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320,000 could die in triple earthquake: Japan
Friday, Aug 31, 2012
JAPAN – Up to 323,000 people could die if three earthquakes occur simultaneously along the Nankai Trough, killing about 70 per cent of victims in subsequent tsunami, according to new predictions by two Cabinet Office panels.
The panels on Wednesday released predictions of damage that would be caused by a magnitude-9 Nankai Trough triple quake. This is the largest triple quake expected to occur in the trough–which stretches from off Shizuoka Prefecture down to Shikoku and Kyushu–with the so-called Tokai, Tonankai and Nankai earthquakes happening simultaneously.
The size of the predicted focal area is twice that of the magnitude-8.7 triple quake predicted by the government’s Central Disaster Management Council in 2003.
One of the study panels was tasked with estimating the height of tsunami and the area of inundated regions, while the other was a Read more…
2011 Was A Year of Weather Extremes, With More to Come
The global average temperature in 2011 was 14.52 degrees Celsius (58.14 degrees Fahrenheit). According to NASA scientists, this was the ninth warmest year in 132 years of recordkeeping, despite the cooling influence of the La Niña atmospheric and oceanic circulation pattern and relatively low solar irradiance. Since the 1970s, each subsequent decade has gotten hotter — and 9 of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred in the twenty-first century.
Each year’s average temperature is determined by a number of factors, including solar activity and the status of the El Niño/La Niña phenomenon. But heat-trapping gases that have accumulated in the atmosphere, largely from the burning of fossil fuels, have become a dominant force, pushing the Earth’s climate out of its normal range. The planet is now close to 0.8 degrees Celsius warmer than it was a century ago. Hidden within Read more…
Japan Earthquake 2012: Study Warns of Major Tokyo Quake
Japan has already suffered one earthquake in 2012. But the New Year’s Day rumble caused little damage because it was centered deep below the surface. A new study warns, however, that the Tokyo region has a 70 percent chance of experiencing a major earthquake within four years.
(Photo: Reuters / Kyodo) On March 11, a tsunami triggered by a massive earthquake resulted in widespread damage in Japan's Fukushima prefecture and destroyed a nuclear power plant. Vehicles, ships, buildings were washed away by the giant flood that resulted from the 8.9 magnitude quake. A new study suggests the Tokyo region of Japan could suffer another major earthquake within four years.
Seismologists at the University of Tokyo said the study was based on an increase in earthquake activity in the region following the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami that killed almost 20,000 and led to a nuclear disaster. Working at the university’s earthquake research institute, the seismologists said the number of earthquakes in the region is rising — to 343 of 3.0 magnitude or higher in the past six months versus 47 the previous six months.
The seismologists believe that the probability of bigger earthquakes increases proportionately with smaller earthquakes. Therefore, the team has calculated a 98 percent chance of a 6.7 to 7.2 magnitude earthquake for the Tokyo region in the 30 years and a 70 percent chance over the next four years.
“When we ask when a probability of such a quake reaches 70%, then we get a 70% chance over the Read more…
7.0-magnitude undersea quake hits near Vanuatu in South Pacific, no tsunami alert
Tsunami animation courtsey GDACSNEW YORK — The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting a powerful undersea earthquake off the South Pacific island of Vanuatu.
The U.S.G.S. says a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck at 5:19 a.m. Sunday local time (1819 GMT) at a depth of 28.5 kilometers (17.7 miles). Its epicenter was 69 kilometers (42 miles) south-southwest of the Vanuatu capital of Port-Vila.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says no tsunami warning is in effect.
Vanuatu is part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching from South America through Alaska and down through the South Pacific. Read more…
Japan tsunami broke huge icebergs off Antarctica
The massive March 11 Japan earthquake and its ensuing tsunami were so powerful that they broke off huge icebergs thousands of miles away in Antarctica, according to a new study.
The calving of icebergs (where a huge chunk of ice breaks off from a glacier or ice shelf) from the Sulzberger Ice Shelf in Antarctica was linked to the tsunami, which originated with the magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of the Japanese island of Honshu, by satellite observations of the Antarctic coast immediately after the earthquake.
Icebergs have been reported to calve following earthquakes before, including after the magnitude 6.3 earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand, on Feb 22. But the new finding marks the first direct observation of such a connection between tsunamis and iceberg calving.
Japan’s Big Earthquake Rattled The Ionosphere
The giant 11 March 2011 magnitude 9 Tohoku earthquake not only shook the Earth and caused devastating tsunamis but also rattled the ionosphere, according to a new study.
Image: NASAThe ionosphere is a part of the upper atmosphere, comprising portions of the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere. It has practical importance because, among other functions, it influences radio propagation to distant places on the Earth. Read more…
Scientists Aglow After Big Discovery During Tsunami
Researchers using a camera on Maui have photographed the glow from atmospheric pressure disturbances generated by the March 11 tsunami, raising hopes that the technique could be used to predict the arrival of future waves.
The first observation of its kind was made from the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Station atop Haleakala by scientists in France, Brazil and the United States.
The March 11 earthquake in Japan generated a seismic sea wave that devastated parts of northern Honshu and caused millions of dollars of damage in Hawaii.
On the open ocean, such waves move at 500 mph but are only an inch high. Nevertheless, they put pressure on the atmosphere, scientists say.
“The atmosphere gets less and less dense as you get higher, and that allows the Read more…
Straw Fed To Japanese Found To Be Radioactive
MINAMISOMA, JAPAN (BNO NEWS) — Japan’s nuclear crisis has spread to its cattle as high levels of radioactive cesium were detected at a farm in Fukushima, officials said Monday.
The radioactive cesium was found in straw fed to cattle at a farm in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture with an average of 75,000 becquerels of the radioactive isotope per kilogramme (2.25 pounds), which is about 56 times the allowable limit, Kyodo news agency reported.
According to officials, the contaminated straw was stored in an exposed area of the farm without roofs during the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that caused a series of explosions that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Furthermore, the farm is located in one of the high-risk areas of the region, and officials suspect the straw could be the radioactive source of contaminated beef that had been detected in meat shipped from that area.
The contaminated meat of eleven cows was detected in Tokyo, where the meat was shipped for processing. However, at the time of the shipment, the Read more…
Is the Massive Puerto Rico Trench Awakening?
by Zen Gardner
“What Puerto Rico Trench?” Exactly.
The arrows in the map above show the direction the underlying Caribbean tectonic plates are moving, with the resultant build-up of pressure releasing into a myrid of earthquakes in the region over the years. Puerto Rico is the smaller green island in the middle, with the Dominican Republic the larger island to the left. The string of other Caribbean islands is buried under the earthquake markers that Read more…
Indonesia Hit By Strong Earthquake, Latest On Ring Of Fire
Indonesia was hit by a large earthquake and a series of strong tremors Sunday afternoon. A 6.5 magnitude quake, the latest in string of strong quakes to hit the Pacific Ring if Fire region during the last week, struck the country’s easternmost Province of Papua 1.16 p.m. GMT.
The quake was centred 53 kilometres (33 miles) northeast of Waren, a town on the northern coast of Papua island, according to Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. It was also felt in nearby Biak island, and Enarotali town on the main island The U.S. Geological Survey put the initial quake’s magnitude at 6.4.
The region was hit by at least moderate tremors in the following hours. The tremors measured 5.4 (x2), 5, 4.5 and 4.3 on the Richter Scale. There were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued.
Papua comprises most of the Read more…
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