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)
And the award for the most crass example of disaster exploitation goes to:
*opens envelope*
Grist! For this shameful abomination:
http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-11-todays-tsunami-this-is-what-climate-change-looks-like
Amazing video of the first waves as seen from a helicopter… and the devastation that follows.
DirkH says:
March 11, 2011 at 12:07 pm
“Very detailed and up to date description of the current problems with the nuclear reactor cooling.”
Ugh. Only now do i notice it’s from the “Union of concerned scientists”. Anyhow. This particular article looks rather sober and technical.
Mats Bengtsson says:
March 11, 2011 at 11:20 am
The modern magnitudes you hear (Moment Magnitude, IIRC) are measurements of the total energy released by a quake. It takes time to refine the result, I think they have to look at multiple recorders and factor in propagation quality and various other stuff to come up with a good final answer.
The Richter Scale was based on the excursion of the pen of a particular brand of seismometer, distance, and probably a few other things. It didn’t handle long ruptures which take 10s of seconds to propagate so it saturated around magnitude 7-8. The figures you see in the list are likely estimates made years after the events from seismometer readings, damage reports, and measurements of slippage.
Folks should keep in mind that this is just about exactly the sort of EQ that is in store for the Pacific Northwest from Seattle to Portland. The last M9 range quake there was in January 1700 (dated from tsunami in Japan that it caused). This is almost exactly the same size and type of quake that is likely to happen there in the Cascade Subduction Zone.
More info with videos
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365229/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-Fears-massive-death-toll.html
UPDATE 7: 7.00pm GMT
Nuclear reactors shut down during today’s massive earthquake in Japan. Official sources have reported no detected radioactive release but are still monitoring the situation, meanwhile work to establish adequate cooling at Fukushima Daiichi continues.
Pressure inside the containment of Unit 1 at Fukushima Daichi had been steadily increasing over the time that emergency core cooling systems have not been active. Tepco reported at 2am that pressure had increased beyond reference levels but was within engineered limits.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Massive_earthquake_hits_Japan_1103111.html?je
On a brief skim of the reporting, my first take was, “the Japanese know what they’re doing…this won’t be near the issue it was in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.” Seeing the more recent news reports, I’m not sure any level of preparation would have helped except not building by the coast. Anyone know how long it took for the tsunami to hit shore after the 9.0 earthquake? Particularly, how long after the warning system was engaged? I saw one video where this guy is watching boats and cars floating underneath the road/bridge he is on. I was thinking, man, I wouldn’t be hanging around on a bridge like that when a boat or other large object (and the water) could knock the supports right out from under me.
The Japanese sent a team to NZ to help in Christchurch, for which I am grateful. Now they endure the same, magnified terribly by the tsunami. I wish them strength.
HT to GK for his warning about nonsense, when he quotes: “Scientists have known for some time that climate change affects not just the atmosphere and the oceans but the earth’s crust, but these effects are not widely understood by the public.”
Yeah right. Also not widely understood by scientists, if they think it significant. Climate change has about as much influence over the drifting of tectonic plates as anthropogenic methane has on climate change.
To John from CA, seismologists have no evidence that the earthquakes on different parts of the Pacific rim are connected causally. And unlike climatologists, seismologists do not seem to confuse correlation with causation.
typical of nuclear disasters, no one killed, no one injured, no one diseased. Just a rellystupid media report. I think it may already be fixed.
From the AP:
HONOLULU – The deadly tsunami that ravaged Japan is taking a toll along the West Coast as authorities looked for at least one person missing at sea.
The Coast Guard is searching for a man who was swept out to sea while taking photos of waves with two friends near the mouth of the Klamath River in Del Norte County, Calif. His friends made it back to shore, and helicopters are searching for the missing man.
Sheriff’s officials in southern Oregon say one death was reported aboard a commercial vessel in the harbor at Brookings, Ore., but it appears to be from natural causes. Four people were swept off a beach north of Brookings, but were rescued.
The Curry County sheriff’s department says two were able to get out of the water on their own, and two were rescued by law enforcement and fire officials.
There’s a tsunami warning honey, let’s go to the beach and take pictures.” Can you say Darwin Award?
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
It seems that the earthquake list is not the last one published online by USGS. Here is the last updated list of largest earthquakes :
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/10_largest_world.php
The rencent Honshu magnitude Mw 8.9-9 would thus rank as the 5th largest known worldwide event.
But more interestingly, it should be noted that this event is not the “big one” that was expected. The one that was and is still expected may occur south-west of Tokyo along the Nankai trench. There, the historical record shows repetitions of large M 8-8.5 events and the next one is probably overdue. With probably more consequences on the population of Tokyo and other southern cities of Honshu.
To the north of Tokyo, such event has never been recorded, neither instrumentally, nor historically. Even the geology does not seem to provide evidence of such large event (it is possible now that future investigation will find out more about such large past events). Despite the 9cm/yr convergence along the trench, scientists were explaining the absence of large event by the occurrence of slow-slipping events together with events of lower magnitude (still magnitude 8s). If indeed such large event has not occurred there since 800 to 1000 years, this event is rather puzzling. We will know soon in the next days from seismological analysis how much slip was indeed involved in this event.
Sam the First says:
March 11, 2011 at 11:14 Sam
Please take your pseudo scientific BS somewhere else, this is a science blog, and this is a serious disaster, not an opportunity for astrologers to peddle their snake oil
“TelePrompter, obey the baseball bat.”
As the kids these days say: Oh, snap!
@jtom \\I click on the link on NOAA’s homepage for their tsunami warning and got a “page not found” for several minutes //
I clicked on the NOAA Tsunami Warning page about 9:15 am CST from Mexico.
It showed GREEN, No Warnings at this Time. !! That was just about the time of the predicted arrival in Oregon. I got it on my iPhone camera for posterity sake with the computer clock showing.
A few minutes later the page switched to Red, Tsunami Warning.
Now, it could be a page caching issue. It could be something else. But clearly someone relying on a NOAA webpage would have been put into a false sense of security.
Daniel H, TokyoBoy, all my friends in Japan, stay safe. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
and this
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGBq6Z-qFxo&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3%5D
Ray says:
March 11, 2011 at 9:53 am
Astrologers predicted this… LMAO
The moon causes tides in the ocean. Does it create anything comparable, though of smaller amplitude, within the lava below earth’s crust ?
It was predictable; some brain dead lemming in London couldn’t wait to blame this disaster on global warming. He claims all the melting ice took the weight off the crust allowing the plates to shift. Always some a$$hole taking glee and comfort from disaster.
#
2139 GMT: Radiation levels at the damaged Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant are continuing to rise. The Jiji Press news agency says the levels are eight times above normal. Its report also cites a ministry official as saying there is a “possibility of a radioactive leak”.
From the BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://www.infowars.com/global-warming-did-not-cause-the-japanese-earthquake/
GLOBAL WARMING HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH EARTHQUAKE BBC!!!!!
2149 GMT: The Kyodo news agency is now citing a safety panel as saying that the radiation level inside one of the reactors at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant is 1,000 times higher than normal.
Nuke plants have to be built somewhere, but Japan has limited space so they make do with what they have. Quasi risky but still doable with relative safety. Here in the USA we have plenty of space to build in more non-risky places. The benefit of the power source greatly outweighs any costs, including what’s happening today.