Massive 8.9 earthquake, tsunami hit Japan

sesha_maruthi27

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Where did he go in the first place ??
He is always watching everything. It is because of some bad people, both the GOOD people and BAD people are suffering the result. May GOD help those people who are innocent.
 
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sandeepdg

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Tsunami warning issued for at least 50 areas after quake

(CNN) -- The threat of a tsunami prompted the U.S. National Weather Service to issue a warning for at least 50 countries and territories after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck Japan Friday.

The wide-ranging list includes Russia and Indonesia, Central American countries like Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica and the U.S. state of Hawaii. The weather service's bulletin is intended "as advice to government agencies."
The quake, which struck near the coast of Honshu, Japan on Friday afternoon, unleashed a wall of water that rushed in toward land, leveling houses and bashing cars in its path.
Some officials feared that the fast-moving waves from a tsunami could be so high that they wash over entire islands in the Pacific, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Friday.
"Experts are saying that it could be anywhere from 4 to 10 meters. That's higher than some of the Pacific islands are above sea level. We just have to do the calculations to see that this is a real threat," federation spokesman Paul Conneally said.

Hawaii siren warns of tsunami Cars submerged in water after quake."In a situation like this, we have to prepare for the worst case scenario," he added.But Gerard Fryer of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said even though waves could cause significant flooding, "washing over islands is not going to happen."Tsunami waves can travel at speeds of 800 kilometers per hour.

"The tsunami is more than one wave, and the waves can be separated by 20 minutes or half an hour. So just because you see a wave come up and then go back in the ocean again, that doesn't mean it's over," Fryer said.
Sirens sounded in Hawaii around 10 p.m. Thursday (3 a.m. ET), warning residents they could expect tsunami waves five hours later.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center early Friday issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas along the United States and Canadian west coasts. The tsunami warning includes coastal areas of California and Oregon from Point Conception to the Oregon-Washington border. It also includes coastal areas of Alaska from Amchitka Pass to Attu.

"This is a massive one, and it will have different effects depending on the location, on the seabed, and on other sorts of characteristics. But clearly this is very very large, and from that perspective, all countries need to be alert, on standby for the moment."

Wendy Watson-Wright of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization warned nations to be on alert."This is a massive one, and it will have different effects depending on the location, on the seabed, and on other sorts of characteristics," she said.

In the Philippines, the government has evacuated 20 coast areas. Officials said they were getting reports from Isabela province of "unusual waves" hitting the coastline.The administrator of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency said employees are ready to assist state and local officials.

"We remind everyone who lives in the region to monitor their local news for instructions from their state and local officials and if told to evacuate -- evacuate," said Administrator Craig Fugate.

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said more than 11,000 people living in dangerous areas had been evacuated after a tsunami warning was issued for the Kuril Islands. Ships docked in open ports were heading back out to sea to avoid being hit by tsunami waves, the ministry said.

Chip McCreary of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said officials estimated the quake was already causing waves with magnitudes of up to 2 meters above normal sea level.

"This is a very large earthquake. We've evaluated it as about the same size as the earthquake last year in Chile. However, it's much closer to the Hawaiian islands than the Chile earthquake," he said.

The National Weather Service list includes Japan, Russia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Fiji, Mexico, New Zealand, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and the United States.Numerous Pacific islands, including some U.S. territories, are also on the list.

Friday's 8.9-magnitude temblor in Japan was the largest earthquake since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Banda Aceh area of Indonesia on Dec. 26, 2004, causing a massive tsunami that killed about 250,000 people in 14 countries and washed away entire communities. The tsunami caused nearly $10 billion in damage and more casualties than any other tsunami in history, according to the United Nations.The earthquake, initially reported as a 7.8 earthquake, was upgraded to an 8.9 quake.

"When you jump a magnitude from 7 to 8, it's not 10 times stronger, it's 1000 times stronger," said CNN International meteorologist Ivan Cabrera. "With an ... earthquake that shallow, that close to shore, there will be more than one tsunami."

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/11/tsunami.warning/index.html
 

Phenom

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RIP to the victims.
Japanese are a pretty resilient people. I am sure they'll manage to rebuild all those that could be rebuild.
Hard to say what kind of an effect this would have on their economy which was doing well even before this disaster.
 

Atul

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a sad news, hope the damage is minimal..
 

kickok1975

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Pray for Japanese people, one of our closest neighbours and culture. My condolences for those dead.
 

sandeepdg

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The destruction is huge. I think initial estimates put the economic loss at 10 billion USD, this would definitely rise. The Japanese government has asked the US military for help. Seeing the pictures, it seems loss of life would be substantial once the true picture of the damage emerges. My condolences to people of Japan. Those who lost their lives, hope their souls RIP.
 

sandeepdg

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Major quake and tsunamis in Japan shut down four nuclear power plants

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that four of Japan's 55 nuclear power plants had been shut down in the aftermath of the quake. The quake hit off the east coast of Honshu, Japan at about 8:15 a.m. Central European Time this morning

"The agency is liaising with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to confirm further details of the situation. The four Japanese nuclear power plants closest to the quake have been safely shut down," the IAEA's Incident and Emergency Centre said, without specifying the exact names or locations of the plants.

Japanese media have reported that at least the Onagawa plant in the Miyagi prefecture, and the Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) run Fukushima nuclear power plant in the Fukushima prefecture had been shut down.


The fire at the Onagawa plant is apparently centered in the nuclear power plant's turbine building, the Associated Press reported.

Tohoku Electric Power Co. said smoke was observed coming out of the building, which is separate from the plant's reactor, and the cause is under investigation. The plant is in Miyagi prefecture.

Prior to the Kyodo News report, Tohoku Electric Power had said it had not received information on whether there had been any major damage at the nuclear power plant after the disastrous quake.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant, said on Friday its plant's reactor cooling system was functioning, denying an earlier report that it was malfunctioning.

Reports are still pouring in from the site of the massive quake, the fifth worst to hit the country since 1900: Oil refineries are ablaze, the death toll is mounting, and Tsunami warnings have been issued for 50 countries, from the Russian Pacific coast, the Pacific coast of North America from Alaska to California and Pacific coastal countries of South America. Indonesia is expected to get hit by afternoon CET.

As of 12:30 CET, the death toll of the quake and subsequent tsunamis had been set at 32, though Japanese officials have been revising that figure upward throughout the day.

Japan's relationship to nuclear power is delicate, having been the single nation in history to be hit by nuclear bombs.

But it is highly defensive of, and often secretive about, its nuclear power complex, which supplies 80 percent of the countries power through 55 nuclear power plants. These plants – though built to tough seismic standards – are all vulnerable to Japan's earthquake prone terrain.

Japanese media reported that the government had decided to declare a nuclear power emergency situation, which occurs if there is confirmation of radioactivity leaks from a nuclear power plant or a reactor cooling system breaks down, but little other information has been made available about possible leaks.

Earlier in the day Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, confirmed the quake caused "major damage" in northeastern Japan, but that nuclear power facilities in the area were not damaged and there was no radiation leakage.

Friday's offshore quake triggered a tsunami that hit Japan's eastern coast, sweeping away buildings and cars. TV footage also showed fires burning in the northern city of Sendai. Officials were still trying to assess the extent of destruction.

Though it will likely be several hours if not days before Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency and police are able to issue final tallies on damages to nuclear power plants, there is reason to believe that full information on damages and possible leaks will take some time to reveal.

In 2007, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant – the world's largest – causing a leak of radioactive water that was sloshed from its containers by the jolts. The quake also caused a fire.

Initial reports from TEPCO, the plant's operator, said 60,000 Bequerels of radioactivity had been released into the Sea of Japan when either 1.5 liters of low level liquid waste, according to one report, or 1,190 litres, according to another, had sloshed out of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa's No. 6 reactor.

The next day, TEPCO admitted that the spill had been 50 percent worse than it had first said. Upgrading its initial assessment, Tepco confirmed that 1,200 litres had escaped, but added that 100 barrels of low-level radioactive waste had fallen over and a small amount of cobalt 60, iodine and chromium 5 had been released into the air.

But TEPCO did not make this statement until it had been pushed by then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, environmental groups and world media to be more definite in its damage estimates.

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2011/japan_quake_nuclear
 

SHASH2K2

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Japanese Firms Assess Effects of Earthquake


Companies in Japan evacuated and closed plants on Friday as they scrambled to assess the effects on their operations after a powerful earthquake and tsunami struck the northeastern part of the country.

As aftershocks continued Friday afternoon, many company executives said it was too early to gauge what the initial effects on their operations had been or what the long-term fallout on business demand was likely to be.
Any disruptions in this country's exports will inevitably ripple through an economy that has stagnated over the last two decades. Japan's gross domestic product fell 0.3 percent in the October-December quarter as the end of generous government incentives on environmentally friendly cars resulted in a temporary decline in spending. At an annualized rate, Japan's economy shrank 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter.
"There are car and semiconductor factories in northern Japan, so there will be some economic impact due to damage to factories," Yasuo Yamamoto, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo, told Reuters.
All Japanese ports were closed, shippers said Friday, though the shutdowns may be precautionary. The country's major container seaports, most of them south of Tokyo, play a crucial role in Japan's export-driven economy. Japanese exports — chiefly automobiles, machinery and manufactured goods — rose by almost a quarter in 2010, the first increase in three years, and a lengthy shut-down could create costly delays up and down the global supply chain. Reuters reported that several airports, including Tokyo's Narita, were closed.
Numerous airlines diverted flights away from the affected area, and the airport in the city of Sendai was flooded by a tsunami that followed the quake, according to the Japanese television broadcaster NHK.
The Japanese central bank said on its Web site that it would "do its utmost," including providing extra liquidity, to ensure financial market stability.
The Associated Press reported that the Cosmo Oil refinery outside of Tokyo was burning out of control with 100-foot flames whipping into the sky. Several nuclear power stations were shut down, according to media reports.
Sony halted and evacuated six factories in northeastern Japan, while the automaker Toyota and its affiliates closed three factories, Bloomberg reported, citing representatives of the two companies. Numerous other companies said they were still assessing possible damage; many others could not be reached for comment.
Over all though, the real bulk of industrial Japan appeared to have been spared, said an economist in Hong Kong, who had been in touch with his colleagues in Japan but asked not to be identified as he was not authorized by his bank to talk about Japan.
"Inevitably there will be microeconomic disruptions, as there were after Kobe and even Chuetsu," Richard Jerram, chief Asia economist at Macquarie, wrote in a research note, referring to other powerful earthquakes that had hit Japan in recent years. "However, many firms reportedly diversified supply chains in the wake of Kobe, so the impact should be lower."
Miyagi, the prefecture that is home to Sendai and the areas most affected by the quake, accounts for 1.7 percent of the Japanese population and the same proportion of gross domestic product, while the region of Tohoku as a whole is about 8 percent of G.D.P., Mr. Jerram estimated. Initial reports suggested that Tokyo, the financial center of the country, had not been badly damaged, he added.
The region hit by the tsunami is known for growing rice, and other rice-growing areas around the Pacific Rim may see coastal flooding at a time of already rising world food prices.
But Ben Savage, the managing director for rice at Jackson Son & Company in London, one of the world's oldest rice brokerage houses, said that the tsunami was unlikely to have much of an effect on global rice prices because rice tends to be fairly tolerant of the temporary ingress of salt water into paddies.
A separate concern is that many areas immediately adjacent to the ocean are now used for aquaculture of shrimp and fish and may be damaged, Mr. Savage said.
"The biggest problems tend to be infrastructure, roads and rail," said Janet Hunter, who teaches Japanese economics at the London School of Economics. "Almost everything is going to have to be replaced" that fell in the path of the tsunami.
Christopher Gerteis, an expert in contemporary Japan at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies in London, said the region largely depended on local fisheries for their food, and that the cost of reconstruction would include reclaiming the fishing fleet.
One of the few things that was immediately clear was that investors were deeply unsettled by the disaster, which took place just as the Japanese economy had begun to gather some steam.
However, many economists also caution that economic activity remained feeble, plagued by deflation, high government debt, and an aging population — factors that contributed to the decision by the ratings agency Standard and Poor's to downgrade Japan's credit rating earlier this year.
The Japanese stock market had very little time to react to the quake, which occurred shortly before the end of the trading day in Tokyo.
The Nikkei 225 index, which had already been lower before the quake, ended down 1.7 percent for the day. Bond futures surged amid the uncertainty, though the yen quickly rebounded after initially dipping against the dollar as news of the quake came out.
Elsewhere in the region, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong sagged 1.6 percent, while the Straits Times index in Singapore fell 1 percent.
Stephen Gallo, head of market analysis at Schneider Foreign Exchange, said early Friday that while the quake had threatened to trigger "knee-jerk" sell-off in the yen, Japan's "very low level of foreign creditors" could stave off declines.
The yen fell briefly Friday before recovering. By the afternoon, the dollar was at 82.34 yen, down 0.699 percent.
In Europe, Munich Re and Swiss Reinsurance, the world's biggest reinsurance companies, led the sector lower with falls of 4.5 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively. Reinsurance companies take on risk from primary insurers, which may face hefty claims resulting from damage caused by the earthquake.
"The last major earthquake to hit Japan was the Great Hanshin Earthquake which hit Kobe on January 17th 1995," Geoffrey Yu, a currency analyst at UBS in London, wrote Friday. The quake caused over $100 billion in damage, but dollar-to-yen index fell over 20 percent in the following three months.
"There is reason to believe this time the reaction would be similar," Mr. Yu said.
He noted that the insurance companies, though clearly implicated by the quake, might receive government backing.
"When any earthquake occurs and claims exceed 75 billion yen, the central government will cover between 75 percent and 90 percent of the cost, with only a fraction paid by direct writers and the Japan reinsurance company," Mr. Yu wrote.
He said that damages from the Kobe quake had been mitigated by low levels of coverage at the time, conditions that may well apply in the latest earthquake.
 

Bangalorean

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So much destruction. :tsk:

However, knowing the Japanese, one can be sure that they will bounce back and recover from this within no time.
 

Yusuf

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RIP to the thousands that have lost their lives.
Various Channels are showing some dramatic footage including that of moving tsunami waves. Tremendous damage done. God be with the people of those affected on japan and the country as a whole to deal with this tragedy.
 

Singh

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RIP to the thousands that have lost their lives.
Various Channels are showing some dramatic footage including that of moving tsunami waves. Tremendous damage done. God be with the people of those affected on japan and the country as a whole to deal with this tragedy.
Where did you get the figures from ? last I checked casualty figures were in double digits ..
 

sesha_maruthi27

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Where did you get the figures from ? last I checked casualty figures were in double digits ..
200-300 bodies have been found in the city of sedai. I saw this news in CNN.

And also a boat carrying 100 people was swept away by the Tsunami.
 

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