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8.8 Earthquake Near Japanese Coast

Posted by timothy on from the surf's-up-and-up-and-up dept.

radioweather writes "USGS is reporting a 8.8 (was estimated first at 7.9) magnitude earthquake off of the east coast of Honshu, Japan. Details from USGS. Tsunami warning issued. Japan's Meteorological agency is saying 20-foot or higher waves are possible from a Tsunami near Miyagi prefecture."

7 of 431 comments (clear)

  1. USGS continues to upgrade by Kalidor · · Score: 5, Informative

    Quake was upgraded to 8.9 some time ago. Also aftershocks continue.

    http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/region/Asia_eqs.php

    --

    Code softly but carry a big magnet.

  2. This is worst than in the movies by Pecisk · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wave moves slowly and silently inland, and carries parts of houses in full flames (!!!). This is insane.

    http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/11/sot.tsunami.hit.japan.cnn?hpt=T1

    Mother Nature shows it's power. For better or worse.

    --
    user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
  3. Local News by ZirconCode · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sitting in Japan, translating from the news here~

    largest earthquake since 300 years
    nuclear power plants affected but nothing leaked
    some factory at the coast started burning, they're showing it over and over again
    8 people so far found dead
    tsunami along almost the entire coast, 3meter to 10meters

    It's very bad,

    They're also warning of another earthquake which is predicted to happen shortly

    1. Re:Local News by ZirconCode · · Score: 5, Informative

      Financial markets went down, Prime Minister already reacted and sent out military and more If you're in Japan: remain calm, move away from coast, keep (clean) water in bathtub & food, DON'T CALL TOKYO

  4. Not log10, 10^(11.8 + 1.5M) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hi,

    It's a common misconception that the power of a mag 9 earthquake is 10x more than an 8, or 1,000x that of a 6. It's not. It's more like 31,000x stronger than a 6. If you've ever had the misfortune to experience a 6, you can appreciate that the energy released by these big ones are rather hard to contemplate.

    http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/measure.php
            1 J = 1e7 erg
            1 PJ = 1e15 J
          Energy_petajoules = ( 10^(11.8 + 1.5*Ms) ) * 1e-07 * 1e-15

    here's a picture of what this looks like, although ring size scaling has been reduced from the above formula to fit on the screen.

  5. Tsunami monitoring bouys by DerekLyons · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can see live data from the Tsunami warning bouys here.

  6. Re:Warnings for entire Pacific area in effect! by sunspot42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's a warning out now for the West Cost of the US. Wave expected to hit between 7-7:30 AM PST. Only expected to be 3-4 feet high at this time. Avoid the beach.

    http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/