UPDATE: 00:00 PST 3/13/11 Japanese Met Agency has upgraded the magnitude of the quake to 9.0 — up from 8.8, their previous estimate.
UPDATE: 14:20 PST 3/11/11 Additional graphs and data added to end of post h/t Eco Tretas
UPDATE: 4:05 am PST Tsunami Warning continues for much of the US Pacific Coast and British Columbia.
UPDATE: Compared to quakes since 1900, this appears to be the sixth largest on record, see table added below from USGS data.
Tsunami Warning for the entire Pacific basin coastline including California, impact at 7:42 -8:15 AM local time e.g. San Francisco.
UPDATE: One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. Hawaii under Tsunami Warning. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center Updates / Warning Website Link. Aftershocks continuing. Tsunami Watch issued for California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Canada…
UPDATE: Here’s a screencap from live streaming from Japan via news helicopter showing the Tsunami as it strike s the north coast:
UPDATE: NHK TV in Japan reports Tsunami hit. Massive damage, reports below.
8.9 quake at Friday, March 11, 2011 at 05:46:00 UTC. Preliminary estimate was 7.9 and was upgraded to 8.8, now 8.9. Current details from USGS. Tsunami warning issued.
We’ll have more on this as it develops.
If you know of webcams in the area in Japan, leave a comment.
(AP) – JAPAN’S METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY NOW WARNS THAT A TSUNAMI AS HIGH AS 20 FEET (6 METERS) COULD STRIKE THE COAST NEAR MIYAGI PREFECTURE, CLOSEST TO THE EPICENTER.
WEHW40 PHEB 110557
TSUHWX
HIZ001>003-005>009-012>014-016>021-023>026-110757-
/O.NEW.PHEB.TS.A.0001.110311T0557Z-000000T0000Z/
BULLETIN
TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 1
NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI
756 PM HST THU MAR 10 2011
TO - CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII
SUBJECT - TSUNAMI WATCH
A TSUNAMI WATCH IS ISSUED FOR THE STATE OF HAWAII EFFECTIVE AT
0756 PM HST.
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
ORIGIN TIME - 0746 PM HST 10 MAR 2011
COORDINATES - 38.0 NORTH 142.9 EAST
LOCATION - NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU JAPAN
MAGNITUDE - 7.9 MOMENT
EVALUATION
BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA A TSUNAMI MAY HAVE BEEN GENERATED BY
THIS EARTHQUAKE THAT COULD BE DESTRUCTIVE ON COASTAL AREAS EVEN
FAR FROM THE EPICENTER. AN INVESTIGATION IS UNDERWAY TO DETERMINE
IF THERE IS A TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII.
IF TSUNAMI WAVES IMPACT HAWAII THE ESTIMATED EARLIEST ARRIVAL OF
THE FIRST TSUNAMI WAVE IS
0259 AM HST FRI 11 MAR 2011
MESSAGES WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER AS CONDITIONS WARRANT.
From Fox News :
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said a tsunami warning was in effect for Japan, Russia, Marcus Island and the Northern Marianas. A tsunami watch has been issued for Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and U.S. state of Hawaii.
The quake struck at 2:46 p.m. at a depth of 10 kilometers, about 80 miles (125 kilometers) off the eastern coast, the meteorological agency said. The area is 240 miles (380 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.
In downtown Tokyo, large buildings shook violently and workers poured into the street for safety. TV footage showed a large building on fire and bellowing smoke in the Odaiba district of Tokyo.
From CBS News:
Japanese television showed video of serious damage caused by a tsunami along the nation’s northern coast. Public broadcaster NHK showed cars, trucks, houses and buildings being swept away by the tsunami in Onahama city, Fukushima prefecture.
A tsunami warning was in effect for Japan, Russia, Marcus Island and the Northern Marianas. A tsunami watch has been issued for Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and U.S. state of Hawaii.
There were reports that evacuations were underway along the Russian coast.
===================================================================
| Rank Location | Date | Magnitude2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Chile | May 22, 1960 | 9.5 |
| 2. | Prince William Sound, Alaska | March 28, 19643 | 9.2 |
| 3. | Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands | March 9, 1957 | 9.1 |
| 4. | Kamchatka | Nov. 4, 1952 | 9.0 |
| 5. | Off western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia | Dec. 26, 2004 | 9.0 |
| 6. | Off the coast of Ecuador | Jan. 31, 1906 | 8.8 |
| 7. | Offshore Maule, Chile | Feb. 27, 2010 | 8.8 |
| 8. | Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands | Feb. 4, 1965 | 8.7 |
| 9. | Northern Sumatra, Indonesia | March 28, 2005 | 8.7 |
| 10. | India-China border | Aug. 15, 1950 | 8.6 |
http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/station.php?code=ofun
Hanasaki (almost also 4 meters max variation)
http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/station.php?code=hana
Omaezaki
http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/station.php?code=omae
Wake Island (little variation)
http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/station.php?code=wake
Guam (little variation)
This article has good information on the Japan nuclear power plant emergency. The comments that follow are also quite interesting.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703597804576194123030511478.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLETopStories
I am on record as opposed to all nuclear power plants, especially new nuclear power plants. This earthquake and the current emergency is but one of the reasons.
Such an act of nature brings into perspective the relative weakness of terrorist acts, climate change and so many other things we are led to believe that we should fear.
Technology now allows us to witness this catastrophe and to imagine ourselves in the place of these poor souls.
And yet the majority of people in the free world are resting in the comfort of our homes.
Prayers to the many people suffering tonight.
Hope for a better tomorrow.
Thanks for the comfort we enjoy.
Heard earlier today on CNN that the magnitude was upgraded to 9.1! Has anyone else seen, or heard this. Certainly puts this quake into the top ten recorded.
The loss of life has already exceeded that from Chritchurch less than three weeks ago. If it weren’t for the tsunami we could have expected a lot fewer deaths thanks to the preparidness of the Japenese people and authorities. The thoughts of all Kiwis are with the people of Japan at this difficult time.
[ryanm: USGS still has 8.9. other agencies offer their own estimates]
My wife spent a good chunk of last night trying to get through to her family. They are OK. Her neice’s husband has a small demolition company, and was doing a job in Tokyo when the local people came and complained that his bulldozer was making the whole neighbourhood shake. So now we know who to blame.
But, if no-one else has done, I’m going to blame it on Global Warming.
It didn’t take long for Global Warming to get the blame it seems: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/11/some-respond-to-japan-earthquake-by-pointing-to-global-warming/#ixzz1GLLpfH3q
(pitiful)
Roger Sowell,
I’ll wager that this earthquake will prove how wrong you are.
The comments to your article are from folks who know as little about nuclear energy as President Obama.
Embarrasing having him offer assistance to the Japanese.
Since there is some evidence that extended solar minimums are tied to volcanism/earth quakes and those minimums also influence cooling, maybe possible that mantle rock contraction from the cooling would open magma seals and cause movement in slip faults?
@ur momisugly Les Francis says:
March 11, 2011 at 6:02 pm
“three out of six largest earthquakes since 1900 took place in the recent 6 years.”
When was that from, in the 1960`s ?
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?bt_0=1900&st_0=2011&type_17=EXACT&query_17=None+Selected&op_12=eq&v_12=&type_12=Or&query_14=None+Selected&type_3=Like&query_3=&st_1=&bt_2=&st_2=&bt_1=&bt_4=8.6&st_4=9.9&bt_5=&st_5=&bt_6=&st_6=&bt_7=&st_7=&bt_8=&st_8=&bt_9=&st_9=&bt_10=&st_10=&type_11=Exact&query_11=&type_16=Exact&query_16=&display_look=1&t=101650&s=1&submit_all=Search+Database
I`m surprised no one has mentioned the solar proton burst:
http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/latest_events/
From Roger Sowell on March 11, 2011 at 6:35 pm:
This is a reason to use CANDU reactors. Use low-grade fuel that must be prodded into having fast-enough fission reactions, rather than high-grade fuel that must be restrained from having too-fast fission reactions.
We had a really impressive 6″ (150 mm) tsunami here in Hawaii at 3AM. It was worth it staying up to see it.:-)
From Mark Twang on March 11, 2011 at 4:10 pm:
Grist: (bold added)
Too true.
Big earthquakes are not new:
Here are the largest magnitude earthquakes in history, according to the USGS website:
– 9.5, Chile, May 5, 1960. A quake off the coast of southern Chile killed more than 1,600 people and left 2,000,000 homeless.
– 9.2, Alaska, United States, March 27, 1964. A quake and tsunami killed 128 people and caused severe damage to the state’s largest city Anchorage.
– 9.1, Indonesia, December 26, 2004. An undersea quake caused a massive tsunami that devastated coastlines in countries around the Indian Ocean, ultimately killing more than 220,000 people.
– 9.0, Russia, November 4, 1952. A quake off the coast of the remote Kamchatka peninsula in Russia’s far east caused Pacific-wide tsunamis.
– 9.0, Peru, August 13, 1868. The port of Arica, which is now part of Chile, was hit by a quake felt up to 1,400 kilometres (870 miles) away.
– 9.0, North America, January 26, 1700. A quake affecting 1,000 kilometres of coastline set off a tsunami that crossed the Pacific Ocean and caused damage to coastal villages in Japan.
– 8.9, Japan, March 11, 2011. An undersea quake off northeast Japan unleashed a 10-metre-high tsunami which left devastation in its wake.
– 8.8, Chilean coast, February 27, 2010. An offshore quake and tsunami killed more than 500 people, most in the coastal area of Maule, 400 kilometres (250 miles) south-west of the capital Santiago.
– 8.8, Ecuador, January 31, 1906. A quake struck off the coast of Ecuador and Colombia and was felt as far away as San Francisco.
– 8.7, Alaska, February 4, 1965. A quake in the remote Rat Islands generated a tsunami reported to be 10 metres high.
– 8.7, Portugal, November 1, 1755. The capital Lisbon was struck by a quake while many residents were in church. A quarter of the city’s population perished.
– 8.7, Chile, July 8, 1730. A quake hit the city of Valparaiso, 120 kilometres northwest of the capital Santiago, causing a tsunami which hit more than 1,000 kilometres of coastline.
Tokyo skyscrapers swaying in earthquake
Smokey says:
March 11, 2011 at 5:22 pm
> NZ, then Japan. Maybe now it’s California’s turn.
Be very careful in looking for patterns in a series of random events. People do that all the time – they’re called winning streaks and loosing streaks. Besides, you left out China and Hawaii.
Turkey and Afghanistan are always good choices.
These days I feel more concerned about St. Louis than San Francisco.
More evidence of pavlovian mass delusion… the AGW that did it! Well, not for sure but it will! Honest.
“In addition, climate change may cause tsunamis directly, so it’s possible we’ll someday see more images like this as a result.”
http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-11-todays-tsunami-this-is-what-climate-change-looks-like/
It is getting totally absurd. Like a dying fish flopping around in a boat.
Sincere thoughts to all those affected in Japan and the Rescue and Recovery Operation, but to associate this catastrophic earthquake with global warming is a cheap and misleading use of tragedy to promote a cause.
It is easy to get the impression from the media that these types of events are increasing with one disaster after another occurring around the world. And easy to neglect history and disregard the fact that we have had to live with the devastation of Nature since we first evolved on this planet.
What has changed is communication and the recording of events. Almost every person in the developed world to-day is on broadband internet or has a mobile phone with camera or a pocket video camera. Whenever a disaster happens to-day, we there on the scene within hours with dramatic coverage repeated time after time by a frenzied media. Or we are reading amazing on the spot accounts on face-book.
But who remembers the fact that when ‘Gone with the Wind’ was first hitting the screens up to 50,000 people died in a magnitude 8 earthquake in Erzincam Turkey? Or when Legionnaires disease broke out in Philadelphia, a quarter of a million people perished in the Tangshan earthquake in China? Or that when people were queuing to see the Beatles Movie ‘Let it Be’ in London, up to 80,000 people were killed in the Chimbote Peru earthquakes and avalanches that left over 1 million people homeless.
Nothing has changed folks. We just know it is happening. And we probably are coping much better than we did.
I think the molten ball we float on contracts and expands. But if you’ve ever watched magma expand at the surface during an eruption you can visualize pressure build up.
This is so heartbreaking for Japan.
Arkansas has become a bit concerned about their quakes.
Injection wells in Arkansas shut down as earthquake concerns mount » The Commercial Appeal
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/mar/04/injection-wells-shut-down-quake-concerns-mount/?preventMobileRedirect=1
I live and work in Japan, in Koriyama city, Fukushima prefecture.
I was in work yesterday when the automatic quake alert system triggered. It announced that the predicted quake would be “Shindo 2” (Japanese intensity scale). By the time it had announced this, the quake was already well underway, and I said to my co-worker “No way. This quake is already way above Shindo 2 – more like a 4..”.
The quake kept intensifying, and I instinctively knew this one was very different from all the other quakes I’ve experienced in the 4 years since I moved here. So I advised my co-workers we should use the nearby emergency exit/stairs (we’re on the 2nd floor) “Now!”. When I opened the emergency exit doors, to our surprise snow started blowing in, due to – and this was GREAT timing – a bloody blizzard – of all the things to be going on at the same time!
So, LOL, I had a choice then…. freeze to death or crushed to death! By this time the quake had reached its Shindo 6 crescendo so I scampered down the stairs and ran to the relative shelter of the trash disposal/recycling garages, one of my co-workers right behind me. So we stumbled about in the blizzard waiting for this frackin’ quake to stop – it seemed to go on for more than 2 minutes, which I can assure you seems like a lifetime, during a quake of this intensity.
So the quake eventually ran its course, and we tentatively went back up the stairs to the lab. The mess was as expected – PC’s and desks tossed around like marbles in a tin can; test equipment also. Then the emergency evacuation bell started ringing so everyone went out into the cold to assemble in designated places. Women were weeping, people were dazed, I as the only western foreigner was joking with my co-worker and was generally on an adrenaline buzz – the joking around was probably a coping mechanism, now that I look back to it.
So everyone’s outside for about 40 minutes during which time more snow showers blew over and everyone?s getting real cold. Eventually, the management say the women employees are to leave the building and go home, first. About 20 minutes later I – by now sobered up and quite concerned for my wife and 9 year old son – started driving back home.
On my way back I noticed lots of older houses were the most damaged – the ones roofed with heavy slate tiles had lots of tiles come down. Some of the really old buildings had their mud and straw walls completely pulverised.
My concern at that time driving back was the Abukuma River – there are a number of bridges across it and as reluctant as I was to cross any of them after that size of quake, I simply had to risk it to get back to my wife and son, breathing a sigh of relief at the other side of the bridge I picked. I did notice some damage at the interface of the bridge end with the solid road it meets up with.
My house is at the top of a slope at the end of a cul-de-sac. It was bought new and is only 3 years old, and I was VERY concerned about its condition because after the quake I couldn’t reach my servers which run at the house, over the internet. I was relieved to find it still standing and in apparent good condition when I went along my driveway – phew!
BUT, when I looked around the outside of my house, I noticed a few things :
1) The ground around the house has sunk by about 4-5cm’s. There’s a tide-mark around the base of the house where the ground used to be.
2) At the rea of the house there’s a grassy slope, leading down to a fence under which is a large stone wall intended to hold the slope and earth in. There is a long fissure running from the rear of the house right along under my storage garage and onto my neighbor’s house.
3) The wall at the bottom of the slope is VERY damaged.
4) The soil has sunk about 6-10cm at the base of the slope – I can see the other side of the wall now.
I had a quick look inside the house and as was my workplace, everything’s been tossed around the house. No sign of wife and son so they’re still outside somewhere.
We have a procedure for this eventuality, so I parked my car near the entrance of the cul-de-sac in case of further huge quakes, got out and began to make my way towards my son’s nearby school. Luckily, my wife was returning in her car and peeped the horn when she saw me – she had our son with us!
Later on that day we spoke to the local fire brigade who advised us that perhaps our house wasn’t safe to stay in due to the fissure at the rear and the damaged wall/slope below it. So we spent the night in the local community center having brought some previously prepped supplies, sleeping bags, pillows.
All during that, there was continuous tremors and aftershocks. They did not stop all night and are still continuing as I type this 24 hours after the initial event, so I’m a bit strung out at the moment.
Cellphone service was out since the quake – although the HSDPA network was up and running so I had internet connection y way of wireless tether to my laptop via my android phone. I managed to get in touch with one of my old friends who contacted my mother in Scotland. At 3am I managed to get a phone call to Scotland and my mother was quite relieved. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.
We returned to our house in the morning, and have been visited by the head of the company who built our house who reckons it’s safe enough to stay in. We have power, food, heat, and water so we’re in no way in as bad a shape as what’s happened to a lot of other areas around Japan, which is quite horrific.
So we’ve tidied up the house a bit and it’s in not too bad a condition, and we’ll be sleeping in the living room tonight just as a precaution in case any big quakes reoccur.
It seems the tremors are now beginning to abate, 24 hours after the initial event, so everyone’s hoping the worst is over and there will be no further big quakes. I hope I and my wife and son get some sleep tonight, too.
Regards,
Kevin.
[Reply – thanks for sharing your story – it got sucked into spam – ~jove, mod]
NHK World broadcast app has been repeating a Tsunami warning for the last little while. Looking at the Japan Meteorological Agency site there is the following warning dated 12th March:
Tsunami Warning/Advisory
Issued at 13:50 JST 12 Mar 2011
*******************Text********************
Changed;
Tsunami Warning –> Tsunami Warning
Tsunami >
EASTERN PART OF PACIFIC COAST OF HOKKAIDO
CENTRAL PART OF PACIFIC COAST OF HOKKAIDO
WESTERN PART OF PACIFIC COAST OF HOKKAIDO
IBARAKI PREF.
WAKAYAMA PREF.
KOCHI PREF.
I’m blown away by the level of stupidity in some people.
Here’s a collection of comments I’ve found:
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f103/KQ6WQ/Funny/We_Are_Stupid.jpg
Bob Diaz
BBC Report
BBC is worried about the island of Tuvalu “threatened by global warming” being washed over by the Tsunami.
Sad though this event maybe what saddens me more, to the point of disgust, is the coverage in the media. The resulting tsunami spreading across the Pacific inundating low-lying islands is more severe because of sea level rises as a result of global warming. Fortunately, every I know in the affected region is OK.
And tonight in Australia we are treated to Al Gores mocumentary “An Inconvienient Truth”.
“Bob Diaz says:
March 11, 2011 at 11:14 pm”
Stunning levels of ignorance at that link, stunning!
My thoughts are with the people of Nippon, once we were enemies but now good friends, I can do but do little to help as this is a disaster of huge magnitude. I have great faith in their abilities but trust my country does all it can to assist in the aftermath.
I recall that the result of a quite sun is oft correlated to increased earth quakes and volcanic activity. Travelling in a clock wise direction on the ring of fire the USA may have the next big one.
The next round maybe volcanoes starting in New Zealand or Indonesia, perhaps big ones.
I can only wonder what if the billions spent on AGW were put to real scientific endeavour and an understanding of these events could be anticipated. Sad,Sad, Sad.