Massive Earthquake Hits Japan

This is seriously shit.

We have a death toll of 166 (so far) from out 6.3 earthquake in Christchurch 2 weeks ago, the city is in ruins.

I can't imagine what an earthquake this size, plus tsunamis would be like.

Poor Japan.

I live on a fault line and I'm kind of freaked out.

I feel like the world is freaking out and it's quite scary.

Scary stuff.

I hope we will be sending aid.

Geez, even NZ is on Tsunami alert from it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8375591/Japan-earth...

This article is so condescending that I have to laugh — instead of talking about what's going on, the author decided to tell us how wonderfully prepared the Japanese are for these things. How brave the Japanese can be!

It's the 7th largest quake in history. Rumors that 1/3 of globe affected. They are evacuating coastal areas of Hawaii.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/11/us-japan-quake-tsunami-hawaii-...

Isn't all of Hawaii the coast?

We have a Hawaian Cultie, too. She's mostly a workshopper. But I sincerely hope she's all right.

That was my thought upon hearing that announcement as well. "Well, where isn't being evac'd then, inside Diamondhead?"

Anyway, the Tsunami, if you could call it that, has reached Hawaii and was, luckily, a non-starter. Hopefully it stays that way.

I haven't watched the news since this morning, but I feel like they're downplaying it here.

My mom is becoming more and more convinced that 2012 is gonna be the end.

We REALLY have to start developing technologies that can better predict this kind of thing. Maybe Japan will start making this their focus soon.

Rosie, where are you at? I heard Wellington got a small one as well?

Sam, I'm in Wellington. Yeah, we've had about 3 smallish one (about 4 on the richter scale, but quite deep) in the last week. The thing is Wellington gets smaller ones all the time, we're on a faultline and it's to be expected. The really sad thing about the Christchurch ones is that they didn't even know there was an earthquake risk until they got a 7.1 earthquake last september. Luckily that one hit at 4 in the morning and no one died, they were all in bed. The March one was at lunchtime on a tuesday and people were in the city with heaps of old unsafe heritage buildings.

But it's really nothing compared to Japan. Japan sent help so quickly to NZ and I'm sure we'll repay the favour.

What you're asking for is a psychic. They knew one was coming, but it's nigh impossible to tell when exactly it will hit.

Japan has spent, like, billions on earthquake prediction over the years. It's been one of their top priorities. Not a lot of success there however.

Japan's earthquake proofing of the buildings is fantastic though. Those buildings just swayed and looked like there was barely any damage at all from the actual shaking. Well, mostly.

Eeek nuclear seepage.

the issue they ran into, is that when they realized there would be (the possibility of) a tsunami of this size, they had 20 minutes head start. even if the warning system had gone off, and it may have, that just isnt enough time

Mmmm, that's right. They got through the earthqauke ok, but the tsunami really was the killer.

My Wife has family in Hawaii and Japan. We've been in contact with the family in Hawaii and everyone is fine, but we can't get in touch with anyone in Japan. The Japanese relatives are all elderly, so everyone's freaking out.

Fox news reported that 3 or 4 people were swept up in the tsunami and one person died from it, in Portland...ohh fox news.

oops double post

No, it's true. People went out on the beach to film or take pictures, and 4 got swept out, 3 were rescued. My mom was telling me about it. There was still large waves. And with rough seas comes undertow.

Tuffy: Admittedly, I didn't look up whether or not Japan had earthquake predicting high up on their list of priorities. From what you say, they do. Awrighty...

Fano: I really don't believe it's impossible to predict such things. We just don't have the technology. One day...

*hugs*

Hope that you hear from them soon and they are ok.

I hope you hear from them soon.

This was on Facebook, maybe it can help?

http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

The problem with predicting earthquakes is that it'll eventually lead to someone figuring out how to cause them and then we've got a real life Bond Villain on our hands.

Cassun posted this on FB. Crazy pictures.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/03/massive_earthquake_hits_japan.h...

How big was the earthquake that caused that Indonesian tsunami a few years back, anyone remember?

"With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the third largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. This earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 cm (0.4 inches)[6] and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska." (wikipedia).

Also, last year's earthquake in Chile was 8.8.

I figured we were safe from everything all the way over here in Ohio but apparently not:
Waterfront restaurant floats to bridge

Also, you think, with how it made the entire planet jerk, that the science eggheads will come out and say how we got to move our clocks ahead 1 hour and 1 second for Daylight Savings Time tonight?

It only affected time by micro seconds.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42037792/ns/technology_and_science-space/

I heard that the creator of pokémon died in this... does anyone know?

nuclear explosion happens, meltdown possible.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/24499890

posted by a friend of mine of facebook... then reposted by another friend because he thought it was so intelligent and thought provoking...

First a massive quake hits, then a huge tsunami, now a nuclear power plant is threatening meltdown in Japan....maybe they shouldn't have been murdering dolphins and whales the way they have. Is this karmic retribution?

I can't even begin to deal with such stupidity, it just blows my mind. Up until now I thought those two people were reasonably intelligent too.

A second reactor is having serious trouble with cooling. It also faces serious problems. Didn't catch where it was though.

Yeah, fuck that person.

Fuck dolphins too. They're useless creatures. People only want to save them because of Flipper.

Yeah I heard that too, it was all over tumblr the other day. Might be true. We lost some serious personalities in the 1977 earthquake so it does happen. Sad though.

so far there isnt any confirmation of that, or really who is dead at all.

They won't release names until the identities of the bodies have been confirmed, (they do all that dental testing and dna stuff) and the families notified. It can take weeks. Nz has just this weekend released names of 14 people from the Christchurch quake, and still has about 20 still to name. It's a long process.

The death toll is at 1,300 hundred and officials expect it to exceed 10,000.

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/forum/1000041/massive-earthquake-hits-japan#bo...

Wouldn't 1300 hundred be 130,000?

They said on CNN today that he didn't die.

He did, however, evolve.

Too soon?

I was going to say something earlier about him fainting since pokemon don't die but I wasn't sure about that. They just faint right?

Hahaha, you guys are awful. And yes, Frank. They just faint. Bunch of pansies.

Really? I bet they haven't tried separating the head from the body.

Bitch leaves really close to me. I feel sullied and unusual.

Why do I feel like the world is becoming more and more intolerant? I'm surprised she didn't give a shout out to Hitler for giving God a head start.