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Experts Fear That 400,000 People May Die if Quake Strikes Nankai Trough at Night

Radhika Seth
The Japan Daily Press
Sun, 08 Jul 2012 22:17 UTC
Japanese Fault Lines
© Wikimedia Commons
According to Wikipedia, the Nankai Trough is the near-surface extension of a zone of active seismicity that dips beneath South West Japan. It is located in waters off the Tokai region in central Japan to the Shikoku region in the west. According to the experts, should an earthquake occur in this region at night, as many as 400,000 people may die in one big swipe-out.

Kansai University professor Yoshiaki Kawata, who heads a government anti-disaster panel revealed this information in his speech in Konohana Ward, Osaka City. The panel also plans to publish its estimates on what to expect from such an occurrence, and this info should be available by next month. Apparently the number of deaths will cross 300,000 if the earthquake occurs at midnight.

Kawata's hypothesis is based on the calculations of the March 11 earthquake last year. The estimated number of deaths would have crossed 63,000 if the earthquake occurred at midnight, this is because the number of people at home would have been three-times that of the number of people awake and outdoors during the day. The population of areas like Tokai, Kinki, Shikoku and Kyushu regions is estimated to be 47 million, around 6.3 times that of the population in areas affected by the March 2011 quake. Even if the earthquake occurs during the day, the findings predict that almost 120,000 will perish due to it. Almost 100 trillion to 150 trillion yen in financial damages and about 700 municipalities will get affected by the quake!
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Ambulance

Devastating India floods leave 95 dead, millions homeless

Vanessa Ko, Harmeet Singh and Sara Sidner
CNN
Sun, 08 Jul 2012 18:47 UTC
Image
© AFP / Getty Images
Villagers padddle with their belongings through flood waters in the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, 55 kms from the capital city of the northeastern state of Assam on June 28, 2012. Floodwaters have submerged 90% of the sanctuary.
Flooding described by India's prime minister as the worst in recent times, has left at least 95 people dead and almost 2 million others homeless in the country's remote Assam state.

The Brahmaputra river overflowed during monsoon rains over the past week, flooding more than 2,000 villages and destroying homes in the northeast of the country, officials said.

Most of the dead were swept away by the fast-flowing water, while 16 were reported to have been buried by landslides caused by the heavy rains.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told journalists Monday that almost half a million people were living in relief camps, and the remaining of the displaced were staying with relatives or living in the open, using tarpaulin sheets for shelter.

Sabir Ali, who lives in one of the affected villages, had to move his family to higher ground with only what they could carry. "I am stuck. How will I survive? I've been forced to move to railways tracks with my children," he told CNN-IBN.

But water levels have begun to recede, and thousands have returned to damaged homes. A report issued on Tuesday lowered the number of evacuees to 370,000. Assam's State Disaster Management Authority reported that at least 14 people are missing.

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Sun

Drought ravages Brazil's northeast

Gabriel Elizondo
Al Jazeera
Sun, 08 Jul 2012 18:36 UTC
Image
© Gabriel Elizondo/Al Jazeera
A persistent drought in northeastern Brazil is ravaging crops and killing livestock.
Picos, Brazil - Even a nonagenarian like Jose Vincente da Rocha is stunned by its severity. "For a long time I never experienced a drought like this one," he said. "The last one I remember like this was in 1932."

That is saying a lot, given that he is 95 years old.

In a couple of weeks, more than 100 heads of state and thousands of environmentalists from all over the world will be in Rio de Janeiro for the UN Rio+20 environmental summit, billed as the biggest and most important meeting of its kind. Most participants will meet in air-conditioned hotels and conference centres discussing how to save the planet. Part of the talks, for sure, will be about access to water.

Da Rocha hasn't received an invitation to Rio+20, doesn't even know what it is, and has no interest in finding out.

Instead, he will be where he spends most of his days: sitting on a wooden bench on his front porch, in the shade to stay cool, in his modest brick home in a dusty village of a few hundred people about a half-hour's drive from the town of Picos (population: 74,966) in Brazil's semi-arid northeast state of Piaui.

Da Rocha doesn't have the luxury of simply deliberating the theoretical scenarios of access to water. He is living it. And so are millions of other Brazilians right now: the northeast of this country is suffering through the worst drought in four decades. More than 900 municipalities have declared a state of emergency.

Image
© Gabriel Elizondo/Al Jazeera
Jose Vicente da Rocha says this is the worst drought he remembers since 1932.
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Bizarro Earth

Update: Russia flash floods: 144 killed in Krasnodar region


BBC.co.uk
Sun, 08 Jul 2012 09:57 UTC
russia floods
© BBC
Some 28 cm of water fell in some areas
Flash floods caused by torrential rain have swept the southern Russian Krasnodar region, killing 144 people, officials say.

The floods, the worst there in living memory, struck at night, reportedly without warning.

TV pictures showed people scrambling onto their rooftops to escape.

President Vladimir Putin has flown over the region by helicopter and has had emergency talks with officials in the worst-hit town of Krymsk.

Most of those who died were in and around Krymsk, a town of 57,000 people. But nine deaths were reported in the Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik with a further two in the port town of Novorossiysk.
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Fish

Great white shark attacks kayak near Santa Cruz, California

Shanna McCord
The Herald - Monterey County
Sat, 07 Jul 2012 21:01 UTC
shark bite marks on kayak
© Unknown
A kayak shows the bite marks of a great white shark.
Man knocked into water, uninjured

(US) Pleasure Point - A great white shark, estimated to be up to 18 feet long, sheared through the front end of a kayak floating about a quarter-mile from the popular Eastside surf spot known as Pleasure Point, authorities said.

The attack, which happened about 8:30 a.m. Saturday, is a rare occurrence for the area. No one has reported a shark bite in several decades in the waters around Santa Cruz County, said Sean Van Sommeran of the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation.

On Saturday, a 52-year-old Fremont man was fishing from his 13.5-foot kayak when he felt the shark bump up against the back of the boat.

Within seconds, the shark lifted up the kayak and attacked the front, Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputies said.

The man, thrown from the kayak, was unharmed.

He was plucked from the ocean by a boater nearby who had witnessed the incident.

The man was fishing with two friends in about 40 feet of water just outside a kelp bed when the attack happened. The man's friends, in separate kayaks, were not injured.
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Bizarro Earth

Sweltering U.S. heat wave persists - claims 30 lives, sets records


Wall Street Journal
Sat, 07 Jul 2012 17:51 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Americans dipped into the water, went to the movies and rode the subway just to be in air conditioning Saturday for relief from unrelenting heat that has killed 30 people across half the country.

The heat sent temperatures soaring over 100 degrees in several cities, including a record 105 in Washington, St. Louis (106) and Indianapolis (104); buckled highways; and derailed a Washington-area train even as another round of summer storms threatened.

If people ventured outside to do anything, they did it early. But even then, the heat was stifling.

"It was baking on the 18th green," said golfer Zeb Rogerson, who teed off at 6 a.m. at an Alexandria, Va., golf course but was sweltering by the end of his round.

The heat sent temperatures soaring in more than 20 states to 105 in Louisville, Ky., 101 in Philadelphia, and 95 in New York; besides in Washington, a record of 104 was set in Sioux Falls, S.D.,
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Bizarro Earth

5.1 magnitude earthquake strikes Dominican Republic


The Extinction Protocol
Sat, 07 Jul 2012 17:14 UTC
Image
© USGS
A moderate 5.1 magnitude earthquake has struck the island nation of the Dominican Republic. The epicenter of the earthquake was 113 km (70 miles) W (260°) from San Cristóbal, San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic and just 128 km (80 miles) ESE (106°) from PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti. The earthquake had a depth of 19.9 km (12.4 miles) and may have caused some preliminary damages though reports coming in are scant in details.
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Bizarro Earth

New Zealand's North Island shaken by 5.7 earthquake

Cherie Howie
NZ Herlad
Sat, 07 Jul 2012 17:11 UTC
Image
© Thinkstock

Some people described the shaking as 'huge'.
North Islanders were again rattled by a strong earthquake yesterday, but experts say the tremor was not related to a much larger quake four days earlier.

GeoNet reported a magnitude 5.7 quake struck 10km south of Turangi at 12.50pm. The quake was 90km deep and, though police said there were no reports of damage, some residents said trinkets had been smashed.

It came four days after a magnitude 7 earthquake, centred at a depth of 230km and offshore from Taranaki, rattled residents from the Bay of Plenty to Canterbury, but caused little damage.

Shaken people took to social media and message boards yesterday to share their experiences, some describing the shake as "huge".
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Cloud Lightning

Chaos in skies over Britain: forecasters describe horrific summer as 'the worst since records began'


The Extinction Protocol
Sat, 07 Jul 2012 17:08 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Britain is facing its "worst ever" summer with cold wet weather ruining family holidays and blighting the Olympics, forecasters warned last night. August is set to be a washout following a miserable July and the wettest June since records began - meaning summer is effectively over. Gloomy forecasts suggest dire weather will continue as officials last night put Britain on flood alert after torrential downpours yesterday wreaked havoc.

As the Environment Agency warned of a "potential danger to life" with rivers swelling to breaking point in the Midlands, Yorkshire and Wales, Government forecasters were on standby to brief the Cabinet if severe floods strike. The agency last night issued 51 flood warnings - meaning flooding is expected - and 135 alerts. Monsoon-like downpours hit 85,000 music fans at the T In The Park festival in Kinross, Scotland, and 28,000 Formula 1 spectators camping for the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone. Race meetings today in Nottingham and Carlisle were cancelled while play was delayed on all courts at Wimbledon - other than Centre Court.
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Fish

Another sign of the times: Thousands of fish dead in multiple incidents across US

Miguel Llanos
MSNBC
Sat, 07 Jul 2012 14:30 UTC
Image
© J. Miles Cary/Knoxville News Sentinel/AP
Crews using rakes and an industrial vacuum remove dead fish from Butterfly Lake in Knoxville, Tenn., on Monday. Some 10,000 bluegills died.
In lakes and rivers across parched areas of the U.S., heat and lower water levels are reducing oxygen levels -- and killing fish populations by the thousands.

At one lake in Delaware, up to 6,000 dead gizzard shad and 600 perch were found floating this week.

"Aggravating this summertime problem, increased temperatures lead to warmer water, which holds less dissolved oxygen," state natural resources spokesman John Clark told NBCPhiladelphia.com.

In South Carolina, some 500 fish died at Lake Hartwell.

"It started Sunday afternoon," local resident Brandi Pierce told NBC affiliate WYFF-TV. "We started seeing ten fish popping up out of the water. Then Monday, it was full."

Across South Dakota, fishermen have reported thousands of fish kills in multiple lakes and rivers.

Comment: They're blamed on heat, blamed on cold, yet often these fish kills remain a real mystery...

More dead fish found in Arkansas River
Unprecedented fish kill in St. Johns: Fish kill isn't related to annual cycle
Glen Ellyn resident fears 'fish kill' not natural
Australia: Fish kill remains a mystery
Mysterious fish kill under investigation in Kuwait
Ireland: Big Fish-Kill on Bandon

...Sott.net investigates:

Reign of Fire: Meteorites, Wildfires, Planetary Chaos and the Sixth Extinction

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