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9.0 Earthquake strikes Japan


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My apologies if this has been posted already. I just found it last night -- perhaps the most impressive close-up encounter with the tsunami I have seen yet. Every minute you think it has gotten as bad as it's going to get, it just keeps coming, and coming:

I thought that seawall was so safe - I kept thinking - Is that the best you got, Tsunami? And I thought that an epic jebwalk would have been in order along that seawall and I'd've blasted my 1970s music throughout that epic jebwalk - But the jebwalk would in the end have been overcome by the ridiculous height and force of the tsunami as it overtopped the seawall and overwhelmed any jebwalk. That has got to be a thousand year tsunami.

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It is becoming clear that the final death toll will be significantly above 10,000. Total number of dead and missing is now over 20,000 and police are now saying 15,000 may be dead in Miyagi Prefecture alone. We are unfortunately used to seeing high death tolls from many quakes in the past 10 years or so but, we have to be reminded that developed countries are not immune from these type of events, although mitigation measures can redude the toll.

I do not know if much more could be reasonably could have been done to reduce it though. Japan has a well developed warning system, the quake occurred in the middle of the day and a large percentage of the population also had the means to flee to higher ground. What caused the high fatality count?

Lack of time - As I mentioned previously, many of these communities had only 2-3 escape routes for 10-20k people and 15 minutes to act. Physically impossible to get everyone out in time. Walking to higher ground or a tall enough structure was often not an option either.

Belief that sea barriers would protect them - Some places as we know had put up barriers to keep the sea at bay with failed in this case. Led to a false sense of security.

Attachment to community.- Some people just did not want to leave.

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From the BBC:

0531: The Yomiuri reports that last week's tsunami reached heights of around 20 metres on the Sanriku coast, according to investigations by the Port and Airport Research Institute. The Sanriku coastline is jagged, a factor which apparently increased the height of the tsunami. Among their investigations, researchers found wreckage on top of a three-storey building near the ocean

I'm sure a lot of people suspected that given some of the pictures, but 20m is insane.

The Tsunami warning called for up to 6m wow.

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20 ****ING METERS!!!!???

That's not possible. That's 65 feet! That's a 6 story building.

1160163555_woos52bs.jpg

Yep, almost unbelievable, but there are some incredible images and footage out there that might lend some credibility to the report. For example the footage and photo of that big boat on top of a two story building, which is several meters uphill from a ~10m seawall is astounding, and there's still damage farther uphill. Probably that extreme values were only possible in some perfect setups, inside some narrow inlets or bays.

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Go to 3.51 and you will see that same boat from the picture in the video. The height the water reached up the wall and including the height of the house make that wave easily 50ft +

bp24.jpg

1Hhey.png

What makes this more impressive is not only did the wave clear the house but also cleared that 10m+ wall to get to the house as seen in that video.

Here is a screen shot

Images in question.

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The 1896 Great Meji Tsunami in the Sanriku district was 30m high. The tsunami from the Krakatau eruption reached 40m on the Java coast so 20m for this one is not impossible. The seawall in Taro did not fail it was simply overtopped by this tsunami and that wall was 10m high.

Steve

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My apologies if this has been posted already. I just found it last night -- perhaps the most impressive close-up encounter with the tsunami I have seen yet. Every minute you think it has gotten as bad as it's going to get, it just keeps coming, and coming:

Amazing post! It's interesting to see how it wasn't really a wave that overtopped the seawall, but rather a surge of water. Simply crazy. I can see how the cameraman thought nothing was going to happen when you see how things were at the beginning of the video.

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We are living in interesting times. I am simply amazed how things I fantasized about when just a kid are actually happening in today's modern world.

Who knows? Perhaps one day DCA will get an 'impossible' 7 foot snowstorm from a stalled out blizzard. Or a Category Five hurricane will move into Chesapeake Bay then stall out resulting in ten feet of rain over northern Virginia from sustained 4 to 6 inch per hour rain rates over a few days, and major rivers in Virginia will join into one raging uber torrent.

All it will take, is one severe quake out in the Atlantic - and the East Coast may have its very own tsunami.

Or, we get an April 3-4 1974 Super Outbreak of tornadoes - Mid Atlantic Version - Only this outbreak features five times as many EF 6 tornadoes.

Just imagine trying to track all of them - just before a tornado swept away your computer lolz - JanetJanet would have a field day tracking all those tornadoes - and I'd be out on a truly EPIC jebwalk !!!!!!!!!

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We are living in interesting times. I am simply amazed how things I fantasized about when just a kid are actually happening in today's modern world.

Who knows? Perhaps one day DCA will get an 'impossible' 7 foot snowstorm from a stalled out blizzard. Or a Category Five hurricane will move into Chesapeake Bay then stall out resulting in ten feet of rain over northern Virginia from sustained 4 to 6 inch per hour rain rates over a few days, and major rivers in Virginia will join into one raging uber torrent.

All it will take, is one severe quake out in the Atlantic - and the East Coast may have its very own tsunami.

Or, we get an April 3-4 1974 Super Outbreak of tornadoes - Mid Atlantic Version - Only this outbreak features five times as many EF 6 tornadoes.

Just imagine trying to track all of them - just before a tornado swept away your computer lolz - JanetJanet would have a field day tracking all those tornadoes - and I'd be out on a truly EPIC jebwalk !!!!!!!!!

These are the things you fantasized about? :unsure:

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Amazing post!  It's interesting to see how it wasn't really a wave that overtopped the seawall, but rather a surge of water.  Simply crazy.  I can see how the cameraman thought nothing was going to happen when you see how things were at the beginning of the video.

thats what a tsunamia usually is, its just a surge of water that keeps coming and gettuing higher and higher.  sometimes you will see  wave of some sort but if you look at the videos you rarely see one.  it doesnt look bad at first and than you are ****ed because it keeps getting worse

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Kyodo news is reporting that the height of tsunami wave in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture was 23.6 meters (77.4 feet!). Not quite as high that 98 feet recorded in the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami but much higher than was initially forecasted. This is one reason was the initial estimates of fatalities were too low.
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Yeh they said after the Hoei earthquake in 1707 Fuji erupted after about 40 days.

The two earthquakes are on different subduction zones. Fuji-san is a lot closer to the Hōei quake's subduction zone.

The zones highlighted in blue are the (very rough) zones of slippage for the two earthquakes, and the green dot is Fuji-san.

post-300-0-16070400-1301022609.jpg

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