Posted on 11/15/2006 3:43:02 AM PST by tsmith130
Fox News Alert: Pacific side residents told to get to higher ground.
That's big.
Just heard this, too - waiting to see what happens on the tsunami warning.
very big.
Yikes!
Not good.
USGS is calling it a 7.7, off the Kuril Islands.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/at00000596.php
Sky News; Tsunami expected to hit Japan 12.10 UK Time (in 20 minutes)
Residents on the Japanese coast told to evacuate..
Prayers for folks in the affected area.
Earthquake Details
Magnitude 7.8 (Major)
Date-Time Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 11:14:16 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 10:14:16 PM
= local time at epicenter
Location 46.683°N, 153.224°E
Depth 27.7 km (17.2 miles)
Region KURIL ISLANDS
Distances 443 km (275 miles) ENE (67°) from Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands
493 km (306 miles) SSW (207°) from Severo-Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands, Russia
798 km (496 miles) E (88°) from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia
1660 km (1032 miles) NE (38°) from TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 7.1 km (4.4 miles); depth +/- 5.6 km (3.5 miles)
Parameters Nst=213, Nph=213, Dmin=806.3 km, Rmss=0.97 sec, Gp= 58°,
M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7
Source U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver
Event ID usvcam
6.5 feet high tsunami wave expected on the northern and eastern shores in Japan
Oops, the USGS has updated the web site, already. Now calling it 7.8
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/at00000596.php
Warning is for outside the US.
That's a lot of water.Here's hoping people have the time to get to safety.
Tsunami expected to be 6.5 feet, hitting within 20 minutes per CNN.
Got the alarms set for big earthquakes - this one tripped them all. Hopefully it won't be anything to worry about.
Lord, have mercy on our neighbors in Japan.
Japan Today - 2 minutes ago
TOKYO — The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning covering a wide area of Japan's Pacific coast on the main archipelago and coastal areas of Hokkaido following an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.1 near Etorofu Island off Hokkaido.
Oh my! Prayers for all involved!
Yikes!
I saw a documentary about Japans tsunami warning system and the floodgates, they should be OK for the most part though its hard to say about those actually living on the coastline, less than 7 minutes now I think.
8.1 - that's a big one... prayers for all.
You can get a good view on Google earth. The map above in this thread gives the coordinates. Tokyo looks like it may get some protection. a 6.5 foot Tsunami - hard telling what it will do. 4 minutes or so away now.
Northern Japan? Or North of Japan in the (unpopulated) hot zone?
My local TV is going live there throughout the newscast. They *said* that advisories have also been given for the Pacific Rim areas of Russia and of Hawaii - however, the HI one is not showing up on any of the US weather sites I've scanned.
No news stories are including them, either.
CNN
A tsunami of about 2 meters (6.5 feet) or more could hit the Pacific coast of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido and main island of Honshu after 1210 GMT, the agency said.
" ... a wide area of Japan's Pacific coast on the main archipelago and coastal areas of Hokkaido ..."
One minute
Prayers for Japanese fishermen and all along the coast.
If there is a tsunami, the nature of the wave generation is that it's perpendicular to the fault - thus it will go NW and SE from this rupture, meaning you're not going to see much effect on Honshu.
Tsunami warning issued for northern Japan Japan's Meteorological Agency has issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas along the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific side of Hokkaido, after an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 hit the Kuril Islands on Wednesday. The agency expects tsunami waves of up to 2 meters, and says that the height of the waves could be several times higher depending on the undersea geological features of the affected areas. The agency is urging people along the coastal area and along rivers near the sea to evacuate.
They will need to wait several hours even if the first wave doesn't hit as predicted. There could be larger second or third waves....
Actually about the safest place to be in a tsunami is in a boat at sea.
The expert on Fox (on the phone from Hawaii) said that even if one doesn't hit in the next few minutes, the danger isn't over. The warning could extend for a couple of hours.
It's not listed there, however there are a LOT of 3-4 sized ones all in the AK region. That region is always active, but there seems to be more frequent and larger ones than the usual.
I think the safest place is in Kansas.
I actually had been looking at the data for magnitude 7+ earthquakes this year..
Seismic activity has been really low. Even with this earthquake, we're still on pace to have the lowest number of Magnitude 7+ earthquakes worldwide in the last 17 years, this year.
Red diamond is the main event, purple dots are where tsunami statements have been issued.
The only places with actual tsunami warnings at the moment are Russia and Japan.
"Actually about the safest place to be in a tsunami is in a boat at sea."
Deep water - not shallow.
Warning for Alaska now
Depth 27.7 km (17.2 miles)
Region KURIL ISLANDS
# Distances 443 km (275 miles) ENE (67°) from Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands
# 493 km (306 miles) SSW (207°) from Severo-Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands, Russia
# 798 km (496 miles) E (88°) from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia
# 1660 km (1032 miles) NE (38°) from TOKYO, Japan
No doubt it depends on how close to shore they are and the force of the wave etc.
The Japanese seem fairly well prepared warning wise but there's always those outside the loop so to speak.
Hoping the damage is minimal.
There seems to have been an increase in PacRim seismic activity in the last six months. I wonder if our West Coast is due.
I just turned on F&F to get an update - sounded like Gretchen was swooning over Breck Girl - who has a new book out. turned it off - will keep up here.
Err, scratch that....warning just came out for Alaska and British Columbia.
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