8.9 Earthquake and Tsunami hits Japan.

Been watching the news this morning of the major quake and Tsunami that has hit Japan. The damage looks to be extensive. My sympathies to those who have lost love ones and property in the disaster.

I see that the wave has already reached Hawaii though no reports of damage so far. It will reach the mainland along the Pacific Coast in a few more hours. I hope all those living along the coast have been warned. This is going to have quite a few repercussions in the hours and days to come.

It's absolutely horrific. I'm glad our area is relatively stable. But then, these natural occurances can hit anywhere in the world.

Unfortunately it looks like things could get a lot worse. Now they think 5 nuclear reactors are close to suffering melt downs.

Just got done watching the explosion at the one reactor complex. Pretty powerful from the looks of the shock wave. Luckily the prevailing winds are away from land and over the ocean. This will not help getting nuclear power as a alternative for the US if it is as bad as it is looking to be. I guess I better split some more wood.

I see that Hawaii is declaring a state of emergency to deal with the damage it received from the Tsunami. The West coast of the US seem to have light damage though one person died by venturing too close to the wave.

I expect to see some shortages in items as Japan begins to rebuild. The first area of concern is them selling US bonds in order to pay for it all. Since we already are experiencing inflation in this country I can not see it getting better. It is going to be a bumpy ride for people.

Wow!! The Earthquake has changed the tilt of the entire planet. It moved the island of Japan 8ft. I wonder the effect on climate and currents this will cause? Maybe the Sahara will start to get rains and become lush in the next few decades.

Certainly the effect on the rest of the Ring of Fire is going to be fascinating in the next few months. Volcanoes and earthquakes frequency is likely to increase and previously locked plates could let go without warning. Better keep your earthquake supplies handy if you live along the Pacific Coast.

I was living outside Seattle when the last big quake hit there in the 60's. I was a child but I remember some of the damage I saw. The school I attended was severely damaged and I was forced to have classes in portable buildings for a few years. Seattle is overdue for another major quake, not to mention the status of Mt. Rainier going active. I was still living in the Pacific Northwest when Mt. St. Helens blew up. I recall the ash falls just afterwards. It was something to wake up to see the World grey outside, like it had snowed, only it was ash covering everything.

Glad I do not live on the west coast anymore. I would be extremely concerned that something was going to happen. I do however worry for my relatives and old friends that live there. I really expect disaster is about to strike. I pray it does not, but the potential looks bad.

I was speculating on the effects of these earthquakes myself. New Zealand, now Japan; if there were some more, say in Alaska, California, and maybe South America, in rapid succession, if the whole plate could be loosened up, centrifugal force take over and the whole Pacific basin fly off into space. That could be bad. Might bring the number of planets back up to nine, though.

Seriously, though, it will be interesting to see what the near future brings. Whether this big quake just released a lot of built up tension, or just transferred it to different points and more quakes will result. I am far enough up and away from the coast and any major fault lines and volcanoes that I'm not to concerned with direct problems here, but I have a son not far from Los Angeles and one near Portland, and I am a little concerned for them. Both are near potentially active areas. And I have other relatives in Washington and the SF Bay Area. I guess I should be cleaning the guest rooms out.

Quote :

NASA geophysicist Richard Gross calculated that Earth's rotation sped up by 1.6 microseconds. That's because of the shift in Earth's mass caused by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.

That change in rotation speed is slightly more than the one caused by last year's larger Chile earthquake. But 2004's bigger Sumatra earthquake caused a 6.8-microsecond shortening of the day.

I thought that it's been harder to get as much done in a day lately. Now I know why!

The days getting shorter comes as no surprise to us older folks.
I do wonder the effect of increasing the tilt of the Earth on Weather patterns. The fact that Japan got up and moved is something hard to wrap the mind around.

I see tonight that it is looking likely for core melt in the 3 nuclear reactors under concern at the one facility most damaged by the quake. Not that I expect this to be as bad as the Media hyperbole likes to make it, but it will certainly make the clean up efforts a whole lot more difficult. Having worked as a Navy "Nuke" operator I have a bit of a understanding of the problems involved.

Problems I see with the string of major quakes around the Ring of Fire is that they have been advancing clockwise towards the US. If this holds, Alaska or Seattle is next in line. Portland is not as high of risk from a quake (though I imagine it would not be good) but if some of the volcanoes go off with the right prevailing wind it could make for a terrible problem. My Uncle and his family live just North of Portland on the Washington side of the Columbia river. My relatives live in Alaska, B.C, Washington, Oregon and southern California. Hopefully nothing that effects the whole area happens since I do not have enough spare tin shacks here in Arkansas.

I remember last summer when I was in Alaska there was a fairly good sized quake like 6.0 off the southwest coast, but it didn't cause much damage. I'm glad to be a long way from any fault lines. The biggest concern here are tornadoes.

No, Portland is not a big quake risk, but when Mt. St. Helens blew Portland got a *lot* of the ash. Lots of burned up engines and a shortage of air filters for a while, especially the good ones.

bdquick, I read you post rather quickly (the small type I use and my old eyes didn't help) and read "tornadoes" as "tomatoes". Brought some interesting imagery to mind.

The attack of the Killer Tomato!!

Now that would be classified as a Natural disaster unlike the Blob which was man made. Thinking of tomatoes, I have to finish my garden preps. With the rise in food costs I expect from all that is going on it will be nice to have the fresh veges.

I notice they are still in panic over the Nuclear reactors though it look like it was the Japan stock market that melted down. The fall out from it is more likely to cause the World grief than any radioactivity will. I notice that our Stock market is about to follow the Japanese off the cliff. It will be interesting watching today. Luckily, I have already gotten rid of the stocks I had. I got burned in the last free fall back in '09 and am still wary of this recovery we are supposed to be in.

If you follow my example of buying high and selling low, you don't have to worry about your investments anymore.

All that tomato acid could be killer.

bozo wrote:

If you follow my example of buying high and selling low, you don't have to worry about your investments anymore.

Take all that you can get and leave nothing behind.

My investment strategy is akin to yours Bozo, though I buy low and then end up having the company go broke. I can than console myself with watching the ones that bought high such as Apple and Google last year make money from nothing.