Sunday, February 3, 2013

Re: [Geology2] Japan - Earthquake - 2013.02.03

Thanks Vic for passing this info along. And to futher add to the potential for mayhem, read on and be sure to watch the video:

Video of the huge 9.0 earthquake in Japan in 2011

2/2/2013 10:33pm by John Aravosis

The Japanese below the film reads "Great East Japan Earthquake." That's one of the names for the huge quake that hit in 2011 and caused the horrific tsunami. And the time stamp on the video confirms it's from the moment the big quake hit.

You don't really need to understand the audio. It's interesting to watch the seismometer at the bottom of the film, which is paired up perfectly with the video.

About two minutes in, the ground starts to split, and you're literally watch the earth, live, rip itself apart. It looks like a Hollywood movie.

About 5 minutes in there's another scene of people in a lecture hall, and you watch the seismometer on the bottom, seeing that the quake is about to hit, but they don't know it. It's mesmerizing.

The other interesting thing to note is that while everything is thrown around like crazy, the buildings for the most part don't fall down. Rather amazing engineering involved here.

Source: http://americablog.com/2013/02/video-of-the-huge-9-0-earthquake-in-japan-in-2011.html

VIDEO HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0ZTECaTOxFE#!

On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 4:24 PM, Victor Healey <vic.healey@gmail.com> wrote:

Japan - Earthquake - 2013.02.03

(02.02.2013) A powerful 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck northern Japan on Saturday, causing strong tremors across Hokkaido island but no damage to several nuclear facilities in the region, officials said.

The quake, which was preceded by an early warning broadcast on television and radio, hit near the town of Obihiro at a depth of 103 kilometres at 11.17pm, according to US Geological Survey data.

Ten people suffered minor injuries due to falling objects, broken glass and other incidents, according to national broadcaster NHK, but authorities said no serious damage was reported and the quake did not generate a tsunami.

The shaking lasted about a minute, with video taken in the offices of NHK Hokkaido showing computer screens swaying and shelves threatening to give way.

Bottles smashed to the ground in supermarkets, some areas had power blackouts and a number of highways were closed.

Trains were stopped on rural tracks as a precaution.

"Beware of possible landslides and buildings that could have been weakened," an official from Japan's Meteorological Agency warned at a press conference.

The most violent tremors were felt in the eastern part of Hokkaido - the nation's second largest island and a popular skiing destination - but the northern part of the island was also shaken along with parts of the main island of Honshu, where Tokyo is located.

Utility firms said no abnormalities were reported at the Tomari nuclear plant in Hokkaido's west, nor at the nuclear facilities in Aomori, the northernmost prefecture on Honshu.

Aomori is home to the Higashidori nuclear reactors and a nuclear reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, which is currently in a testing phase, as well as fuel storage sites.

At present only two of the country's 50 reactors are operational, after the entire network was shuttered over several months for scheduled safety checks following the quake-tsunami disaster of March 2011. Both are in Oi, in Honshu's west.

Shortly before Saturday's quake hit, an alert was broadcast on television and radio through an early warning system established by the weather agency, and programmes were interrupted on NHK.

"Make yourself safe, turn off the gas, beware of falling objects, and if you are outside do not approach the coast," a broadcaster said.

Some four hours after the quake a 5.5-magnitude tremor struck off Japan's Izu islands, around 725 kilometres south of Tokyo, according to the US Geological Survey