Massive Earthquake Off Japan’s Coast; Magnitude 8.9
The magnitude of the earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan today continues to be revised upward. The first report, quoted below, was 7.9; it was later revised to 8.8 and as of the initial time of this post, CNN, AP and other news outlets are now saying it has a rating of 8.9.
L.A. Observed tweets, “Perspective: only one U.S. quake, Alaska 9.2 in ’64, has had a higher magnitude than tonight’s 8.9 in Japan.”
“7.9 quake off Japan rocks Tokyo buildings,” AP initially reported:
A 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northern Japan, shaking buildings violently as far away as Tokyo. The highest tsunami warning was issued for the country’s northeast coast.
The quake struck at 2:46 p.m. local time off the coast of Sendai north of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. A wave of as high as 6 meters is expected to hit the coast of Miyagi prefecture, the agency said.
An updated report placed the quake at a mammoth 8.8 rating; AP reports tsunami damage:
Japan was struck by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, unleashing a 13-foot (4-meter) tsunami that washed away cars and tore away buildings along the coast near the epicenter. There were reports of injuries in Tokyo.In various locations along Japan’s coast, TV footage showed massive damage from the tsunami, with dozens of cars, boats and even buildings being carried along by waters. A large ship swept away by the tsunami rammed directly into a breakwater in Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture, according to footage on public broadcaster NHK.
Officials were trying to assess damage, injuries and deaths from the quake but had no immediate details.
The quake that struck at 2:46 p.m. was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks, including a 7.4-magnitude one about 30 minutes later. The U.S. Geological Survey upgraded the strength of the first quake to a magnitude 8.9, while Japan’s meteorological agency measured it at 7.9.
Steve Herman, a Voice of America journalist based in Seoul, also has numerous updates on Twitter, including one of the first tsunami sightings. There’s a photo of buildings on fire here.
CNN’s Lateef Mungin tweets, “There have been only 5 other earthquakes larger than this one since 1906.”
Speaking of CNN, Breitbart.tv has a streaming live feed of CNN, which has wall to wall coverage of this disaster.
Breaking News on Twitter has numerous updates; more as it comes in here at the Tatler, and presumably Instapundit as well.
Horrific video of the tsunami that struck Japan has been going up on YouTube; Richard Fernandez has several such clip at the Belmont Club; here’s another:
Many photos are going up on Twitter of the aftermath as well; click here for a continuously updated stream of images, including this incredible nighttime shot of a fireball-shaped explosion at a steel refinery in Chiba, found via Jason Whitely of ABC’s Dallas-Fort Worth affiliate. Click below for the full-size image:
“A tsunami watch was issued for the coasts of Oregon, Washington and California as well as parts of Alaska,” the Oregonian reports; estimated times of initial wave arrival can be found at the NOAA Website.
CNN has uploaded video from inside their Tokyo office as the earthquake initially hit:
Update: The Anchoress notes that Google has launched a person finder for Japan; click to be taken to the top of the Tatler homepage and scroll down for updates throughout the day from the rest of the Tatler bloggers.
(An initial version of this post appeared at Ed Driscoll.com.)
May the peace and love of the Lord Jesus Christ be upon the people of Japan.
We have lots of troops and equipment, including ships, helicopters, and medical supplies, all stationed at Okinawa. Hopefully, these will be of some help to these poor people. We need to do everything in our power to help the Japanese in their time of need.
My wife’s best friend was just visiting and got back in Japan a couple of days ago. She works at our military base in Misawa, which is pretty close to the epicenter. We’ve heard nothing, but our thoughts and prayers are with all people affected by this great tragedy.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan, and with everyone else from the Pacific islands to the Pacific Northwest.
At 8.9 on Richter, this quake was roughly equivalent to a 330 MT nuclear weapon (note that no one has ever actually built one that big for technical reasons). The 1923 Great Kanto quake, by comparison, was a 7.9 quake, about 1/10 as powerful as this one.
(The Richter scale is base-10 logarithmic, i.e. each full number increment is 10x the one before it. Note that it only goes to 10, and that no 1o level tremor has ever been recorded. That’s because theoretically, at 10, the cohesion of the earth strata is completely gone, and you have not just temporary liquefaction but permanent disruption- rock literally crumbles to dust, and stays that way.)
The expected tsunami (seismic sea wave) should hit the west coast of North America about 0800 Eastern time.
This is not over yet.
clear ether
eon
I was scheduled to land about 2PM local time today in Tokyo, but American Airlines bumped the fare from $900 to $1400 bucks, so I cancelled the trip. Thats the only reason I’m not there right now. Life is a interesting thing.
I was forward deployed with the Fleet in Yokosuka, Japan. I read a lot about their culture & history, and got to know many good Japanese folks. If anybody can pull together through something like this it is the Japanese. It is a cohesive, resilient culture.
They are foremost in my prayers.
Japan is one of the world’s most advanced societies. Even though the quake was horrific, the Japanese will be able to deal with this on their own. Regardless, our prayers go out to them.
In contrast, think of what happened to New Orleans during Katrina. If a large quake were to hit us, both the affected area and the government would be reduced to chaos, in large part because of progressive “hope and change” over the decades to both our economy and our social mores. We can thank the progressives for a never-ending tsunami of “man-caused disasters” in the U.S.
If anybody can pull together through something like this it is the Japanese. It is a cohesive, resilient culture.
Well yeah. They have to be. It’s what you become when you live on a volcano island that’s constantly hit by tsunamis.
They INVENTED the word Tsunami.
Our thoughts and prayers are pouring out to all the Japanese people, in this time of dire need.
Unfortunately, the slow moving disaster taking place in America, needs more than that.
Oki o tsukete kudasai.
This one is odd. PTWC is reporting 5.7 ft wave in Kahului, Maui. It’s got another 12 hrs or so before it reaches Chile and Peru
So often it is true – it’s not what you have it’s what you are. I have faith and hope that the Japanese people are strong and can pull together and come though this.
That said, my prayers are with them today, as I know yours are, and I hope that what help we mortals may be able to give will reach and comfort them soon.
I was stationed at Misawa AB, for more than four years in the late 197s – and I always worried about a tsunami – because although Misawa AB was eight or ten miles inland from the coast, that part of Japan was as flat as a pancake. There were constant small earthquakes – I recall one of them collapsing a department store in Sendai.
My thoughts and prayers to the Japanese people.
Prayers all around. So scary.
Unlike many cities here in the US after some team wins some championship, there are no reports of looting.
Racial homogeneity at work.