8.0 quake off coast of Japan. Tsunami warnings issued for Alaska

Wow thats a big earthquake!

 

No kidding!

 

Strong Earthquake Hits Northern Japan
5 minutes ago


TOKYO - A strong quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.8 rocked the northern Japan island of Hokkaido early Friday morning, knocking out power and starting a fire in an industrial area.



The government warned local residets to avoid coastal areas due to the possibility of a tidal wave, or tsunami.


The quake was strong enough to rock buildings on the island and shake books and other objects off shelves. Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported that at least several people had been injured and a fire had broken out in the city of Tomakomai.


Black plumes of smoke and flames could be seen leaping from the site in an industrial area.


Japan's Meteorological agency warned that waves of up to 3 feet were expected to hit coastal areas. The quake, which hit just before dawn, was focused off Hokkaido's eastern shore.


Tsunami are ocean waves caused by seismic activity.


Tsunami of up to 1 foot were observed in some coastal cities, NHK reported.


The meteorological agency said the earthquake (news - web sites) had a magnitude of 7.8 and was focused 36 miles under the seabed.


The U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) in Golden, Colo., said the temblor had a preliminary magnitude of 8.


The quake struck in the Pacific Ocean, about 65 miles south-southwest of Kushiro and 495 miles north-northeast of Tokyo, said John Minsch, a USGS (news - web sites) geophysicist. The quake was shallow.


"That makes it more likely to be a tsunami, and there's most likely to be a great amount of damage," Minsch said.


Hokkaido is the northernmost and most sparsely populated of Japan's major islands. Sapporo is the prefecture's capital.


Geophysicist Doug Given in Pasadena, Calif., said the region is "part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the zone of very large earthquakes (news - web sites) and volcanoes that rings the Pacific Rim."


The USGS had no immediate reports of casualties.

 

Crap, I am supposed to go there in 5 days. That is an enormously strong earthquake.

I read about this guy who predicted this for like a few days ago...he was ridiculed...looks like he was not very far off!!!!!!!

 

I wonder if the Mr. Sparkle factory was damaged.

 

Surely this is a misprint?????

 

I'm no expert but if I recall correctly tsunami waves can move at incredibly high speeds and move surprising distances inland. So, while 1 foot sounds stupid, I think the 4 or 5 footers even can be killers.

Anybody have any real info on this?

 

http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/tsunami/

 

"Mr. Sparkle is disrespectful to dirt"

 

Here is a link to "live web cams" in Japan (Hokkaido included)

http://www.sekainomado.com/index-e.html

 

Being a tsunami aficianado... ok kidding...
One thing I remember about tsunamis from when I took a plate tectonics enrichment course at Rice was that tsunamis start out small but extremely fast over deep waters. As they approach shallow waters, they grow larger, but get slower. Tsunami speeds can be around 150-250 mph. Now think about getting hit by a 1 foot wall of water at 200 mph and you can see that could cause some damage.

 

I always thought that a Tsunami happened when Godzilla farted in the water.

 

In the open ocean tsunamis move at around 400 mph and are about a foot high, hardly noticeably to anyone they may pass. As they get closer to shore the friction builds as they hit shallow water and the wave (which is extremely long parallel to the coast) piles up on itself and sucks more water towards the "wave". Its not actually a wave at all at this point, more of a storm surge without the storm.

 

Beleive it depends on whether the 'feet' are being measured in the open ocean or at the shore. If they're swells in the ocean, they could grow huge as they slow down and catch up to each other by the shore.

 

wow...did it really take me 4 minutes to type that?

Anyway, looks like KingCheetah didn't read all of DoD's post either.

 

Yeah and I'm pissed 'cause that's all I remember from that course, too.

 

Is there something to this 4 minutes per post thing...

 

There's a tsunami special on National Geographics channel right now.