# Large earthquake in Northeast Japan **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 11, 2011, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279 "2011-03-11T06:10:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/241 "2011-03-12T02:06:21Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > OK, it can’t be a “China Syndrome.” Where is Japan’s antipode? This [antipodes map](http://www.antipodemap.com/) will give you the diametrically opposite of any point on Earth. Now BBC is saying two nuclear reactors are in trouble, and they may have to let off some radioactive stream. Going to have to evacuate maybe 10,000 residents. Or was that tens of thousands? I almost expect Godzilla to make an appearance at any time. It’s difficult to imagine a shittier scenario than what’s going on in Japan now. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/242 "2011-03-12T02:06:35Z")
You’ve probably seen some of these pictures before, but [this site](http://framework.latimes.com/2011/03/11/earthquake-and-tsunami-hits-japan/#/0) has the highest resolution ones I have yet seen. Spectacular, even if depressing. Although it may change frequently, when I last viewed that site, it had 37 images, so be sure to see them all if you can. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/243 "2011-03-12T02:30:37Z")
Tsunamis tsuck. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/244 "2011-03-12T02:32:08Z")
BBC News is reporting a 6.8 aftershock off the coast minutes ago. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/245 "2011-03-12T02:33:42Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > She was not an expert, but one BBC reporter asked what I thought at the time to be a rather stupid question. After the quake and before the tsunami, she was on the line to some official in Japan, a tsunami alert was issued, and she asked: “So, what do Japanese people do in a tsunami alert?” I mentally slapped my head, but I never would have imagined the answer to have been: “They go out and snap photos.” That’s what American people do in tsunamis. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/246 "2011-03-12T02:38:23Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > We’ve got a Tsunami warning here in SoCal for 8:30 AM (PST) I don’t know why they call a 2.3 foot wave a tsunami, but at least it gives the local talking heads something exciting to talk about. Sometime around 8 - 12 years ago, a tsunami was recorded way out in the ocean off the coast of Northern California. . . of 1 centimeter. I kid you not. I’m sorry, but 1 centimeter isn’t even a _wave_, let alone a tsunami. How they determined to classify it as one is a mystery to me. We had 4 foot waves here in the South Bay. We’re already dealing with millions of dead sardines in the marina and all cleanup operations had to stop. Obviously we have nothing whatsoever to complain about relatively speaking, just reporting on local events. My prayers go out to the victims and their friends and families in Japan. I’m glad all the Japan Dopers are accounted for. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/247 "2011-03-12T02:45:34Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > That’s what American people do in tsunamis. No. Americans use the 10 minutes to go to the liquor store. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/248 "2011-03-12T02:52:07Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > No. Americans use the 10 minutes to go to the liquor store. 😕 Did that happen? I’m not making a joke, I’m talking about the real (presumably American) dude in Crescent City, CA, who heard there was a tsunami and instead of going for high ground, went down to the shore with his camera, and got swept away. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/249 "2011-03-12T02:53:39Z")
It is good that Japan has serious regulations about building and infrastructure construction. They do not let builders slowly eat away at the codes to make building easier and cheaper. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/250 "2011-03-12T03:30:13Z")
they are saying that instead of japan having a brazil syndrome it will be more like three mile island. not good but not chernobyl. it seems if the batteries can hold until generators can be brought in things will be okay… ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/251 "2011-03-12T04:10:21Z")
I’m about 70 miles south of Crescent City, where the harbor has pretty much been wiped out. The fishing fleet that usually anchors there is now on the way down here to Trinidad Head and Humboldt Bay. The stories have been conflicted and muddled all day, but I believe there were two groups of dumbasses, one on a beach in southern Oregon near Brookings. 4 went into the water there, 2 got out on their own and 2 were rescued by the Coast Guard. The other dumbasses with the apparent fatality were near the mouth of the Klamath River. 3 friends trying to take pictures, 1 drug out to sea and they are not longer searching for him. People in the area have been taking video and posting it on youtube/facebook all day. I’ll put together a post with a few in a minute. This is a very rural and rugged coastal area, so there are lots of viewpoints that are very close to the water and still safe, some of the videos were taken from such places and some arguably not. I do hesitate driving traffic to the videos of people I think are fucking stupid, but documentation is documentation, even if half of what is documented is someone being fucking stupid as a cautionary tale. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/252 "2011-03-12T04:30:21Z")
[Surge up the Mad River](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0SfdtJrAp50) about 4 miles from our house (we’re way up on a bluff with the rest of the town). No I did not go down there. I did drive out to a vista point off the freeway a bit to the north, but not until around 4pm. Spent an hour or so there and there was no surge activity. [Crescent City harbor](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai6pPk0VHDY) (turn your sound off before you watch it, it is played on fast forward with the sound) There was another video I had watched from somewhere just north of Trinidad Head, but I can’t find the link. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/253 "2011-03-12T04:48:30Z")
Such an awful time. We just found out about a friend’s family. They’re northish of Tokyo (somewhere inland of Mito, I don’t know exactly where) but they’re all right. We’ve been on edge all day because we hadn’t heard anything. I don’t know any details, but our friend is flying back home as soon as she can to be with her family. Still waiting on news for another friend’s extended family. There’s been no news from them, but they didn’t live in the north, so we’re hoping they’ve just been busy. It’s nerve-wracking to not know. It’s just awful. I don’t know if it’s worse because I know people there, or if it’s just bad because I feel so impotent living so far away and not able to do anything to help out right now. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/254 "2011-03-12T05:11:36Z")
state of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants because of cooling loss. Two of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant could face a meltdown if safety procedures fail. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/255 "2011-03-12T05:14:54Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > Sometime around 8 - 12 years ago, a tsunami was recorded way out in the ocean off the coast of Northern California. . . of 1 centimeter. I kid you not. I’m sorry, but 1 centimeter isn’t even a _wave_, let alone a tsunami. How they determined to classify it as one is a mystery to me. > > We had 4 foot waves here in the South Bay. **We’re already dealing with millions of dead sardines in the marina and all cleanup operations had to stop.** Obviously we have nothing whatsoever to complain about relatively speaking, just reporting on local events. > > My prayers go out to the victims and their friends and families in Japan. I’m glad all the Japan Dopers are accounted for. Er… dead sardines from the wave, or am I missing another story here? Regarding the guys getting pictures of the tsunami, there is quite a bit of famous footage from the Andover/McConnell tornado from 1990ish (tornado hit the Wichita area, notably including an Air Force base. I’d say a flight line littered with vehicles and jets is the last place I want to be hanging out in a tornado). Anyhow, one of the video clips, of the tornado hitting the base, was filmed from the roof of one of the dormitories on base. That airman did not get hurt, but as I recall he got in tremendous trouble for that. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/256 "2011-03-12T05:18:03Z")
USGS now says there was another nearly 7.0 quake at almost the same epicenter as yesterday’s quake. [ > [@](#): > > The United States Geological Survey said a strong earthquake struck just before noon in the sea in virtually the same place where the magnitude 8.9 quake on Friday unleashed one of the greatest disasters Japan has witnessed - a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami that washed far inland over fields and smashed towns. > > Saturday’s magnitude 6.8 quake was followed by a series of temblors originating from the same area, the USGS said. It was not immediately known whether the new quakes caused any more damage. All were part of the more than 125 aftershocks since Friday’s massive quake, the strongest to hit Japan since officials began keeping records in the late 1800s. ]([http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS\_JAPAN\_EARTHQUAKE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-11-23-23-47](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_EARTHQUAKE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-11-23-23-47)) I said it last night, and I’ll repeat myself: this is a capital “D” Disaster. There may well be hundreds of thousands homeless, without food, water, shelter or adequate clothing. The death toll from this is going to be horrendous in the end. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/257 "2011-03-12T05:55:49Z")
Energy releases was 8,000 times greater than Christchurch. Unconfirmed reports that **88,000** people are missing. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/258 "2011-03-12T06:04:05Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Energy releases was 8,000 times greater than Christchurch. > > Unconfirmed reports that **88,000** people are missing. Where did you hear that? Because the local radio station I was listening to this afternoon threw that number out too, and later corrected it as an apparent error. I’ve been seeing 358 confirmed deaths and 800+ missing, which may have gotten misheard or mistyped somewhere along the way. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/259 "2011-03-12T06:04:45Z")
> [@TokyoPlayer](#): > > There was a large earthquake at 2:45 pm in northeast Japan. > > We felt it strongly here in Tokyo, hard enough I thought the windows in the building I was walking by were going to break, so I moved out into the street. > > There is an aftershock going on while I type this. > > The trains are still stopped, so I won’t be going anywhere for a while. > > Hope people are OK up there, it was strong, but I haven’t heard any details. Oh I hope you and yours are all right. Very horrible and bad, ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279/260 "2011-03-12T06:14:04Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > USGS now says there was another nearly 7.0 quake at almost the same epicenter as yesterday’s quake. I have checked on our earthquake sites and nothing big was felt this morning or this afternoon here. On land the aftershocks have topped out at fives so far, mostly fours and threes. I am hearing rumours about the nuclear power stations being in a state of meltdown. They are saying now that in Fukushima 1 they have detected cesium (??) and this might mean that the middle has melted? (This is being translated as they say it right now.) It seems to be a very dangerous situation indeed. We have also had announcements that there will not be enough electricity this evening so to save as much as we can. Unfortunately I had left all our laundry to the weekend so I’m madly washing stuff in anticipation of losing power later… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/large-earthquake-in-northeast-japan/574279.md?page=14)