsible for earthquake triggering, that we study extensively. We will focus here on one correlation between power in solar wind compressional fluctuations and power in magnetospheric pulsations and ground H component fluctuations. The variation of the horizontal component H of the geomagnetic field is the crucial parameter in the Magneto-Seismic Effect MSE to be discussed in a companion paper.
You can see more stuff and a link at my webpage:
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/gms.htm
FWIW – worry not about controlled release from the nuclear power plant – even you’re down-wind & close to it. Your exposure (excess radiation dose above background) will be less than you would get from moving to a brick-built house for a few decades or taking a few international flights!
The other piece of “good news” is that they aren’t likely to see another earthquake this large for at least another 100 years or so. This is it, they just had their “big one” but they could still get aftershocks up to M8 though the probability of that declines rapidly with time.
This was another “megathust” quake where a subduction boundary let loose. That makes three of these in the past six years or so. Cascadia would likely be next but there is evidence that the Cascade Zone isn’t quite as “stuck” as the others were (the periodic “silent” subduction events).
It would seem logical that after a series of these subduction zone quakes where you have hundreds of kilometers of subduction zone activity, there would be increased volcanic activity as the newly subducted material melts. So we are probably in for increased volcanic activity in Indonesia starting now-ish, Chile in about 8-10 years and Japan in 10-12 years.
All that volcanic activity corresponding to natural cyclic cooling could make for “interesting times”.
Found in a comment over at Eruptions (Greg Greg)
So maybe not 10 years, eh? A few months for the big ‘uns?
;-)
A 6.8 Aftershock:
Magnitude 6.8 – OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
2011 March 12 01:47:16 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 6.8
Date-Time Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 01:47:16 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 11:47:16 AM at epicenter
Location 37.588°N, 142.682°E
Depth 24.8 km (15.4 miles) set by location program
Region OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances 168 km (104 miles) ENE (69°) from Iwaki, Honshu, Japan
174 km (108 miles) ESE (114°) from Sendai, Honshu, Japan
196 km (122 miles) E (94°) from Fukushima, Honshu, Japan
338 km (210 miles) NE (50°) from TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 12.5 km (7.8 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST=406, Nph=407, Dmin=415.2 km, Rmss=0.59 sec, Gp= 40°,
M-type=”moment” magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=9
Source U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center:
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver
Event ID usc0001zv3
10 years seems to be a rule of thumb (but not a law) for volcanic arcs after subduction quakes.
Even seems to have held true for the 1700 cascadia quake.
I surfed the ring of fire all the way around and found two spots that have the same signature that the Honshu spot had. Kamsihikya and Oregon. I vote for the cascadia spot, yeks! that is too close for comfort. pg
@P.G. Sharrow:
“Signature” ? Of what? Time? Stress? Like sushi? ;-)
Oh Damm, I had to take to get some sleep and when I wake up to see footage of that Reactor going “Boom”.
Now I am a graduate of the Naval Nuclear Power Program and from everything I have heard on the news this is a meltdown in progress. Yes I know they still couch it as “possible” but that is the same thing they did for TMI and that was a meltdown in progress and was able to be stopped partially thru.
Now on to the video, the roof didn’t collapse from what I saw: it blew off. You can see the pressure wave lifting it off IMHO, then you get the dust cloud from the walls collapsing inward.
Now on that whole “the US is bringing in emergency coolant” reports from earlier was total PR. The problem was you need to circulate the coolant through the core and since the emergency generators were all DEAD that means the pumps don’t run. When the pumps don’t run, you can’t cool the reactor (unless it has an emergency passive system, but even that is short term see TMI). The problem wasn’t the lack of coolant, it was that the coolant was heating up past the flash point to steam and when that happens the pressure increases, thus starting to expose the core, thus generating more heat and the cycle continues. So that increased pressure could cause the explosion.
As I saw it, a low building behind the four “cubes” had the lid blow off (you can see the shock wave rising) and the walls blow out in a cloud of dust. Basically, same thing you saw.
I’m not familar with the plant, but it looks to me like the “cubes” ought to have the nuke domes in them and the building that blew ought to be a pump / generator house?
I need to find a map of the place…
This photo shows the place from the “back side”
http://www.chron.com/photos/2011/03/11/25508549/260xStory.jpg
the video was from a boat out ‘the other way’ and I think you can see the “cubes” stay standing.
This video (not including the explosion but discussing it) shows the low buildings on the “seaward” side.
I suspect that the “speckle” pattern of the reactor building is making it “camo” a bit in the explosion video and that it IS the larger building that blew, it just doesn’t show up well?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.nuclear/
OK, here’s a video of the explosion, maybe it IS the support building, and I was just mistaking treetops for water in the other video on CNN?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yU9xAEMYQQ&fs=1&hl=en_US%5D
I believe those plants are BWR’s (boiling water reactors). It’s not necessary to circulate water (which is the coolant) just necessary to get some in the core. For them to not be able to do that implies severe damage inside the plant. I have been an operator at both PWR’s and BWR’s. Typically you have steam, diesel and electric driven feed pumps (at least in the US, Japan may not have the same requirements). As long as you have water and a way to get it in then keeping the core cool is easy…just vent the steam. BWR’s have a large ring called the torus filled partially with water and the steam from the reactor will get vented and quenched there.
It appears the steam line may be sheared so the steam driven auxFW pump isn’t working and maybe the quake threw the diesel off its mounts. The electric of course still needs electricity. Worst case scenario was we could always tie fire engines in and fill the drywell (containment which houses the core)
NNPS class 8304…
At about 1:40 of this video:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ooj0-pWuTs&fs=1&hl=en_US%5D
there’s a decent shot of the layout. The tall towers are clearly on the side toward the low scrub / trees.
In the video on TV, watched again on Fox this time (it was a bit clearer) it looks like trees in the forground and there is VERY clearly a “tower” in front of one of the “cubes”.
That would make the explosion in one of the low flat buldings on the seaward side (and my original impression that the shot was ‘from the sea’ wrong… the apearance of ‘bobbing’ being a artifact of poor camera stability).
If that’s the case, then the explosion ought not to have been in the reactor building proper (VERY good news) but in the pump room / heat exchanger (bad news… as meltdown becomes much more a certainty without any cooling pumps and coolant…)
Just watched the video. I would venture the explosion was from hydrogen. The main generator is cooled with hydrogen (excellent thermal characteristics). The cloud looks more like smoke than steam. We kept a large amount of liquid hydrogen on site, but far away from the containment.
Love the guy making the explosion sound…
Those towers are for venting the off gas. Various gases are collected from the main condenser (the steam produced by the reactor goes through the turbine and the condensed back into water) non condensable gases are sucked out compressed and stored for a certain time (5 half lives, usually 30 days) then vented through the stack which will further dilute them.
EM:
This Reactor is a BWR style reactor not a PWR and they are susceptible to steam explosions from ta complete ECCS failure especially in older versions of the design such as Fukushima I:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_reactors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BWR#Disadvantages
Now before I get into the steam release part and what “I think” happened there is one more thing to show:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BWR#Advantages
Ok notice that this reactor is supposed to operate at a much lower pressure then a PWR. I was trained on a PWR and that brings up a HUGE problem. Before I had to get some sleep it was stated on the news that pressure inside the reactor had reached 2000psi, that is higher then the operating pressure of the PWR reactor I was trained on. So for a reactor that was suppose to operate at less then half the pressure of a PWR and it ends up with a higher pressure then a PWR, that is a big problem.
This brings up the next point, there is suppose to be a pressure relief valve as shown in the one blurb I shown. Matter of fact it was a pressure relief valve that got stuck open that started the TMI disaster, however if the pressure in this BWR got this high and it didn’t open automatically like it was suppose to that shows a problem. This is further supported from News reports that they were attempting to release “steam” manually. They did that once and was reported, however the pressure would start building up again.
Now here is what I think happened (remember this is only speculation on my part based on news reports and my training). The pressure started building up again and they wanted to relieve the pressure. This time unlike the first time something went wrong and the what happened was an explosive release of the Steam Pressure which resulted in what we saw. Side not as I was writing this CNN just reported that building did have it’s roof blown off, however didn’t catch which (if named) building it was.
Ralph the smoke from the explosion looks to be from the concrete walls when they blew out. Think of the dust when the Twin Towers collapsed in NYC or when a demoltion company does a controlled collapse of a building with explosives: They have large lingering concrete dust clouds.
NNPS Class 8602…
I’ve put up a new posting on this topic, just so folks don’t have to load 20 quake maps to see the nuke comments…
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/japan-nuke-plant-explosion/
Thanks for showing these maps – that first one with the cluster of queakes on it is seriously impressive.
I got home very late last night (having driven home from the airport in SNOW again!) to hear about the quake on the news (I had poor access to news and internet while away). Some expert being interviewed pointed out that there were a series of large 8.5+ quakes on the ring of fire between 1944-1964 (approx. I may have the last digit of the dates wrong); he listed them. Then 1964 to ~2000 was relatively quiet. But from 2000 we’ve had 8+ quakes again and he was predicting more – the locations being all ‘the usual suspects’.
I’ll see if I can find the interview; I think it was BBC world news.
Bob
NOP for commercial PWR is 2235PSI, BWRs 650. There are several relief valves not to mention the normal main steam line for venting steam. I would venture to guess they have the reactor isolated and are popping the reliefs to the torus (happens regularly during startup and standby ops) yet the torus has quenched a lot of steam and needs to be cooled so its pressure is building and they are venting that. remember when you vent steam there is quite a bit of energy released and can cool things down/maintain temps easily. No fission products are released.
The heat is from decay heat and is is quite significant immediately after a scram from 100% power.
@Verity:
Glad you liked it… now you know what I was doing all last night …. I’ve got a dozen plus more ‘steps’ of the quakes building. Too many to post.
Oh, and just so it’s not ‘lost in the noise’ from Japan, there was a 6.1 down in Tonga… (and I note as I type this a smaller 5? sized red one in Indonesia…)
Magnitude 6.1 – TONGA
2011 March 12 01:19:07 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 6.1
Date-Time Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 01:19:07 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 02:19:07 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 16.727°S, 173.174°W
Depth 10.9 km (6.8 miles)
Region TONGA
Distances 106 km (65 miles) SE of Hihifo, Tonga
229 km (142 miles) NNE of Neiafu, Tonga
355 km (220 miles) SSW of APIA, Samoa
2528 km (1570 miles) W of Auckland, New Zealand
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 17.4 km (10.8 miles); depth +/- 1.2 km (0.7 miles)
Parameters NST=287, Nph=291, Dmin=346.2 km, Rmss=0.75 sec, Gp= 40°,
M-type=”moment” magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=7
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc0001ztr
Magnitude 5.2 – NEW IRELAND REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
2011 March 12 09:51:35 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 5.2
Date-Time Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 09:51:35 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 07:51:35 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 3.790°S, 151.443°E
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles)
Region NEW IRELAND REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Distances 94 km (58 miles) WNW of Rabaul, New Britain, PNG
152 km (94 miles) SSE of Kavieng, New Ireland, PNG
783 km (486 miles) NE of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea
2629 km (1633 miles) N of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 22.4 km (13.9 miles); depth +/- 0.8 km (0.5 miles)
Parameters NST= 31, Nph= 31, Dmin=91.3 km, Rmss=0.84 sec, Gp=148°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=4
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc00020e4
FWIW, I remember being VERY fascinated by quakes and volcanoes when I was small (and there were more of them) and then they went “quiet” just about the time I was able to ‘go see them’ and I was dissapointed.
I’ve waited a few decades for them to come back… now this reminds me of the ’50s & ’60s again (and what folks had told me about a bit earlier too…)
The historical correlation is very clear, even if folks “poo-poo” it as “only” a correlation. Cold times, with quiet sun, has more volcanoes (and, IMHO, great quakes).
Ralph
I know, but remember that this is an old design not one of the newer ABWR’s or E versions. Also we don’t know the condition of the valves after taking that kind of a jolt, they were not designed for a 8.9 quake. Japan only designed for up to high 7′s to low 8′s.
Also if you screw up a vent bad enough (especially with damaged equipment) you can easily get a steam explosion.
Also last night while watching CNN they were talking to the wife of a worker inside that reactor plant (both American). At that time when the reactor scrammed they tried to evac right away and didn’t try and isolate the reactor, according to her husband. They had glass and everything else falling down inside the plant. Matter of fact the Tsunami went right through that area and some of the workers that evacced got swept away. Then to top it off the survivors then left the plant (including her husband). So the condition and set up of those plants we can have very little clue of.
And another small one off the coast of Mexico just about where that last one was:
Magnitude 4.4 – OFF THE COAST OF JALISCO, MEXICO
2011 March 12 10:17:08 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 4.4
Date-Time Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 10:17:08 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 03:17:08 AM at epicenter
Location 18.899°N, 107.111°W
Depth 33.5 km (20.8 miles)
Region OFF THE COAST OF JALISCO, MEXICO
Distances 270 km (168 miles) W (262°) from Cihuatl�n, Jalisco, Mexico
273 km (170 miles) SW (226°) from Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico
283 km (176 miles) SW (225°) from Ixtapa, Jalisco, Mexico
794 km (494 miles) WNW (288°) from Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 28.7 km (17.8 miles); depth +/- 6.6 km (4.1 miles)
Parameters NST=136, Nph=138, Dmin=606.7 km, Rmss=1.14 sec, Gp=209°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=8
Source U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center:
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver
Event ID usc00020ew
I guess I can stop feeling guilty about being a bit “obsessive” with watching smaller ‘repeat’ quakes near me; now that it’s clear why and what the consequences are if the ARE foreshocks…
@E.M.
“Cold times, with quiet sun, has more volcanoes (and, IMHO, great quakes).”
Well, without needing to speculate ‘what’ (plenty of folks have theories) if we could find the cause….. ;-)
Just saw this on NHK that Oil Refinery near Tokyo that caught on fire is still burning. Those fire men and rescue workers have got to be exhausted and unlike 9/11 there is really no way to get relief crews in there quickly.
Well here is something for EM:
Aug 15, 1963 7.8 quake in Southern Peru
Oct 13, 1963 8.3 quake Kuril Islands Japan
Mar 28, 1964 9.5 quake Prince William Sound Alaska
Sept 12, 1964 7.3 quake Auckland Is. NZ region
Feb 4, 1965 8.7 quake Rat Island Alaska
Mar 28, 1965 7.1 quake Valparaiso Chile
May 16, 1968 7.9 quake east coast Honshu Japan
May 23, 1968 7.1 quake South Island NZ
Aug 11, 1969 7.8 quake Kuril Islands
May 31, 1970 7.8 quake Near North Coast of Peru
Jun 30, 1970 7.0 quake Queen Charlotte Islands, Canada
Feb 27, 2010 8.8 quake Bio-Bio Chile
Sep 4, 2010 7.1 quake Darfield NZ
Mar 11, 2011 8.9 East Coast Honshu Japan
?
And Fox just aired a guy talking about how the Cascadia is very similar to the subduction fault that triggered this 8.9 quake off Japan. Why doesn’t that give me warm fuzzies?
On a fiscal note: Japan has taken an ENORMOUS loss to both individuals and public infrastructure. The rebuild effort is going to take equally enormous amounts of capital diverted from otherwise productive uses. One thing that Japan does have is a bunch of capital tied up in almost $900 billion of Treasury Bonds. Can we expect that Japan will be forced to dump these bonds onto the world market in order to get emergency rebuilding funds? Alternatively, will the Federal Reserve generate another $trillion in digital funds and give it to Japan at zero % interest to keep them from dumping their bonds?
My very deep and very sincere sympathies to the people of Japan. They, of course, have lost the most, and are by far the most damaged, especially in the loss of those they love and honor. There will, however, be global ripples from this.
Had not noticed this one until now, it’s a bit up and to the left of the coverage of the above ‘close ups’:
see: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/10/140_40.php
Magnitude 6.6 – NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
2011 March 11 19:46:49 UTC
This is a computer-generated message — this event has not yet been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 6.6
Date-Time Friday, March 11, 2011 at 19:46:49 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 04:46:49 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 40.472°N, 139.070°E
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances 122 km (75 miles) NW of Akita, Honshu, Japan
147 km (91 miles) WSW of Aomori, Honshu, Japan
196 km (121 miles) WNW of Morioka, Honshu, Japan
534 km (331 miles) N of TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 13.7 km (8.5 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST=434, Nph=439, Dmin=443.1 km, Rmss=0.77 sec, Gp= 58°,
M-type=”moment” magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=6
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc0001z4n
You may already have seen this:
Correlation of Solar Activity Minimums and Large Magnitude Geophysical Events
http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/john-l-casey-the-solar-seismic-connection/
If correct, than it is not via geomagnetic disturbances (magnetic storms), since their number is almost (but not exactly) in sync with the sunspot number.
http://soi.stanford.edu/results/2001_MDI_sr_review/images/Image67.gif
From volcanolive.com
Saturday 12th March 2011
“Great Japan Earthquake 2011 and Volcanic Eruptions
The Great Japan Earthquake of 2011 (mag 8.9) and its aftershocks, are capable disrupting volcanoes large distances from the epicentre. Very large eruptions are possible after Great Earthquakes. It is possible for eruptions to occur anytime after the earthquake, and the high risk period will last for several months. Japan contains ten percent of the world’s active volcanoes. The closest active volcano to the earthquake is Narugo, 150 km WNW of the epicentre. Volcanoes near to the earthquake epicentre include:
Kurikoma (153 km), Zao (170 km), Hijiori (195 km), Azuma (200 km), Adatara (200 km), Iwate (205 km), Akita-Komaga-take (210 km), Bandai (220 km), Chokai (220 km), Hachimantai (223 km), Akita-Yake-yama (228 km), and Nasu (250 km).
The aftershocks are migrating south and now are within 70 km of Tokyo and 200 km of Mt Fuji volcano. Mt Fuji last erupted in 1708.
Volcanoes of Japan…”
This aftershock looks to me like it’s near where the nukes are that are having problems. They are getting some quakes (6+) big enough to be problematic very close to where they are working…
Magnitude 6.1 – NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
2011 March 12 23:24:50 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 6.1
Date-Time Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 23:24:50 UTC
Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 08:24:50 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 37.981°N, 141.849°E
Depth 24.8 km (15.4 miles) set by location program
Region NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances 89 km (55 miles) ESE of Sendai, Honshu, Japan
124 km (77 miles) ENE of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan
134 km (83 miles) NE of Iwaki, Honshu, Japan
316 km (196 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 12.9 km (8.0 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST=406, Nph=408, Dmin=360.7 km, Rmss=0.71 sec, Gp= 32°,
M-type=”moment” magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=D
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc00021aj
Oh My God
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365569/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-10-000-people-missing-Minamisanriku.html
Tepco radiation elevels above limits
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/13/us-japan-quake-tepco-radiation-idUSTRE72B3PJ20110313
Yup, routine “event” notification due to steam release. There are going to be more of those over the next several days.
@George:
I fear that 10,000 “gone in a moment” will not be the last.
Early on was a report of one city of about 70,000 that was ‘gone’; but folks covered saying “maybe they got to safety” (IMHO as they did not want to think of the reality…)
Over the next week I expect things to become very sad.
I also note that this makes “4″ in about the same chunk of the coast of Mexico… All small enough to not matter, but I’ll be watching for propagation of action toward me…
Magnitude 4.6 – GULF OF CALIFORNIA
2011 March 13 02:50:11 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 4.6
Date-Time Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 02:50:11 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 07:50:11 PM at epicenter
Location 25.442°N, 109.763°W
Depth 23.6 km (14.7 miles)
Region GULF OF CALIFORNIA
Distances 79 km (49 miles) SW (229°) from Ahome, Sinaloa, Mexico
87 km (54 miles) WSW (246°) from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico
100 km (62 miles) WSW (250°) from Juan Jos� R�os, Sinaloa, Mexico
1057 km (657 miles) SE (136°) from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 21.7 km (13.5 miles); depth +/- 2.3 km (1.4 miles)
Parameters NST=154, Nph=158, Dmin=195.9 km, Rmss=1.38 sec, Gp=115°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=7
Source U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center:
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver
Event ID usc00021fb
Just noticed this aftershock from just about the time there were dealing with the reactor explosion. Just 52 miles from Fukushima and a 6.4 (that can cause damage…)
Magnitude 6.4 – NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
2011 March 12 13:15:41 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 6.4
Date-Time Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 13:15:41 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 10:15:41 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 37.261°N, 141.175°E
Depth 37.5 km (23.3 miles)
Region NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances 35 km (21 miles) NE of Iwaki, Honshu, Japan
73 km (45 miles) ESE of Koriyama, Honshu, Japan
84 km (52 miles) SE of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan
217 km (134 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 16.8 km (10.4 miles); depth +/- 0.9 km (0.6 miles)
Parameters NST=366, Nph=374, Dmin=476.4 km, Rmss=0.49 sec, Gp= 50°,
M-type=”moment” magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=8
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc00020na
It is possible that the aftershock jiggled something that caused the spark that set off the hydrogen that had built up in the building, but the primary cause was likely lack of normal ventilation on that refueling deck due to lack of power combined with hydrogen from the release from the reactor vessel.
Hydrogen explosion is a real problem when you have a very hot core and are going to add water. There is enough energy in all those neutrons flying around in there to hit molecules of water and split them into hydrogen and oxygen. When you release gas from the primary coolant, you release hydrogen gas. Normally that area would be vented but I am willing to go out on a limb and say that area is probably not properly vented at the current time.
@George:
I’m pretty sure you have it right. Default is likely NOT to just let gasses blow through…
And, we know it was hot and water starved, so in a hydrogen making mood, and they had been venting. All points one way.
I was thinking more that, with a quake warning, they might have shut down some activity briefly and that put it ‘over the top’. I’d heard on some news or other that they had stopped pumping water (via some emergency method) on another quake event… so it’s part of their process to ‘batten down’ when the quake alert goes off.
Oh, and another 4.0 on that fault near Mexico. Don’t like the way it’s up to 4 ish now… starting to look like a swarm:
Magnitude 4.0 – GULF OF CALIFORNIA
2011 March 13 05:54:25 UTC
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.Magnitude 4.0
Date-Time Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 05:54:25 UTC
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 10:54:25 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 25.276°N, 110.076°W
Depth 10.1 km (6.3 miles) set by location program
Region GULF OF CALIFORNIA
Distances 122 km (75 miles) WSW of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico
127 km (78 miles) N of La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
148 km (91 miles) ESE of Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico
925 km (574 miles) SSE of PHOENIX, Arizona
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 33.8 km (21.0 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST= 37, Nph= 39, Dmin=177 km, Rmss=0.96 sec, Gp=148°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=C
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc00021ie
Well, there is a second issue in that hydrogen dissolves in water. The reactor is under pressure. A boiling reactor is under less pressure than a “pressurized” water reactor but under pressure nevertheless.
If they were venting when the aftershock struck, the shaking could have released a burst of hydrogen like shaking a bottle of soda water.
http://www.iris.edu/SpudService/Data/124408
Give it time to load.
Tsunami watch has officially been lifted in Japan.
The AP news reports* from Japan about damage to a nuclear reactor from the recent earthquake states:
“Inside the troubled nuclear power plant, officials knew the risks were high when they decided to vent radioactive steam from a severely overheated reactor vessel. They knew a hydrogen explosion could occur, and it did. The decision still trumped the worst-case alternative total nuclear meltdown.”
After expulsion from neutron-rich centers of stars, U or Pu, the neutron decays to hydrogen in ~10 minutes.
Neutron => H+ + e-
That is the source of hydrogen pouring from the top of the Sun’s atmosphere**.
With kind regards,
Oliver K. Manuel
*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110312/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_quake_power_plant
**”Neutron Repulsion”
The APEIRON Journal
in press (2011), 19 pages
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1102.1499v1
If, as I have read, the island of Honshu has been located 8 feet (3 m) to the East, is that only the Pacific against the NoAm plate, eliminating the part on that Philippine v Eurasian Plates. In other words is Japan torqued? Or has the entire main island (and northwards) moved? I have read that it should “at some time in the future” move or be moved closer to the mainland, eventually expanding the larger area — something having to do with the march of island arcs.
Excellent. Thank you. And what is the source of the oxygen allowing the hydrogen to explode inside the reactor at Three Mile Island?
Pingback: TWAWKI » West coast of Americas next?
Since I got my directions reversed, I should correct: I have read that Japan is marching to collision with the mainland, not in our life-times, of course. Perhaps not. Perhaps the eastern movement is: a) because the “chunk” I thought I had read about before stuck between two plates dropped out and Honshu moved east to fill the gap (on the internet: there is, what, a 50-93 mile wide “hole” in the ocean floor, close to 200 miles long); or b) Honshu is straightneing out; or c) Japan is being adhered more to the North American plate. I hope some of the geologists and paleogeologists with a specialty in plate tectonics comment on this 9.0 movement.
Pyromancer:
The “chunk” or small plate you are thinking about is probably the Juan de Fuca plate that sits between the North American plate and the Pacific plate off the coast of the United States and Canada. The only other one you can be thinking of is the Philippine Plate which sits off the coast of Japan south of the area where this quake occurred (Think basically Tokyo and south). The northern Honshu and Hokkaido sits on the North American Plate and Southern Honshu and Kyushu sits on the Eurasian plate. There is a nice picture of the plate arrangements here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plates_tect2_en.svg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Plate
Now why the eastern movement is that at that spot the Pacific plate subducts (Goes underneath) the North American plate. What happened was that over the years as the Pacific plate was going underneath it was trying to pull the edge of the NA plate backwards. On March 11 the NA Plate edge jumped back up from that (NHK had the Tokyo universities seismology lab on and had a nice presentation of this). Keep in Mind that overall the Pacific Ocean has been getting smaller between the Japan and the US, while the Atlantic Ocean has been growing because the NA plate and the Eurasian plate are separating where they meet (See the picture in the link above).
Basically the North American plate is rotating counterclockwise. Japan sits on the very edge of the North American plate where it meets the Philippine plate and the Pacific plate. The quake occurred at a spot where the Pacific plate is subducting under the North American plate (and that subduction causes volcanoes such as Mount Fuji). As the Pacific plate was subducting, the edge of the North American plate was sort of “stuck” to it. During this quake it became “un stuck” and snapped back East a bit (about 8 feet on the Japanese main island, maybe up to 20 feet at the fault itself).
George:
1. There are many chemical reactions that may also generate hydrogen.
2. The oxygen is probably from air (20% oxygen).
Oliver
Oliver, I already know the answer. I was hoping you would find it. At high temperature (1000 degrees or so) water will disassociate into hydrogen and oxygen. A little bump from a neutron flying around can actually speed that process up.
Well, this didn’t take long:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/article965229.ece/Japanese-volcano-erupts
Though to be fair, that volcano had already been erupting recently anyway.
Just a quick note: For the first time in days, no new red spot on the close up graph as I’m “checking in” !!
You spoke to soon!
Magnitude
5.3
Date-Time
Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 22:20:17 UTC
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 07:20:17 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location
36.056°N, 141.767°E
Depth
18 km (11.2 miles)
Region
NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances
120 km (74 miles) ESE of Mito, Honshu, Japan
135 km (83 miles) SE of Iwaki, Honshu, Japan
178 km (110 miles) ESE of Utsunomiya, Honshu, Japan
187 km (116 miles) ENE of TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty
horizontal +/- 13.4 km (8.3 miles); depth +/- 1.9 km (1.2 miles)
Parameters
NST=209, Nph=214, Dmin=325.1 km, Rmss=1.05 sec, Gp= 86°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=9
Source
USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID
usc0002233
Pingback: Concern continues after tsunami | Digging in the Clay
Yeah, there are going to be several quakes. Maybe even another one M8 or larger. Remember after the 2004 quake in Indonesia, there was another one almost as large a couple of years later on a different part of the fault that didn’t slip in the 2004 quake.
George:
If you turn on the “Earthquake” option in Google Earth you will see quite a few large “Dots” clustered together. When you click on them it tells you how strong the quake was and when it occurred. When you do that you will quickly find that very large quakes, particularly in that part of the world, cluster together.
An example of this is just north from there you will find a 8.3 quake dated Nov 15, 2006 just East of the Kuril Islands. Then just to the East of that you will find a 8.1 quake dated Jan 13, 2007.
@Pyromance76:
An extended answer to your question is here:
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/plates-ridges-and-north-america/
I simplified it by leaving out rotation and angular translations, but George has thoughtfully put them back in ;-)