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)
Quoted by G. Karst on March 11, 2011 at 9:28 am:
This is true.
It is well known in science that climate change affects the Earth’s crust. Namely in geology, as in the climate changes of this planet’s glaciation cycles, when the weight of those many tons of miles-thick ice built up on land can cause whole continents to sink and tilt. Even now, this long into the current interglacial, various land masses are still moving around since the weight of the ice was removed.
That in this report they neglected to mention that any “climate change” from right before the Industrial Revolution until now, when evil mankind was pumping out unprecedented levels of the evil atmospheric pollutant CO2, has done virtually absolutely nothing to affect the Earth’s crust, obviously must have been a mere oversight. As we’ve come to expect.
Japan’s quake updated to magnitude 9.0
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/03/powerful-japan-quake-sparks-ts.html
@ur momisugly Ray: It really is silly to dismiss information or skills you clearly don’t understand in such a cavalier manner. See my post at 09.01 am above.
Astrometeorology is an established science which has an enviable record in the prediction of weather events and earthquakes, unlike mainstream ‘climate science’.
See http://globalastrologyblog.blogspot.com/ where the earthquake was predicted in detail many hours before it happened.
Just because something appears in the DM doesn’t mean it can automatically be dismissed. On the contrary they have have a good record of publishing stuff which the broadsheets prefer to ignore (eg research on the murder of Dr David Kelly).
I stopped reading there.
You are wrong.
Jeremey I was not primarily thinking about the conversion from motion to heat in the water. Rather upon the actual driver of the earth quake and subsequent tsunami. That is the movement of the subducted plate. That must have created a lot of friction and in turn heat. It has got to go somewhere.
Of course some of it will be transferred to the rock but I wonder how much is picked up by the water?
As for energy waves effecting pressure gradients, well I guess we see some evidence of that with our daily weather when it is windy or in the movement of jet streams.
9 hours of warnings and people in Santa Cruz lose boats!!! Insane!
Oh well, those stupid people have not lost relatives! After watching the horrific scenes this a.m. here in Cyprus I asked my son up at Tahoe doing his snowboarding to call his friends to alert his mates down in San Fran at 10:29 pm. WUWT time!
The sad thing to see tonight is the loss of life going up and up and this is a country that practices month in, month out in preparation! To be fair, no amount of building codes or civil defence can prepare anyone for the speed or height of those waves or the huge size of the quake. The sight those waves was truly astonishing to me and made the ones from Indonesia look small!
The Richter scale is a mind boggling thing! A guy on BBC just said at 8.9 this was 1000 times bigger than the Kiwi one a few weeks ago! Can anyone do the math for me and confirm it?
The anti-nuke and anti-oil crowd is going to go ballistic as a result of this, because of the very slight damage to one or 2 nuke plants with one having a potential small radiation leak and possible damage to the core cooling system, and the refinery fire.
KD Knoebel: OBEY THE TELEPROMPTER.
Ah I see. That is different and yes that would be real heating. Though it would be fairly localized I should think.
I’ve put together a collection of links and news items over at Paths To Knowledge dot net:
http://pathstoknowledge.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/devastating-earthquake-and-tsunami-surge-waves-in-japan
Some of the latest news regarding the reactor-
US delivers coolant to reactor
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110311/pl_nm/us_japan_quake_nuclear_clinton
Emergency declared at reactor.
“The plant is designed to shut down safely after an earthquake, but its emergency diesel generators, needed to run water pumps, were not working. ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/world/asia/12nuclear.html?_r=1
Some venting to take place.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/03/11/nuke_plant_trouble_after_japan_quake_3k_evacuated/
@ur momisugly Jeremy: how very foolish. It’s precisely because people are so stuck in their own little groove and refuse to think outside the box, or to respect the mathematical etc skills of others working in parallel disciplines, that ‘science’ is in such a dire state.
I woudl like to think that those who read WUWT are open to other opinions and disciplines, in the expectation they might learn something. This especially, when the discipline is thousands of years old.
When someone can predict weather events over many years with a startling degree of accuracy, why not examine how he does it? Why pronounce I am ‘wrong’ when you refuse to examine the evidence? You sound like the AGW gang.
I wonder about the strength of the quake. It is now listed as sixth strongest since 1900. But from the beginning it was measured as weaker. Are the measurements comparable? This one is probably 8.9 as it is measured with modern tools, and measurements have been updated from earlier estimates in the high 7.
But the older ones, is there a risk that those where left with values more similar to the earlier estimates of this one, since there was not enough good tools available to improve on the original figures to comparable values as for the later estimates of this one?
— Mats —
“Crescent City, Santa Cruz hit hard by tsunami from Japan quake.
Crescent City, site of a deadly tsunami four decades ago, appears to be particularly hard hit”
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-crescent-city-california-20110311,0,3043382.story
“reason” said on March 11, 2011 at 11:00 am:
TelePrompter, obey the baseball bat.
Unlike all the other aftershocks which have been centered around the main quake on the east coast, Japan just recently got a 6.2 quake on the west coast of the Island of Honshu:
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 (28 miles) NNE of Nagano, Honshu, Japan
96 km (59 miles) NNE of Matsumoto, Honshu, Japan
96 km (59 miles) NW of Maebashi, Honshu, Japan
195 km (121 miles) NW of 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
USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID
usc0001z2a
Not really no. In order for me to accept your definition of astrologers and astronomers as being equivalent, please demonstrate for me a few things.
1) Please show me an astrologer who has discovered an extrasolar planet.
2) Please show me an astrologer who has helped discover the life cycle of stars.
3) Please show me an astrologer who has discovered new galaxies.
4) Please show me an astrologer who has found the locations of invisible mass due to the motions of what is visible.
These are the things Astronomers do. I do not see astrologers doing these things, in fact what they really do is tell me to watch my horoscope and sell me books.
You want to say that Astrologers are Astronomers. You are flatly wrong. This is not about thinking outside the box, this is not about people cubby-holing themselves into one way of thinking about anything. This has nothing to do with human creativity or lack thereof. Your definition is flatly wrong. Astronomers investigate the universe. Astrologers try to predict the universe. There’s a huge difference. You will not see me budging on this issue in my lifetime.
You may have some point to make, but you’re not making it. In fact what you are stating is plain falsehood.
“The tsunami capital of the continental United States is Crescent City, Calif. (population 7,542), an economically depressed logging and fishing town just south of the Oregon border. Crescent City is predicted to be the California location hit hardest by the Japanese tsunami; one forecast predicts 7-foot waves, though so far the observed effect has been minimal. [Update, 2:28 p.m. ET: The Los Angeles Times reports 6.5-foot waves in Crescent City causing “significant damage” to boats in the harbor and “most of the docks” and flooding an inland creek. No reports yet of injuries or deaths. Larger surges may follow.]
They’ve seen it before. Since 1933, 31 tsunamis have been observed in Crescent City. Four of those caused damage, and one of them, in March 1964, remains the “largest and most destructive recorded tsunami to ever strike the United States Pacific Coast,” according to the University of Southern California’s Tsunami Research Center. The 1964 tsunami killed 17 people on the West Coast, 11 of them in Crescent City. ”
http://www.slate.com/id/2288020
Pete H says:
March 11, 2011 at 10:55 am
The Richter scale is a mind boggling thing! A guy on BBC just said at 8.9 this was 1000 times bigger than the Kiwi one a few weeks ago! Can anyone do the math for me and confirm it?
“energy release of an earthquake, which closely correlates to its destructive power, scales with the 3⁄2 power of the shaking amplitude. Thus, a difference in magnitude of 1.0 is equivalent to a factor of 31.6 ( = (101.0)(3 / 2)) in the energy released; a difference in magnitude of 2.0 is equivalent to a factor of 1000 ( = (102.0)(3 / 2) ) in the energy released.[2]” wiki
An “energy map” provided by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows the intensity of the tsunami caused by the earthquake which struck Japan.
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/energylhvpd9-05.jpg
The 8.9-magnitude earthquake which struck Japan on Friday was the strongest in the area in nearly 1,200 years, David Applegate, a senior science adviser at the US Geological Survey, tells the Associated Press. He says the quake ruptured a patch of the earth’s crust 240km (150 miles) long and 80km (50 miles) across.
Copied from BBC live-feed at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
This is getting a bit wierd. 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
New Zealand ==> China ==> Japan is there a pattern here that is predictive of where the next quake will happen ?
Very detailed and up to date description of the current problems with the nuclear reactor cooling.
http://allthingsnuclear.org/post/3788886037/nuclear-crisis-at-fukushima
Interesting, been watching http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/qed/ for months and it seemed to me that things were increasing in activity. Does the sun waking up have any factor on this? (it may be a stupid question)
thanks,
Steve