Earthquake (8.9) hits Japan. Tsunami follows

Good show.

I can’t actually be bothered, PeeDee.

Nice tasteful and appropriate comment there, PeeDee.

Can’t you get yourself banned again or something?

You really will have to point out any possible offence to anybody at all on that one.

Nice tasteful and appropriate comment there, PeeDee.

Can’t you get yourself banned again or something?

Another Earthquake will happen this week. That Moon will have an effect somewhere, loosen a few plates.

This site is impressive. That second recorded earthquake is an oh my god moment…!
http://www.japanquakemap.com/

Things seem to be spiralling out of control at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The TV footage of helicopters dropping water in an attempt to cool parts of the plant looks desperate to me (together with being frighteningly reminiscent of the efforts to contain the accident at Chernobyl).

I read earlier that fire-fighting pumps and sprinkler-systems were being employed in an attempt to prevent one reactor overheating. I also read that the core of one reactor was exposed when the emergency cooling water level dropped because the temporary pump supplying the cooling water had run out of diesel. There were also reports that the cooling water to some parts of the plant were being supplied by fire engines and that some of these had been destroyed in one of the hydrogen explosions.

More worrying still were the reports that the temperature of the water tanks were fuel-rods are stored on site was increasing as cooling water supplies were interrupted and these tanks may be boiling in some cases. I do not know for certain but I do not think that these storage tanks have anything like the same ‘containment’ design as the reactors themselves.

Radiation levels on-site have reached a point where engineers have been prevented from carrying-out emergency repair work in some areas. My heart goes out to the engineers on-site; they are risking their lives to prevent a major nuclear disaster and many of them may also be worried about family members that they have been unable to contact since the earthquake and tsunami struck.

Overall I’d say the outlook at Fukushima is very bleak indeed and this is rapidly turning into a nightmare scenario for Japan. The only really good news so far is that the prevailing winds seem to have taken any escaping radiation offshore.

Gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling of living on a safe planet.

Doesn’t it? 😮

Oh blimey! Too much info!!!!! 🙁

Are you familiar with this site, Bob?

Zooming in and clicking on each event icon gives you access to an information menu.

…just another aftershock

Not sure this was an aftershock – at least she doesn’t think it was. Trouble is any tremors right now may be classed as an aftershock but could well be fresh quakes.

That is, alas, a genuine possibility as there is a proven relationship between seismic activity and volcanic activity.

On the other hand, though, it was probably just another aftershock.

In any case, the Japanese active volcanoes are very closely monitored and there would be plenty of advance warning of a major eruption.

I have been chatting via Skype with my niece in Japan – the lastest earthquake (6.4) in Shizuoka is very close to Mount Fuji. There is a concern that further quakes could result in some form of volcanic activity.

That’s an interesting site that really demonstrates the scale of destruction in the affected areas. Ironically the wasted townscapes, with only strong concrete buildings remaining standing, remind me of photographs of another Japanese city – Hiroshima.

Before & after geo-eye pictures, just move the divider to see the before & after.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html?hp

Indeed, Lance. Things known as moderators funnily enough!

That’s the very word I was looking for. 🙂

Pumping more (cold) water in will help to cool the reactors. They have to heat up that water. Some of it turns into steam & disperses – well, it’s removed heat. Just as long as it doesn’t expand faster than it can be vented.

After my original post about the hydrogen I looked it up and it seems that the hydrogen is formed by some action (which I do not pretend to understand) of the radiation within the reactor rather than by heat alone.

My question about the explosion is where exactly did it occur? If the hydrogen is being formed within the (very hot) containment vessel did the explosion occur within part of the sealed containment vessel? Or was it, more likely, an explosion of hydrogen that was being released with the steam from the containment vessel; the explosion taking place outside the containment vessel but inside the surrounding steel-framed building?

Indeed, Lance. Things known as moderators funnily enough!

That isn’t quite true. To ‘shut down’ a nuclear reactor you have to cool it to a point where reactions no longer take place; there’s no on/off switch and until certain conditions exist it can’t be considered as being shut down. The problem in Japan has been the failure of the cooling systems that allow those conditions, hence the importance of cooling them quickly with sea water even if that means the reactor will never start up again and it’s essentially written off.

Another important ingredient is the presence of a material that will absorb stray particles and prevent the chain reaction from sustaining itself.

Sea water is actually very good at this.

Or the reverse, in that I believe that the tsunami also drags material far out to sea…

Sadly I think that you could be right. Just after I made my post I saw a news report that said two-thousand bodies had been found on the shore-line.

Thinking back to the news-footage of the 2004 tsunami there seemed to be many bodies left in the debris of the built-up areas; so far in Japan there seemed to be far fewer reports of bodies in the debris and that led me to hope that the casualty-rate was not as bad as had been feared.