Strongest earthquake, tsunami hits Japan1
Image via In the early afternoon of 11th March 2011 the biggest ever recorded earthquake (in the 140 years recording history of Japan and the fifth strongest earthquake worldwide) hit 130 km off the coast of Japan. A sunny spring day turned into one or maybe the worst day for Japan. The magnitude of the earthquake reached 8.9 on the Richter scale and it was even recognizable in Tokyo (400 km away from the epicenter of the earthquake).
The problem hasn't only been the earthquake in the ocean off Japan as a result of this earthquake a tsunami has been built up by the earth movement under water and pushed monster waves with 10 meters height up to 10 kilometer into the coastal area of the city Sendai in Japan. Boats, cars, houses, even two trains have been simply washed away by the massive waves and it's now expected that there might be at least several thousand persons dead.
Updates are following 2 - 3 times daily - more news reports can be found at the end of the post!
Two live streaming channels added (Japanese language but pictures speak more than words!)
More footage of the tsunami which hit Japan in the following video (including burning oil refinery & buildings)
Another big risk that occurred is that around the Pacific coast are many of the nuclear power plants which had to be shut down after the earthquake because the electricity got cut or for security reasons. Some of the emergency electricity supplies didn't work anymore after the earthquake struck Japan.
So there is a high possibility that we might get another Chernobyl disaster in Japan with massive consequences for the environment not only in Japan!
On 12th March 2011 at 5 am (Japanese time) the radioactivity in the control room # 1 in the nuclear plant of Fukushima-Daiichi (250 kilometers away from Tokyo) was already more than 1000 times higher than the normal value after they had to release pressure and radioactive vapour from the nuclear plant (reported by news agency Kyodo).
At 6 am the Japanese Premier Minister Naoto Kan extended the security zone around the nuclear plant Fukushima to a 10 kilometer zone instead (prior 3 kilometer).At 7 am the second nuclear plant Fukushima 2 which is 12 kilometers away from the first nuclear plant is reporting about problems with its cooling system, too as they are no more functioning!
Related articles
- Japan Earthquake 2011: 4 Ways You Can Help Right Now (blippitt.com)
- Massive Earthquake Hits Japan: How You Can Help (g4tv.com)
- Must-Follow Twitterers On The Earthquake In Japan (undispatch.com)
- Japan earthquake and tsunami video: The moment the wave strikes the coast (mirror.co.uk)
- (socialdiets.wordpress.com)
- More Dramatic Video from the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan (VIDEOS) (blippitt.com)
- Japan earthquake and tsunami - pictures (mirror.co.uk)
- Footage of earthquake and tsunami show devastation [videos] (holykaw.alltop.com)
- (time.com)
- Japan's Earthquake Off the (Seismic Risk) Map (news.sciencemag.org)
- (guardian.co.uk)
- Japan earthquake and tsunami: radioactive vapour plan at nuclear reactor (mirror.co.uk)
- Nuclear plant in Japan in radiation leak danger (rt.com)
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