Earth ChangesS


Blackbox

Japan's quake shifts earth's axis by 25 centimetres

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© Wikipedia
Initial results out of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology show that the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that rattled Japan Friday shifted the earth's rotation axis by about 25 centimetres.

INGV's report, which came hours after the devastating incident, is equivalent to "very, very tiny" changes that won't be seen for centuries, though, Canadian geologists say.

Only after centuries would a second be lost as each day is shortened by a millionth of a second, according to University of Toronto geology professor Andrew Miall.

"Ten inches sounds like quite a lot when you hold a ruler in front of you. But if you think of it in terms of the earth as a whole, it's absolutely tiny; it's minute," he said.

"It's going to make minute changes to the length of a day. It could make very, very tiny changes to the tilt of the earth, which affects the seasons, but these effects are so small, it'd take very precise satellite navigation to pick it up."

Nuke

Japan's Quake Could Have Irradiated the Entire U.S.

Had the massive 8.9 Richter-scale earthquake that has just savaged Japan hit off the California coast, it could have ripped apart at least four coastal reactors and sent a lethal cloud of radiation across the entire United States.



Chernobyl winds, as determined by the French government, but with a map of the United States overlaid on top of it. No sound. There is a slight video glitch at about 0:57

The two huge reactors each at San Onofre and Diablo Canyon are not designed to withstand such powerful shocks. All four are extremely close to major faults.

All four reactors are located relatively low to the coast. They are vulnerable to tsunamis like those now expected to hit as many as fifty countries.

San Onofre sits between San Diego and Los Angeles. A radioactive cloud spewing from one or both reactors there would do incalculable damage to either or both urban areas before carrying over the rest of southern and central California.

Bell

Japan quake causes emergencies at 5 nuke reactors

Japanese nuclear power plant
© Associated Press/Kyodo NewsThis October 2008 photo shows the Fukushima No. 1 power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Co. at Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. Japan's top government spokesman says the country has issued a state of emergency at the nuclear power plant after its cooling system failed.
Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of Friday's powerful earthquake. Thousands of residents were evacuated as workers struggled to get the reactors under control to prevent meltdowns.

Operators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant's Unit 1 scrambled ferociously to tamp down heat and pressure inside the reactor after the 8.9 magnitude quake and the tsunami that followed cut off electricity to the site and disabled emergency generators, knocking out the main cooling system.

Some 3,000 people within two miles (three kilometers) of the plant were urged to leave their homes, but the evacuation zone was more than tripled to 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) after authorities detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1's control room.

Attention

Japan nuclear plant conditions worsening, local media reports

Japanese nuclear power plant
© European Pressphoto Agency / March 11, 2011The emergency cooling system of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture has been running on backup batteries since the earthquake. The Japanese government has evacuated thousands of residents as a precaution
The Kyodo news agency says the cooling system has failed at three reactors at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture in northeastern Japan and that the coolant water's temperature has reached boiling level.

Conditions appear to be worsening at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture in northeastern Japan, according to local media.

The Kyodo news agency reported that the cooling system has failed at three reactors of Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant. The coolant water's temperature had reached boiling temperature, the agency reported, citing the power plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power.

The cooling system failure at the No. 2 power plant came after officials were already troubled by the failure of the emergency cooling system at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, which officials feared could cause a meltdown.

Bizarro Earth

Three volcanoes erupt almost at the same time after Japan Earthquake

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© unknown
Two volcanoes in Eastern Russia , Kamchatka and one other in Indonesia, have erupted around the same time as the Japan 8.9-magnitude Earthquake on Friday.

Meteorologist Kevin Martin is the lead scientist here at TheWeatherSpace.com and explains in his own way what may actually be happening.

"Waves from the Earthquake have been ringing the planet like bell, causing stress in all sections of the planet", Martin said. "Imagine a calm magma chamber that just needs one push, even if a few feet. This would be enough to cause instability in the chambers, causing volcanic eruptions in various locations. These three eruptions will not be the only mountains to go and other quakes worldwide will follow as the worldwide faults get disturbed.

Clock

Colorado wildfire prompts evacuation of 200 homes

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© Associated Press/Will PowersA fire truck blocks traffic on Left Hand Canuon Road north of Boulder, Colo. Friday, March 11, 2011. High winds on the front range akes the fire difficult to manage. A wildfire that has prompted the evacuation of more than 200 homes north of Boulder, Colo., has spread to about 200 acres.
Boulder, Colo. - A wildfire driven by dry, windy weather scorched at least 200 acres Friday in the foothills west of Boulder, prompting the evacuation of roughly 200 homes.

An air tanker from New Mexico started dropping fire retardant on the flames by afternoon as wind gusts that had reached 60 mph eased to between 20 and 30 mph.

About 100 firefighters also battled the blaze, which was burning near an area where a wildfire charred nearly 10 square miles and destroyed 169 homes in September.

Maribeth Pecotte of the U.S. Forest Service said the fire had grown to between 200 and 300 acres and was threatening 12 structures, none of which were homes. No buildings have been damaged.

Sun

Daybreak reveals huge devastation in tsunami-hit Japan

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© REUTERS/KyodoHouses swept by a tsunami are seen as residents walk in Kesen Numa, Miyagi prefecture March 12, 2011.
Japan confronted devastation along its northeastern coast on Saturday, with fires raging and parts of some cities under water after a massive earthquake and tsunami that likely killed at least 1,000 people.

Daybreak was expected to reveal the full extent of the death and damage from Friday's 8.9 magnitude earthquake and the 10-meter high tsunami it sent surging into cities and villages, sweeping away everything in its path.

In one of the worst-hit residential areas, people buried under rubble could be heard calling out "help" and "when are we going to be rescued," Kyodo news agency reported.

The government warned there could be a small radiation leak from a nuclear reactor whose cooling system was knocked out by the quake. Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered an evacuation zone around the plant be expanded to 10 km (6 miles) from 3 km. Some 3,000 people had earlier been moved out of harm's way.

Underscoring concerns about the Fukushima plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, U.S. officials said Japan had asked for coolant to avert a rise in the temperature of its nuclear rods, but ultimately handled the matter on its own. Officials said a leak was still possible because pressure would have to be released.

Bad Guys

Tsunami sweeps 5 to sea, rips out Calif. docks

california tsunami damage
© AP Photo/Marcio Jose SanchezA boat sinks into the ocean in the aftermath of the surge caused by a tsunami on the harbor in Santa Cruz, Calif., Friday, March 11, 2011. A ferocious tsunami unleashed by Japan's biggest recorded earthquake slammed into its eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it carried away ships, cars and homes, and triggered widespread fires that burned out of control. Hours later, the waves washed ashore on Hawaii and the U.S. West coast, where evacuations were ordered from California to Washington but little damage was reported. The entire Pacific had been put on alert — including coastal areas of South America, Canada and Alaska — but waves were not as bad as expected.
A tsunami swept at least five people watching the waves out to sea Friday and ripped docks out of harbors in California and Oregon, spreading the destruction of a devastating Japanese earthquake to the shores of the United States. See video here.

Four people were rescued from the water in southern Oregon, but one man who was taking photos in Northern California was still missing Friday afternoon. Coast Guard helicopters searched for him near the mouth of the Klamath River in Del Norte County, Calif., but called his chances of survival slim in the cold, rough ocean.

The large waves shook loose boats and tore apart docks in at least two California harbors and one in Oregon, causing millions of dollars of damage.

A man was found dead aboard a commercial vessel in Brookings, but sheriff's officials said it appeared to be from natural causes.

"This is just devastating. I never thought I'd see this again," said Ted Scott, a retired mill worker who lived in Crescent City when a 1964 tsunami killed 17 people on the West Coast, including 11 in his town. "I watched the docks bust apart. It buckled like a graham cracker."

The waves didn't make it over a 20-foot break wall protecting the rest of the city, and no home damage was immediately reported.

President Barack Obama said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is ready to come to the aid of any U.S. states or territories who need help.

Alarm Clock

Chile Minister: Easter Island Residents Moving To High Ground On Tsunami

Some 1,500 Easter Island residents began moving to higher ground ahead of the tsunami expected to hit the island at 1747 ET Friday, Chilean Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said.

The island, known for its gigantic stone sculptures called Moai, is Chile's westernmost territory.

The tsunami should hit Chile's northernmost continental coast starting at 2123 ET according to the Chilean Navy's Shoa oceanographic service.

"We've begun moving residents to higher ground," Hinzpeter told reporters at the National Emergency Service, or Onemi.

Comment: For more information on today's earth changes, see these Sott links:

Powerful earthquakes hit Japan - tsunami warnings issued across Pacific region

Tsunami swamps Hawaii beaches, brushes West Coast

Heavy storm continues, three Syrians missing after river floods on border

Indonesia: Mount Karangetang erupts, spews lava and gas

Colorado wildfire prompts evacuation of 200 homes


Dollar

US says Japan earthquake left billions in damage

A massive earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan Friday was the strongest quake in the area in nearly 1,200 years.

David Applegate, a senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards for the U.S. Geological Survey, said the 8.9-magnitude quake ruptured a patch of the earth's crust 150 miles long and 50 miles across.

He said the earthquake, which also spawned a massive tsunami that hit Japan before racing across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States, likely caused tens of billions of dollars in structural damage in Japan.