Earth quake in Japan

Sometimes a major event like the one this morning can alter the earth's stress field enough where other parts of the plate, or adjoining plates, even thousands of miles away, can be affected. I would expect a sharp increase in seismic activity worldwide over the next few weeks (not necessarily high magnitude events, just an increase in the overall number of events).

 

Damn homes bobbing along like a bobber on a fishing line. Just horrific.

 

Also, the Yosemite earthquakes are caused by "hot-spot" activity and the flow of lava underground (much like Hawaii), not by plate boundary or fault movement. I wouldn't expect the event today to increase any risk of earthquakes at Yosemite.

 

I just hope relief efforts are not going to end up like another Haiti... My dad was supposed to be on a business trip to Japan, thank god it was canceled.

 

Wow, my heart goes out to those folks over there in Japan, but check out this video from a store while the quake hit. They seem a little confused yes, I know I would be, but at the end of the vid, they seem more concerned about all the booze than anything else! Sheesh! I'd be like, get the fuck outta the store!!! The wine can wait till later!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9QNzGY0qxw&feature=player_embedded

 

This is scary to see considering I live on a major (albeit relatively dormant for the past 100 years) fault line. I don't doubt seeing the New Madrid put Memphis into the Mississippi River one day!

 

they had their masks on before the quake

 

in asian countries people who work food service almost always wear masks, its kind of required

 

man this is crazy shit . prayers to them and i hope they get the reactor issue fixed quickly

 

Caught the news just as I was getting ready to leave for work this morning so only got to watch a few minutes of coverage. Definitely feel for the Japanese people. Absolutely terrible I couldn't imagine just having your town and all the surrounding areas wiped off the map in a matter of minutes. Now they're talking about the risk of a meltdown at a couple of the nuclear plants if they can't get the cooling equipment working again. So if you survived the initial quake damage and didn't have a building collapse on you, and managed to survive getting swept out to see by the tsunami, now you may have to worry about radiation. Never ending for them. Very sad.

Although as terrible and tragic as it is. it's fascinating seeing the raw power that this planet can produce through natural disasters. Some of those videos looked like they were straight out of a movie.

 

My thoughts and prayers go out to all those who have friends and family that have been involved in this tragedy. I have been watching the videos all evening and this is well beyond words.

Today was Payday for me and I wanted so badly to buy something for my truck, and as I sat here this evening watching the videos and looking at the pictures of the devastation I decided to donate that money to a worthier cause, to those who need it much more than I. My truck can wait, they can't!

The American Red Cross is accepting donations for those affected by this tragedy both in the US and Japan as well.. No matter how big or small they are.

I challenge every member of this forum to make any donation you can to help the people who have lost family members, friends and their homes and belongings because of this disaster.

 

Already did!

 

I can't post video since I'm at work now, but did anyone see the whirlpool created by the quake? There was a boat right on the edge. Also what always blows my mind up is earth quakes this size actually throw the earth off its axis! Just to think of that is crazy to me!

 

Pretty crazy but what a lot of people might not know is that the earth's axis wobbles like a top already.....it makes one full "wobble" of 170 miles every 25,000 years or so. It's called axial precession. So 10 cm is not that big a deal, haha....but still pretty incredible the power of this quake.

 

I actually did know it wobbles, but didn't know it was that much. The power of it is crazy. Also for anyone killed or injured by these events, and the families.

 

I know I'm so torn right now, this is a true geologic marvel and it's very exciting to me that so much of the early stages of this event were caught on video, etc. I know that sounds terrible but I just can't help it.

It makes me sick though thinking about how many folks have been affected .

 

I hear ya, like looking at an accident. Can't help yourself. If only we could see these things and know people where not hurt.

 

Here's a link showing all the aftershocks near the original quake so far. There have been a couple between 6.5 and 7.0.

Those are very serious earthquakes in themselves. For reference, the Loma Prieta (world series earthquake) of 1989 was a 6.9 magnitude.

http://www.iris.edu/seismon/zoom/events/?lon=141.9589&lat=37.662

 

supposedly the earth's shifted its rotation 25 cm south because of this