Strong Quake Jolts Northwestern Japan

Source: ABC News

A strong earthquake jolted northwestern Japan on Monday morning and caused buildings in the capital Tokyo to sway. The Meteorological Agency said small tsunamis as high as 20 inches were believed to have hit coasts in the area.

Three nuclear reactors in the region automatically stopped but no irregularities were reported, public broadcaster NHK said.

The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 and was centered off the coast of the prefecture (state) of Niigata, the agency said in a statement. The tidal waves were believed to have hit the Niigata coasts, the agency added.

Several bullet train services linking Tokyo to northern Japan have been suspended, NHK said.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3380297

I thought, for some reason, it took some time... after a quake... for that to happen.

:shrug:

They can take many hours to cross the ocean,
but only minutes to reach nearby islands.
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/hazard/tsu_travel_time.shtml
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/travel.times/ttt.htm

so the tsunami waves didn't have far to travel.

X marks the epicenter on this map. The orange triangles show the areas where the greatest damage occurred.

http://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/earthquake/2007-07-16-10-13.html?c=2

:hi:

TV images are showing smoke rising from the #3 reactor

*on edit*
The smoke seems to be coming from just outside the reactor building, but the type of fire has not been confirmed yet.

I'm about 100-125 miles away, and where I was it felt like I was riding in a bus. Kind of a gentle, intermittent swaying motion that lasted a total of about 35-40 seconds.

I haven't heard anything about aftershocks, although the last time there was a major earthquake in the Niigata area (October 2004?), there were several major aftershocks.

It felt the same as you described.
I knew people at the epicenter, they had nearly continuous aftershocks, they were afraid to move.
But with electricity and phones out, it took a while to find out how bad the damage was.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Northridge_Earthquake

the big earthquake in Kobe, Japan. I know people who were living 70 miles away from the epicenter of the Kobe quake who were jolted out of bed by that sucker.

By the way, they've already had some aftershocks with the latest quake, one of which was apparently of the Magnitude 6 class. And yesterday there was also a fairly large earthquake off the coast of Kyoto prefecture (state), about 200 miles to the west along the Sea of Japan. The Sea of Japan area has been doing a lot of shaking and rolling recently. :scared:

and they are saying that the odds are high that damage-causing aftershocks may occur within the coming week.

The temblor triggered an automatic shutdown of the three reactors at a nuclear power plant outside Kashiwazaki, Tokyo Electric Power reported. A small fire broke out at the plant's electrical transmission facility shortly after the quake, sending a plume of black smoke over the plant, but there was no release of radiation, company spokesman Kaoru Yoshida reported.

but apparently it was an oil fire just outside of the #3 unit. Video images showed flames and black smoke coming from pipes outside the reactor building. NHK is saying that the fire has been extinguished.

Source: BBC News


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6900156.stm

Source: BBC News


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6900156.stm

---

Source: Reuters


Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T148237.htm

Source: Reuters


Link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16378965.htm

National highway is cut off following a powerful quake in Nagaoka, northwestern Japan, Monday, July 16, 2007. A 6.7-magnitude earthquake rocked Japan's northwest coast on Monday, and media reports said at least five people were killed and more than 500 injured. The area was plagued by a series of aftershocks, the strongest of which was magnitude 5.8. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

Source: yahoo news

KASHIWAZAKI, Japan - A strong earthquake shook Japan's northwest coast Monday, setting off a fire at the world's most powerful nuclear power plant and causing a reactor to spill radioactive water into the sea — an accident not reported to the public for hours.

The temblor killed at least nine people and injured more than 1,000 as it toppled hundreds of wooden homes and tore 3-foot-wide fissures in the ground. Highways and bridges buckled, leaving officials struggling to get emergency supplies into the region.

snip

Nearly 13,000 people crowded evacuation centers Tuesday amid fears of mudslides and aftershocks. Japan's weather agency issued heavy rain, flooding and lightning warnings for the area, officials said. Tens of thousands of homes lost water and power.
snip
The quake triggered a fire in an electrical transformer and also caused a leak of radioactive water at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world's largest in terms of electricity output.

The leak was not announced until late Monday, about 12 hours after the quake. That fed fresh concerns about the safety of Japan's 55 nuclear reactors, which supply 30 percent of the quake-prone country's electricity and have suffered a long string of accidents and cover-ups.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070717/ap_on_re_as/japan_quake

---

Tell me again why we can't have solar and wind power?
:hide: