The tsunami that followed Japan's early day 8.9 earthquake (6.9 on Japan's seismological scale) killed hundreds in northern Japan. From Honolulu to Los Angeles, it hit America's Pacific coast today, to little effect.
This tsunami, traveling at speeds of up to 500 miles per hour, had spread so far by the time it hit America that--although some damage was done--its ability to cause disaster had pretty much dissipated.
The total energy contained in the huge wave remained the same, but as it spread wider, its intensity was reduced. Waves swamped Honolulu's Waikiki Beach, but they didn't reach the hotels. There was little property damage and no lives were lost.
On the USA's continental West Coast, only Crescent City, California suffered significant damage. The wave's energy was funneled into the harbor and pretty much destroyed it. In various places, people (a total of five have, so far, been been identified) were washed out to sea, but only one is still missing.
A tsunami is the perfect visual example of the certainty of the natural world's ability to overwhelm anything humanity can put together. Tsunamis collect debris as they surge, eventually building a solid wall of detritus, cars, ships, buildings, and just trash--which becomes the leading edge of a pile of water as much as a hundred miles from front to back, with a height of up to 10 meters or more: the largest bulldozer on the planet!
Today, analogy became homology in videos showing the inexorable surge of debris-loaded water bulldozing whole towns, tearing ships from moorings, and shoving them through buildings and bridges while washing hundreds of cars into the ocean--videos that are ubiquitous on the internet.
Of the hundreds of people who died or remain missing, many likely died in the quake itself--two minutes of violent, unappeasable terror. But most were trapped in cars, buildings, and even boats that were carried, demolished and submerged by the wave. Watching one building smash into another, demolishing both of them, it is apparent that small, soft humans inside had no chance of survival.
As seas rise over the next century because of climate change (aka global warming), the impact of tsunamis on coastal towns that used to be inland towns will increase, because the shallows will be made up of the long, flat stretches now called intracoastal plains. Already under shallow seas by then, the flooded plains will pile up the water as it arrives and release it to run far inland.
Humanity's hubris in the face of natural phenomena seems to be unlimited, but it is likely to face natural terrors it cannot imagine away within the next three generations.
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Comments: 33
Why did the global warmer cross the road?
He left his purse on the other side.
Troops/Marines (from the Presidio and docked warships)were in the streets of the city within a couple of hours with naval/army mess teams feeding thousands within a couple of days. Naval vessels started desalination engines on board too for the dispossessed. The railroads were bringing in food, blankets, and other necessities as far as they could go.
That is an interesting fact though that the Japanese helped too, especially given the distance and time.
Hawaii
Hawaii has a long recorded history of tsunamis, coming from both earthquakes around the Pacific Rim or "Ring of Fire", termed teletsunamis, which originate in a faraway location, and from earthquakes and landslides near Hawaii, termed local tsunamis. One of the largest and most devastating tsunamis Hawaii has experience was a teletsunami in 1946 from an earthquake along the Aleutian subduction zone. Runup heights reached a maximum of 33-55 feet and 159 people were killed. Local tsunamis have also hit Hawaii, primarily from earthquakes and large-scale subsidence along the south flank of Kiluea. The largest of these were in 1868 that killed 81 people and in 1975. Overall, some 32 tsunamis with runup greater than 3 feet have occured in Hawaii since 1811.
Alaska
Because Alaska, including the Aleutian Islands, is bordered to the south by a major subduction zone capable of generating large earthquakes, Alaska has experienced a number of damaging tsunamis. By far, the one that stands out is the tsunami generated from the 1964 magnitude 9.2 earthquake that occurred in the Gulf of Alaska, which generated a Pacific-wide tsunami and landslides in the coastal fjords such as Valdez also generated localized, but extremely damaging waves. Overall, approximately 16 tsunamis of all sources with runup greater than 3 feet have occurred in Alaska since 1853.
U.S. West Coast
Most of the many tsunamis that have hit the U.S. west coast originated from earthquakes around the Pacific Rim. However, scientists have determined that a local tsunami was generated by a magnitude 9 earthquake that rumbled offshore the Pacific Northwest (in the Cascadia subduction zone) on January 26, 1700. Analysis of geologic deposits indicates that a number of earthquakes, possibly of magnitude 8-9, have occurred in the past, indicating that future tsunamis from the Cascadia subduciton zone are possible. Overall, approximately 28 tsunamis with runup greater than 3 feet have occurred along the U.S. West Coast since 1812.
So you see folks its happened before and it will hapen again.
A few months ago, on a TV program, they showed an Alaskan fjord in which a local tsunami generated by a rockslide at the mouth of the fjord had pushed a wall of water 500 feet up the sides of the fjord.
Amen, Chuck. Excellent post.
The greatest risk to the reactor in an earthquake is not a temporary loss of cooling, but a shifting of the structure such that the safety rods that separate the fission rods and stop the reaction cannot be lowered into place. That's what keeps the core from melting down during a shutdown, not cooling water. If that separation of rods cannot occur, and the normal circulation of water is interrupted, meltdown becomes inevitable.
LA Times reports that the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said it was told by Japanese officials that they would distribute iodine tablet to residents nearby. Iodine is known to protect against thyroid cancer that can develop from radiation poisoning.
"Japan is an earthquake-prone archipelago, and lining its waterfront are 54 nuclear plants. It's been like a suicide bomber wearing grenades around his belt," said Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a professor emeritus at Kobe University.
Bloomberg reports that radioactive cesium, a product of atomic fission, was detected near the site yesterday, indicating a meltdown may have begun, Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Yuji Kakizaki said yesterday.
As described at Japan faces Nuclear Meltdown?, a similar, previous explosion blew apart the building surrounding the plant's number 1 reactor on Saturday. And, as also said, reactor number 3 contains MOX Plutonium-enriched fuel consisting of a mixture of plutonium oxide and uranium oxide.
I try to keep my thinking simple like: 1.) I know what I see; 2.) I know poisons in the earth, the water table and the air aren't good for man, woman or beast and; 3.) It seems pretty clear to me that as long as we are sucking out the inner contents of the planet -- plates will shift.
You reap what you saw could not be any more true than it is here, can it?
Maybe even Chuck and you Larry :-D)
Fortunately the tsunami-warning system gave people time to get to higher ground.
What is homology relative to analogy?