http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/science/22predict.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science
Interesting article in the science section of NY Times today. Check it out before the paywall goes up.
Based on what the Geologists knew before March 11th, Fukushima was actually a pretty prudent place to put a Nuclear Reactor. Apparently the archeological records indicate there was a big tsunami in that area in 869 AD, but it was smaller than this one.
I was ready to say they could have built tallers seawalls and perhaps had less absolute faith in them, and that may still be true. And that they could have placed the nuclear plants elsewhere, although based on that NYT article I at least understand why they are where they are. This is a major tragedy but it really is true that Japan was prepared in a lot of ways, and this would have been a lot worse if the country were not already well aware of its vulnerability to earthquakes.
It’s true that if you live by the water, you can die by the water. But saying people shouldn’t live near water is ridiculous and basically contradicts all of human history. It’s especially ridiculous in the case of Japan. Look at a map and you might notice it’s a chain of islands. And it’s a long, thin chain of islands at that. I’m sure if you lived at the most inland point (which might be around 75 miles from the ocean) you’d be out of reach for a tsunami but there would be just a few logistical problems and crowding problems.
The earth is always going to produce a natural phenomenon that can take out huge chunks of the population. Can you imaging what the population would be if wars, pestilance, famine, and natural disasters didn’t ‘correct’ for a rapidly growing species?
That sounds logical from a distance with the tragedy of it increasing as one begins to see the suffering on a personal scale.
Why do so many homes and buildings in the midwest lack basements, or even above ground tornado shelters? Why do they build above ground at all?
Why do they build standard homes along the Gulf Coast intead of the domed buildings that are known to withstand hurricanes much more efficiently?
I saw thesewhen doing research for an essay in art. What if each seaside town had several of these, built to be earthquake resistant? So many people just couldn’t make it far enough inland fast enough. The wave went as far a three miles inland, but was about 10 meters high. I couldn’t run three miles, but I could climb 20 meters worth of stairs.
I wonder if anyone has come up with something that is a cross between a house on stilts and a supension bridge? The suspension would withstand a certain amount of earthquake activity and its position in the air would allow for water to pass underneath during a tsunami.
In the 1960’s a large earthquake in Alaska generated a tsunami that destroyed much of the downtown are of Crescent City, California; also taking 10 people with it. When the Redwoods National Park Service rebuilt their visitor center, now known to be in the inundation zone, they built this building.. The actual visitor center is on the ground level, but all of the office space is in the suspended second level, easily accessed by two flight of stairs.