8.9 magnitude earthquake shakes Japan

[Audio.]

North East of Japan gets hit by a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake lasting probably more than a minute! Yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRI9t72U4Wk&feature=featured

[Audio.]

Its expected San Fransisco and Hawaii to get hit by a tsunami in 10hrs. Live feed in Japan's after math. Its like watching the movie Water World. http://www.skoften.net/index/video/breaking_aardbeving_treft_japan

um, Hawaii should expect a tsunami right at this hour. New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea are on Tsunami alerts

[NicRN77]

Just caught up on the news. wow. I hope everyone is ok. West coast now under tsunami watch. scary stuff.

[abbott]

will be praying for those effected.........

[miss soul fire]

This is just crazy.(n)

[mikizee]

Absolutely dreadful.

What's worse is some of the ignorant dumbfuck redneck American assholes on Facebook saying 'karma's a bitch, thats for Pearl Harbor'. errr I seem to recall two nuclear bombs being dropped on Japan a few years later.

Giving you US citizens a bad name.

http://youropenbook.org/?q=pearl+harbor&gender=any

[ScarySquirrel]

Every country has ignorant people in it that will say/do things to give their country bad names.

This is a terrible tragedy and there are certainly a ton of positive vibes and thoughts headed the way of those affected.

But, I really hate it when super religious folks will get all on some soapbox and try to say that things like this are a "sign that the end is near." I mean... really? C'mon, dude, this doesn't have anything to do with your religious beliefs, this is just the type of shit that happens... the world can be a shitty place sometimes- and this just happens to be one of them.

[mikizee]

Yeah true. And I must say there are a lot of Americans on that link as well that are equally as repulsed by some of the comments.

Speaking of religious nutbags, there was a Westboro-esque protest in our mall the other weekend, we were walking past and noticed what was happening. Two young lesbian girls were passionately kissing right in front of the protesters while the protesters were vile and screaming and spitting that they were going to hell. Was very entertaining. A bible got torched as well.

As we were walking off one of the protesters heard me mention Jesus and he ran up and said 'oh, are you born again as well?' I said 'no mate'. He asked 'are you going to heaven?' I answered with 'heaven and God most likely don't exist man,' and walked off. He screamed after me yelling 'WHY DO YOU REJECT THE WOOORRDDDD?' I was going go back and answer with 'Why would I accept a storybook written by political hustlers thousands of years ago to be true?' but I knew I would end up getting in a pointless argument.

Anyway, back to Japan, its fucking terrible, the footage I've seen is insane. 1000 predicted dead so far. I wonder if this recent trend of earthquakes in the Asia Pacific region is over.

[Audio.]

Is science allowed in religious school?

[miss soul fire]

Every country has ignorant people in it that will say/do things to give their country bad names.

This is a terrible tragedy and there are certainly a ton of positive vibes and thoughts headed the way of those affected.

But, I really hate it when super religious folks will get all on some soapbox and try to say that things like this are a "sign that the end is near." I mean... really? C'mon, dude, this doesn't have anything to do with your religious beliefs, this is just the type of shit that happens... the world can be a shitty place sometimes- and this just happens to be one of them.

Sometimes I think It's the end of the world, but not because of religion. That shit happens because it's part of nature. I mean, that happens since the world is world.

[kaiser soze]

man....this is always such a horrible thing to watch and undoubtedly a horror to experience.

[NicRN77]

still can't believe the tragedy.

didn't you hear the end of the world is coming this year? CRAZY (http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/03/06/judgment.day.caravan/index.html#)

[Freebasser]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12720219

A massive explosion has struck a Japanese nuclear power plant after Friday's devastating earthquake.

A huge pall of smoke was seen coming from the plant at Fukushima and several workers were injured.

Japanese officials fear a meltdown at one of the plant's reactors after radioactive material was detected outside it.

Not good.

[Audio.]

:(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc7kIKI6baM

[Drederick Tatum]

purple monkey dishwasher.

[Audio.]

?

[kaiser soze]

not sure what this truly is - but it looks like an artillery strike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WufPGwp7rEY

The video of the tsunami with fires plowing over the country side is one of the scariest things I have ever seen, there's no way to control such a force.

[kaiser soze]

Any word from China or South Korea on relief efforts?

Beyond the disaster it already is for Japan, it can easily turn into a humanitarian emergency for them.

[mikizee]

Like a friend said to me yesterday, if a flaming tsunami is heading towards you, you're pretty much fucked.

[kaiser soze]

Some images truly showing the disaster - Japan is destroyed :(

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Huge-Japan-quake-causes-tsunami-fires-landslide/ss/events/wl/031111japanquake#photoViewer=/110313/ids_photos_wl/r215535258.jpg

[kaiser soze]

video of ground moving, water pulsing up

http://www.dump.com/2011/03/12/crazy-video-of-the-ground-shifting-during-the-japanese-quake-video/

This disaster is substantially larger than anyone can imagine - the nuclear emergency is just beginning - reactor access limited by quake, earthquake/tsunami relief limited due to radiation fears :(

honestly I'm surprised there's not more discussion on this....I can't stop paying attention to what has happened and is transpiring

[Teh]

video of ground moving, water pulsing up

http://www.dump.com/2011/03/12/crazy-video-of-the-ground-shifting-during-the-japanese-quake-video/

This disaster is substantially larger than anyone can imagine - the nuclear emergency is just beginning - reactor access limited by quake, earthquake/tsunami relief limited due to radiation fears :(

honestly I'm surprised there's not more discussion on this....I can't stop paying attention to what has happened and is transpiring

Sand boiling & liquefaction - there are very few videos of that actually happening.

Last one I saw was this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLZFlnND0hA

[kaiser soze]

I wonder how the foundations held up - being an artificial island built on a landfill....it definitely was eerie - seeing the earth cracking open quite nonchalantly rather than being tossed into a violent shake

add to that the contamination from the garbage underneath

[Teh]

I wonder how the foundations held up - being an artificial island built on a landfill....it definitely was eerie - seeing the earth cracking open quite nonchalantly rather than being tossed into a violent shake

add to that the contamination from the garbage underneath

Effects of liquefaction manifest themselves both during and after shaking.

Generally, I wouldn't have thought there would be many foundation problems (geostructural engineering is basically my job). Since Kobe in 1995, Japan have pushed for a lot of research upon piles in liquefiable soils (building loads are carried to stronger soils beneath soil layers prone to liquefaction), so they know what they're doing. Buckling of piles becomes a problem, though. What you're seeing in that video will only affect shallow foundations (general low rise residential housing) which will be prone to very large settlements.

Comparatively speaking, the earthquake actually caused minor damage considering the scale (6th largest in history). The tsunami was the source of the most damage.

[kaiser soze]

I remember watching a special on earthquake proof buildings developed with foundations that can counter (to an extent) or even move more freely with the dynamics of moving earth - not sure about the effects of liquefaction - but my guess is these are embedded to the bedrock if it's available.

I agree with the extensive videos I have watched that the tsunami wiped most anything without a solid foundation out....unbelievable force and much longer than the quake itself.

Here are a couple other videos of the earth slowly moving and more water coming up from the ground - where is it coming from? water lines? the ocean? aquifers?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Di7vpM3TU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVMNG3M5rQ4&feature=related

On a side note concerning the nuclear situation - here's a video from the base of a very destroyed building (reactor?) from the site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Tds5d-ApU&feature=rtupdates&src=yt_results&tid=49631491986173952&eid=1300672901126213_177434626_3787852807&l=www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dv8Tds5d-ApU

There are tremendous amounts of videos from Yomiuri Streams

[Audio.]

From what I've been reading the power plant situation... the threat level is gradually going down. The issue I'm concerned about are those over 400k people with out homes or jobs.

[kaiser soze]

I'd rather err on the side of caution

BREAKING NEWS: Smoke also seen at Fukushima plant’s No. 2 reactor

http://enenews.com/breaking-news-smoke-fukushima-plants-2-reactor

Cesium-137 plume forecast for North America and Europe up to March 24

http://enenews.com/cesium-137-plume-forecast-march-24-frances-irsn-video

The homeless will not be able to rebuild if their land is contaminated

[Teh]

I remember watching a special on earthquake proof buildings developed with foundations that can counter (to an extent) or even move more freely with the dynamics of moving earth - not sure about the effects of liquefaction - but my guess is these are embedded to the bedrock if it's available.

I agree with the extensive videos I have watched that the tsunami wiped most anything without a solid foundation out....unbelievable force and much longer than the quake itself.

Here are a couple other videos of the earth slowly moving and more water coming up from the ground - where is it coming from? water lines? the ocean? aquifers?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Di7vpM3TU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVMNG3M5rQ4&feature=related

On a side note concerning the nuclear situation - here's a video from the base of a very destroyed building (reactor?) from the site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Tds5d-ApU&feature=rtupdates&src=yt_results&tid=49631491986173952&eid=1300672901126213_177434626_3787852807&l=www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dv8Tds5d-ApU

There are tremendous amounts of videos from Yomiuri Streams

I think you're probably thinking of 'base isolation' - rubber pads are placed between the mass concrete foundation and building. They aren't rooted to bedrock, and you can situate them on any type of soil - the rubber 'pads' are actually inserted between the foundation and building (if you can visualise that).

In crude terms, owing to the low stiffness of the pads, they essentially limit the amount of 'shaking' transferred to the building, such that the structure moves more like a near rigid mass, and the acceleration from the ground does not induce bending moments or shear forces within the structure (pushing it to an inelastic state and possible collapse...).

The first two of those videos are almost certainly liquefaction - you can tell by the soil suspended in the water emerging from beneath the pavement. The problem with the pavement is it is essentially impermeable, and the pore water pressure in the soil below cannot drain. The pressure builds up in the water within the soil mass until it equilibrates with the confining pressure and the soil structure goes into suspension, to put it simply. The water table is obviously fairly high (probably at ground level) such that the soil near the surface is bear saturated.

Not sure what I think about the nuclear situation yet, I have my opinions and I don't consider the plant to have been grossly misdesigned (bearing in mind this is the 6th largest quake in history, the reactor is 40 years old, and the earthquake didn't actually do any significant damage to the buildings. In fact, it seems like emergency shutdown procedures were followed correctly when the quake struck), but there's a lot that still remains vague and I think it will be a number of weeks before the exact circumstances become clear.

What I would say though is I suspect there is more at fault with the backup infrastructure required to support the plant rather than the structural/geotechnical design of the building itself, and that's where my knowledge ends!

[kaiser soze]

fucking insane tsunami video

http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/1416681/71a8dbc9/nieuwe_tsunami_footage.html

I still cannot believe what has happened in Japan, the bottleneck design of the ports must have forced even more water into them

[TimDoolan]

Man they cannot get a break.

Less powerful quake at least.

[NicRN77]

just horrible.

[TimDoolan]

Really Sucks when you can't inhabit a large part of your country (http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/04/11/reports-japan-decides-raise-nuclear-crisis-alert-level-7-highest-equal/)

[checkyourprez]

what are they doing with all the people they are evacuating from that area?


it sucks in so many ways for all of them. their jobs, their businesses, their homes, their possessions, their way of life, all gone. hopefully just for now...but i doubt that is getting cleaned up any time soon.

[kaiser soze]

A French Man in Japan and his lament - "What does Level 7 mean? Fukushima power plant will kill, Fukushima power plant will be deadly." :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awOPhvOw90A&feature=player_embedded#at=584

http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=4870

So fucking crazy - this isn't 1 reactor, this is 3, more likely 4 reactors in serious condition.