Tsunami warnings issued for Pacific rim

[caesium]

About the supermoon thing...you might want to read this article:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/ba...se-earthquake/

[dashman]

Good article. That's the kind of info I was searching for. Sort of puts my questions to rest.

[seedjar]

I don't quite follow the logic there - it feels like hand-waving to me. While the moon wasn't at perigee during the quake, the perigee has been getting closer and closer with each cycle recently. I don't really think we understand enough about the way that the gravity of nearby massive bodies influences plate tectonics and flows in the Earth's mantle to make a particularly definitive call about this. I think the urge to tune out astrological pseudo-science is leading more empirical types to jump the gun with blanket statements like, "there is no way this earthquake was caused by the moon."
If someone was asserting that a magnitude 8.9 quake could not happen without the presence of a supermoon, I could understand dismissing that offhand. And certainly, some people seem to be "blaming" the moon and giving it way too much credit. But there's a very big difference between saying that the moon caused the quake and saying that it contributed to it. Show me a mathematical model where the quake occurs with identical profiles both with and without a supermoon and then we'll talk. We don't have such a clear understanding of the dynamics at work here; I'm skeptical that we even have the means to compute them right now, or sufficient data to define the initial conditions.
~Joe

[Not a Number]

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/me...312-1bsf4.html

Published on Saturday, March 12, 2011 by the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) (excerpt)
Huge Blast at Japan Nuclear Power Plant

TOKYO -- A nuclear reactor damaged by Japan's biggest earthquake may be starting to melt down, local nuclear authorities have warned.

Smoke rises from Fukushima Daiichi 1 nuclear reactor after an explosion March 12, 2011 in this still image from video footage via Reuters TV There was a large explosion inside a concrete reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 power station about 220 kilometres north of Tokyo after the reactor's cooling system failed.

Smoke was seen billowing from the plant last night, four people were injured and radioactivity had risen 20-fold.

The explosion destroyed the walls of the reactor building.

But serious damage to the container of the reactor is believed to be unlikely, Kyodo News reported, citing unidentified nuclear safety agency officials.

Fuel rods at the reactor may be melting after radioactive cesium material left by atomic fission was detected near the site, Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Yuji Kakizaki said by phone.

''If the fuel rods are melting and this continues, a reactor meltdown is possible,'' Kakizaki said.

A meltdown refers to a heat build-up of such intensity in the core it melts the floor of the reactor containment housing.

A Japanese cabinet minister confirmed radiation was leaking from the plant and there were reports that the cooling system to a second reactor had also failed. Earlier, the Japanese government ordered a 10-kilometre exclusion zone around the site. Traffic piled up as the government scrambled to evacuate more than 45,000 residents.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news...313-1bsg9.html

Radiation down at Japan nuke plant
Yuri Kageyama
March 13, 2011 - 12:39AM

AP (excerpt)

Japan's government says the metal container sheltering a nuclear reactor was not affected by an explosion that destroyed the building it's in.

Government spokesman Yukio Edano says the radiation around the plant did not rise after the blast, but instead is decreasing. He added that pressure in the reactor is also decreasing.

[dashman]

That's horrible. I hope everyone within windfall heeded the evacuation warnings. I would suspect things may be worse than what they are telling the media in an effort to prevent panic. I sure hope I am wrong though.

[Not a Number]

http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15...plant-24499890

[seedjar]

o.O
Why don't we have an international task force for this kind of thing? With nuclear energy becoming a more and more popular option, it seems that something like this could happen at any time. I know Japan has rescue operations to be thinking of, but if I were in charge I'd be air-freighting whatever personnel and equipment was needed to cool that pile, without a moment's hesitation. A meltdown isn't just Japan's problem - it would be bad for the whole world. Isn't this one of the reasons we have the UN?
~Joe

[thez_yo]

Apparently the infrastructure was only built and tested to a 7.9 earthquake, so um... I'm going to go eat some more seaweed and keep my KI pills handy...

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/12...eltdown-f.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/12...hima-oper.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/12...-and-tsun.html