Japan Earthquake/Tsunami & Related News

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Why Japan's Tsunami Triggered an Enormous Whirlpool


Tsunami swirls near a port in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture (state) after Japan was struck by a strong earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, March 11, 2011.

The tsunami that hit northern Japan today created an enormous whirlpool in a harbor off the east coast of that country. According to researchers, whirlpools aren't unusual after waves of this size.



The tsunami was triggered by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan at 2:46 p.m. Tokyo time. Video footage shows a boat swirling in the massive eddy. It's not known whether anyone was on the vessel.


Based on eye-witness accounts and video in recent years, whirlpools probably occur with some regularity after large tsunamis, said Ruth Ludwin, a retired seismologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.


"Whirlpools have a big impact on the human imagination," Ludwin said. "They're very notable and very frightening. But from the perspective of the geological record, they don't leave any particular sign that has been recognized so far."


Whirlpools happen because of the interaction between rushing water and the geology of the coastline and seafloor, Ludwin said.


"Obviously there is a lot of water that is being pushed around, and it is interacting with the shape, the bathymetry, near the coastline," she said. [Album: Monster Waves]


The first images and videos of post-tsunami whirlpools came out of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Ludwin said. But eyewitness accounts from previous coastal quakes suggest that tsunami whirlpools are nothing new. One was reported in the great Lisbon earthquake of 1775, Ludwin said. The Haida people of the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia have myths about a whirling wave of foam.


Apela Colorado, Ludwin's colleague with the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network in Hawaii, has identified a petroglyph in southeastern Alaska that seems to show a whirlpool in the body of a sea monster. In an abstract presented at the 2006 meeting of the Seismological Society of America, Colorado and Ludwin describe the native myths about that monster.


According to ancient tales, they wrote, the creature "inundates canoes, makes the salt-water boil, swallows fishermen, pushes fish into a cave, and creates a canoe passage by flopping across a spit."



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/ ... z1GKOj3o5s

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Toyota, Honda, Subaru And Nissan Factories Off Line Due To Record Quake



Companies including Sony Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. halted output at plants after an 8.9- magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, damaging production facilities and causing power outages.


Sony halted and evacuated six factories in northeastern Japan, said Yasuhiro Okada, a spokesman at the Tokyo-based company. He said the company was assessing the impact of power outages and damage to its facilities in the region, which make Blu-ray discs, magnetic heads and batteries.




http://www.autospies.com/news/Toyota-Ho ... ake-62322/

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Sony, Toyota Among Japanese Companies Closing Factories After Earthquake
By Terje Langeland - Mar 11, 2011 4:38 AM CT



Companies including Sony Corp. (6758) and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) halted output at plants after an 8.9- magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, damaging production facilities and causing power outages.

Sony halted and evacuated six factories in northeastern Japan, said Yasuhiro Okada, a spokesman at the Tokyo-based company. He said the company was assessing the impact of power outages and damage to its facilities in the region, which make Blu-ray discs, magnetic heads and batteries.

The quake, Japan’s strongest in at least a century, struck at 2:46 p.m. local time 130 kilometers (81 miles) off the coast of Sendai, north of Tokyo, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The tremor caused a tsunami as high as 10 meters (33 feet) that inundated northern towns and caused buildings to shake violently as far away as Tokyo. At least 26 people were killed by the wave and many were missing, state broadcaster NHK Television said.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, and its affiliates closed three factories, said Shiori Hashimoto, a spokeswoman in Tokyo. The Toyota City-based carmaker began production at a new plant in Miyagi this year that makes Yaris compact cars and has capacity to make 120,000 vehicles a year.

Honda, Nissan

Honda Motor Co. closed two factories, said Hajime Kaneko, a spokesman for the Tokyo-based carmaker. A 42-year-old male employee was crushed to death by a collapsing wall at a research and development center in Tochigi prefecture and about 30 other employees were injured, Kaneko said.

Nissan Motor Co. closed four factories including car plants in Tochigi and Kanagawa and engine factories in Kanagawa and Fukushima, Mitsuru Yonekawa, a spokesman for the Yokohama-based company, said by phone. Two workers suffered minor injuries, he said.

A refinery on fire outside Tokyo exploded, while nuclear power stations were shut down. Narita airport, Tokyo’s main international gateway, was closed and bullet-train services suspended. More than 4 million homes were without power, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

Toyota shares traded in Frankfurt fell as much as 3.8 percent, the biggest intraday decline since Jan. 21, to 30.45 euros as of 10:15 a.m. local time. Honda dropped as much as 4.5 percent and Sony slid as much as 2.5 percent in the German city.

Fuji Heavy

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the maker of Subaru cars, closed five factories, said Kenta Matsumoto, a spokesman for the Tokyo-based company.

Toyota Boshoku Corp. (3116), a Toyota Motor supplier, reported damage at a plant in Miyagi. Roads were also cracked near its factory, said Misako Nagata, a spokeswoman for the parts maker. Denso Corp. (6902), Japan’s biggest auto-parts maker, said a plant under construction south of Miyagi was damaged. All of its workers were safe, said Goro Kanemasu, a spokesman for the company.

Sapporo Holdings Ltd. (2501), Japan’s fourth-biggest beermaker, suspended operations at factories in Sendai and Chiba due to power outages and damage, Katsuhito Ogawa, a spokesman for the Tokyo-based company, said by e-mail.

Oriental Land Co., the operator of Tokyo Disney Resort, will close the amusement park tomorrow to inspect facilities, the company said in a statement today. It hasn’t yet decided whether to open the resort on March 13. No injuries were reported at the resort, the company said.

Panasonic, Canon

Panasonic Corp. (6752) said several employees at its three factories in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures sustained minor injuries. The Osaka-based company is still assessing the damage to facilities, Yuichi Takatoku, a Tokyo-based spokesman for the company, said by phone.

Canon Inc. (7751), the world’s biggest camera maker, didn’t suffer damage to plants that would halt output, said Hirotomo Fujimori, a spokesman in Tokyo, where the company is based.

The quake was followed by a 7.1-magnitude aftershock at 4:25 p.m., the U.S. Geological Service said.

Boats smashed into walls as the tsunami struck, inundating buildings with black water full of debris across stretches of coast north of Tokyo, NHK images showed. One large building was lifted off its foundations and dragged into the ocean.

Farmland was flooded with burning debris in some areas as the tidal surge swept inland. Large boats were left stranded after the water surged back to sea.

Airport Flooded

The airport in Sendai, a city of 1 million people 310 kilometers north of Tokyo, was flooded by the tsunami, according to NHK footage.

Japan Airlines Corp. diverted 22 flights to other airports, the company said in a faxed statement. In total, 27 flights have been impacted by the quake, affecting 5,290 people, the statement said.

East Japan Railway Co. (9020), the nation’s largest train operator, suspended operations of trains in the Tokyo area along with its bullet-train operations, according to its website. Tokyo Metro Co., the capital’s largest subway operator, said on its website it stopped trains, forcing commuters to line up for taxis.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered the army to aid rescue efforts after the quake, which struck 373 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.

The following is a summary of what companies have said regarding damage from the earthquake:

Company Status

Sony Corp. Production halted at six plants
Toyota Motor Corp. Three group factories halted
Canon Inc. No damage affecting production reported
Nippon Telegraph & Restricted calls to some areas
Telephone Corp. including Tokyo
Nissan Motor Co. Halted production at four plants; two
injuries
Honda Motor Co. Halted two plants; one employee killed;
about 30 injured
Toyota Boshoku Corp. Damage at plant in Miyagi
Seiko Epson Corp. Gathering information
Panasonic Corp. Assessing damage, several workers with
minor injuries
Oriental Land Co. Will close Tokyo Disney Resort tomorrow
for inspections
Denso Corp. Damage to plant under construction in
Fukushima
Asahi Breweries Ltd. Assessing damage
Kirin Holdings Co. No major damage reported
Sapporo Holdings Ltd. Damage at Sendai and Chiba plants
Sharp Corp. Assessing damage
East Japan Railway Co. Halted train services in Tokyo area
Tokyo Metro Co. Halted train services
Tokyo Electron Ltd. No immediate reports of damage
NTT DoCoMo Inc. Mobile-phone service disruptions
Softbank Corp. Mobile-phone service disruptions
Fuji Heavy Industries Five plants halted
Ltd.


To contact the reporter on this story: Terje Langeland in Tokyo at Tlangeland1@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bret Okeson in Tokyo at bokeson@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-1 ... quake.html

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Japan earthquake, tsunami could cost insurers $10 billion, analyst says
March 11, 2011 | 11:26 am


The earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and the Pacific on Friday could cost the insurance industry about $10 billion, according to James Shuck, an analyst with Jefferies International Ltd. in London. That’s far smaller than the $50 billion analysts estimate a giant, once-in-250 years earthquake would cause. The number is smaller because the earthquake occurred in an area of relatively low population, and because many Japanese do not have earthquake insurance, he said.


"At this stage insured losses from the Japanese earthquake appear limited,” he said, in a note. “From an insurance perspective, it is fortunate that the epicentre was near Sendai rather than Tokyo."



Insurance claims are likely to be for property rather than life, he said. Only about 10% of Japanese homes are covered under earthquake insurance, and that coverage is only for part of the property value. The 1995 Kobe earthquake, for instance, incurred $100 billion of economic losses, but only $3 billion of insurance losses.

Aflac Inc. is the largest foreign insurer in Japan, and has "rather limited" financial exposure to the earthquake and tsunami, its chief executive told the AP. Aflac does not sell property insurance.

The biggest business impact of the tsunami so far seems to be on automakers. Major ports in Japan are closed, and car companies such as Honda, Nissan and Toyota have suspended parts of their operations.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_c ... unami.html

[Fashionista]

<center>Explosion @ Nuclear Power Plant in Japan





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[Siddalee]

URGENT: 'Partial Meltdown' Likely Under Way at Japan Nuclear Plant

LATEST UPDATE: A top Japanese government official says a 'partial meltdown' is likely under way at the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant which suffered a cooling systems failure after an explosion, as nearly 170,000 people flee the area at second reactor affected by Friday's massive earthquake.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Sunday that radiation at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima briefly rose above legal limits, but it has since declined significantly.

Three reactors at the plant lost their cooling functions in the aftermath of quake and tsunami because of a power outage.

The Japanese government said radiation emanating from the plant appeared to have decreased after Saturday's blast, which produced a cloud of white smoke that obscured the complex. But the danger was grave enough that officials pumped seawater into the reactor to avoid disaster and moved 170,000 people from the area.

"Evacuations around both affected nuclear plants have begun," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement to Reuters.

Sky News is reporting that up to 160 people may have suffered radiation exposure. Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says people are being tested for radiation exposure.

Authorities have evacuated people from a 12-mile radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactor.

Aftershocks have hit near the troubled nuclear power plant, as 6.1 and 6.3-magnitude quakes rattled the area.

Japan dealt with the nuclear threat as it struggled to determine the scope of the earthquake, the most powerful in its recorded history, and the tsunami that ravaged its northeast Friday with breathtaking speed and power. The official count of the dead was 763, but the government said the figure could far exceed 1,000.

Devastation stretched hundreds of miles along the coast, where thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centers cut off from rescuers and aid.

The scale of destruction was not yet known, but there were grim signs that the death toll could soar. One report said four whole trains along the coast had disappeared Friday and still not been located. The East Japan Railway Company says one of them, a bullet train, had 400 people on board,The Guardian U.K. reports.

Others said 9,500 people in one coastal town were unaccounted for and that at least 200 bodies had washed ashore elsewhere.

Continued aftershocks, some as high as magnitude 6.4, were hampering search efforts as strong waves batter the coastline.

More than 1,231 buildings have been destroyed and another 4,000 damaged, according to a United Nations report.

Atsushi Ito, an official in Miyagi prefecture, among the worst hit states, could not confirm those figures, noting that with so little access to the area, thousands of people in scores of town could not be contacted or accounted for.

"Our estimates based on reported cases alone suggest that more than 1,000 people have lost their lives in the disaster," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. "Unfortunately, the actual damage could far exceed that number considering the difficulty assessing the full extent of damage."

Among the most worrying developments was the possible meltdown of a nuclear reactor near the quake's epicenter. Edano said an explosion caused by vented hydrogen gas destroyed the exterior walls of the building where the reactor is, but not the actual metal housing enveloping the reactor.

Edano said the radiation around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant had not risen after the blast, but had in fact decreased. He did not say why that was so. He added that pressure decreased after the blast.

Still, virtually any increase in ambient radiation can raise long-term cancer rates, and authorities were planning to distribute iodine, which helps protect against thyroid cancer.

The explosion was caused by hydrogen interacting with oxygen outside the reactor. The hydrogen was formed when the superheated fuel rods came in contact with water being poured over it to prevent a meltdown.

"They are working furiously to find a solution to cool the core, and this afternoon in Europe we heard that they have begun to inject sea water into the core," said Mark Hibbs, a senior associate at the Nuclear Policy Program for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "That is an indication of how serious the problem is and how the Japanese had to resort to unusual and improvised solutions to cool the reactor core."

Officials have said that radiation levels were elevated before the blast: At one point, the plant was releasing each hour the amount of radiation a person normally absorbs from the environment each year.

The explosion was preceded by puff of white smoke that gathered intensity until it became a huge cloud enveloping the entire facility, located in Fukushima, 20 miles from Iwaki. After the explosion, the walls of the building crumbled, leaving only a skeletal metal frame.

Tokyo Power Electric Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, said four workers suffered fractures and bruises and were being treated at a hospital.

The trouble began at the plant's Unit 1 after the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami it spawned knocked out power there, depriving it of its cooling system.

Power was knocked out by the quake in large areas of Japan, which has requested increased energy supplies from Russia, Russia's RIA Novosti agency reported.

The concerns about a radiation leak at the nuclear power plant overshadowed the massive tragedy laid out along a 1,300-mile stretch of the coastline where scores of villages, towns and cities were battered by the tsunami, packing 23-feet high waves.

It swept inland about six miles in some areas, swallowing boats, homes, cars, trees and everything else.

"The tsunami was unbelievably fast," said Koichi Takairin, a 34-year-old truck driver who was inside his sturdy four-ton rig when the wave hit the port town of Sendai.

"Smaller cars were being swept around me," he said. "All I could do was sit in my truck."

His rig ruined, he joined the steady flow of survivors who walked along the road away from the sea and back into the city on Saturday.

Smashed cars and small airplanes were jumbled up against buildings near the local airport, several miles from the shore. Felled trees and wooden debris lay everywhere as rescue workers coasted on boats through murky waters around flooded structures, nosing their way through a sea of debris.

Late Saturday night, firefighters had yet to contain a large blaze at the Cosmo Oil refinery in the city of Ichihara.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said 50,000 troops joined rescue and recovery efforts, aided by boats and helicopters. Dozens of countries also offered help.

President Obama pledged U.S. assistance following what he called a potentially "catastrophic" disaster. He said one U.S. aircraft carrier was already in Japan and a second was on its way.

More than 215,000 people were living in 1,350 temporary shelters in five prefectures, the national police agency said.

Aid has barely begun to trickle into many areas.

"All we have to eat are biscuits and rice balls," said Noboru Uehara, 24, a delivery truck driver who was wrapped in a blanket against the cold at center in Iwake. "I'm worried that we will run out of food."

Since the quake, more than 1 million households have not had water, mostly concentrated in northeast. Some 4 million buildings were without power.

About 24 percent of electricity in Japan is produced by 55 nuclear power units in 17 plants and some were in trouble after the quake.

Japan declared states of emergency at two power plants after their units lost cooling ability. Although the government spokesman played down fears of radiation leak, the Japanese nuclear agency spokesman Shinji Kinjo acknowledged there were still fears of a meltdown.

A "meltdown" is not a technical term. Rather, it is an informal way of referring to a very serious collapse of a power plant's systems and its ability to manage temperatures.

Yaroslov Shtrombakh, a Russian nuclear expert, said a Chernobyl-style meltdown was unlikely.

"It's not a fast reaction like at Chernobyl," he said. "I think that everything will be contained within the grounds, and there will be no big catastrophe."

In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded and caught fire, sending a cloud of radiation over much of Europe. That reactor -- unlike the Fukushima one -- was not housed in a sealed container, so there was no way to contain the radiation once the reactor exploded.

The reactor in trouble has already leaked some radiation: Before the explosion, operators had detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1's control room.

An evacuation area around the plant was expanded to a radius of 12 miles from the six miles before. People in the expanded area were advised to leave quickly; 51,000 residents were previously evacuated.

"Everyone wants to get out of the town. But the roads are terrible," said Reiko Takagi, a middle-aged woman, standing outside a taxi company. "It is too dangerous to go anywhere. But we are afraid that winds may change and bring radiation toward us."

The transport ministry said all highways from Tokyo leading to quake-hit areas were closed, except for emergency vehicles. Mobile communications were spotty and calls to the devastated areas were going unanswered.

Local TV stations broadcast footage of people lining up for water and food such as rice balls. In Fukushima, city officials were handing out bottled drinks, snacks and blankets. But there were large areas that were surrounded by water and were unreachable.

One hospital in Miyagi prefecture was seen surrounded by water. The staff had painted an SOS on its rooftop and were waving white flags.

Technologically advanced Japan is well prepared for quakes and its buildings can withstand strong jolts, even a temblor like Friday's, which was the strongest the country has experienced since official records started in the late 1800s. What was beyond human control was the killer tsunami that followed.

Japan's worst previous quake was a magnitude 8.3 temblor in Kanto that killed 143,000 people in 1923, according to the USGS. A magnitude 7.2 quake in Kobe killed 6,400 people in 1995.

Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" -- an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching around the Pacific where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur, including the one that triggered the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in 12 countries. A magnitude-8.8 quake that shook central Chile in February 2010 also generated a tsunami and killed 524 people.

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[Eliza]

A dead giveaway that something was critically wrong should have been when the dumbed down main stream media kept reporting that the USAF was flying in "coolant."

What were they "flying in?" Gallons of Prestone? Glycol?

Why would anyone "fly in coolant", 1/2 way around the world, when the "UHS" Ultimate Heat Sink, the ocean, was at your disposal?

[Siddalee]

Mar 13, 10:25 PM EDT

Soldiers warn of tsunami threat in NE Japan

Soldiers warn of tsunami threat in NE Japan

SOMA, Japan (AP) -- Soldiers and officials in northeastern Japan are warning residents that the area could be hit by another tsunami and are ordering residents to higher ground.

Sirens around the town of Soma went off late Monday morning and public address systems ordered residents to higher ground.

Kyodo News Agency said the tsunami could be 10 feet (3 meters) high, citing Fukushima prefectural officials.

An Associated Press reporter stood about 100 yards (100 meters) from the coast.

The area was hit by a massive quake and tsunami on Friday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information.

[Siddalee]

Mar 13, 10:56 PM EDT

Hydrogen explosion at stricken Japanese nuke plant

Latest News
11,000 evacuated in Russia after Japanese quake

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's chief cabinet secretary says a hydrogen explosion has occurred at Unit 3 of Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. The blast was similar to an earlier one at a different unit of the facility.

Yukio Edano says people within a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius were ordered inside following Monday's. AP journalists felt the explosion 30 miles (50 kilometers) away.

Edano says the reactor's inner containment vessel holding nuclear rods is intact, allaying some fears of the risk to the environment and public.

The No. 3 Unit reactor had been under emergency watch for a possible explosion as pressure built up there following a hydrogen blast Saturday in the facility's Unit 1.

More than 180,000 people have evacuated the area.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

TOKYO (AP) - Japanese officials say they believe a hydrogen explosion has occurred at Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, similar to an earlier one at a different unit in the facility.

A massive column of smoke was seen belching from the plant's No. 3 unit Monday. The reactor had been under emergency watch for a possible explosion as pressure built up there following a hydrogen blast Saturday in the facility's Unit 1.

Officials have been racing stave off multiple reactor meltdowns after a devastating quake and tsunami incapacitated the Fukushima plant.

More than 180,000 people have evacuated the area, and up to 160 may have been exposed to radiation.
http://tinyurl.com/4rc36k4

[Eliza]

Second explosion vidieo...

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

[gwen]

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[Eliza]

The big wigs there have been taking a lot of heat (no pun intended ) with accusations that they don't know what they're doing.

When it was reported that the reactor cooling pumps had failed, and the utility was showering the reactors with seawater, I had visions of them using fire hoses and gasoline pumps like you would use to pump out a pit or basement.

Amazingly, they were using fire hoses but pumping the water with fire pumper trucks that they actually allowed to run out of fuel and allowing the fuel rods to again become uncovered when the water turned to steam. If they lose one reactor, and it explodes, the rest of the area will become uninhabitible, due to being crapped up, thus preventing any access to the entire complex. Code brown. Bend over and kiss your butt good-bye. Harey Carey.

Remote operational control centers are not the same as boots on the ground. Nothing seems to be operational anyway and instrumentation has failed.

[Eliza]

[Eliza]

Meanwhile, a Navy crew delivering aid received almost a month’s worth of radiation in just one hour.
The U.S.S. Ronald Reagan was around 100 miles (160km) offshore when low-level radioactive contamination was detected from the stricken Fukushima plant.
Low radiation levels were detected on 17 members of the crew on three helicopters as they returned to the ship after delivering aid to the devastated city of Sendai.

Most of the radiation was found on the clothing of the 17-man crew, but also on one's skin. The sailors were said to not have experienced ill-effects following the incident.
Contamination was found on the helicopters, which were scrubbed down on landing.<MUCH>