soo yesterday for japan than> wonder why we didn not get any news of it till today :/

Honestly, if this were any other country, it would be 10x worse. Japan is without a doubt the most advanced in terms of preparing for this kind of thing. They were definitely prepared, and if they weren't, this would be a much bigger deal than it is. Not to say it's not a big deal, but you get what I'm saying. I could be worse. Much worse.

Anyone have any info about where radioactive material would end up if one of the plants release some/blow? It'll svck loads more for Japan, but I'd like to check what sort of impact it could have here in Aus. Judging by maps of air currents, it looks like it'd blow south and circle around the north. But I had difficulty digging out decent maps, and it'd be good if I could find something more concrete.

I thought it was a 8.9?

2:46PM in Japan is, IIRC, 12:46AM EST (so, New York City, Detroit). Depending on your time zone it did happen today. You just didn't hear any news about it because you were most likely asleep at the time.



I'm not sure how far radioactive material can spread via air currents / the jet stream. I wouldn't want to be a hundred miles downwind of it, but depending on the extent of the meltdown I can't imagine much of it would reach, say, Hawaii or inland China.

What I would worry about more is it getting into the ocean and being carried on the currents that way. The link Troyatz posted (http://www.businessinsider.com/fukushima-nuclear-plant-2011-3) shows a satellite image of Fukushima; it's literally right on the ocean. Radioactive materials in the water would contaminate not just fish you, I, or bigger fish up the food chain would eat but also plankton and other microbes eaten by the little fish, which are eaten by the bigger fish...etc. Long explanation made simple it could contaminate the seafood supply for years to come. Rather like what could have happened with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Anyone watch the videos on youtube?

I'm not sure, either. But there's a lot of empty see between Japan and Australia, so there's not so much to create turbulence and bring it down from higher in the atmosphere (water is considered close to completely smooth when calculating a surface's affect on wind).


Contaminated fish isn't so big a problem for vegetarians :hehe:. But if manages to get far enough south, it could have an effect on other food sources.

So was New Zealand, we had 0 casualties in the first Christchurch earthquake, but that didn't stop the third one from being the worst disaster we've ever had.

With all these 6+ magnitude aftershocks there is only so far that the buildings can hold out.

My condolences to all the family members who have perished.

Just heard from all my family members in Sendai. They're all okay, which is a godsend.

What a catastrophe, though.

Silly Brits and your lack of an earthquake-influenced life

(the BBC reporter)

"How do people feel about living in a country that has earthquakes all the time?"

"Are people talking about leaving these earthquake-prone areas?"

Oh, how silly people are that don't have frequent earthquakes. Just like you all have accepted whatever natural disaster is commonplace in your area, we've (as in: people earthquake-prone areas) accepted ours. It's a part of our lives, and barring the big ones like this one, we just brush them off. It's hilarious, though, to see tourists scramble when a mere 4.0-er hits.

I remember when that 4-point-something earthquake hit the British Isles a few years ago, and they were acting like it was the end of the world, I wouldn't even post on facebook about a 4.0 earthquake...

There was a 4-point-something quake on the SE coast of Britain while I was studying in Canterbury in....spring of '07, IIRC. In the early morning hours. I'm pretty sure I saw the same picture of some bricks fallen down off the side of a building in Dover reposted on the BBC's site, all the local news sites--over and over. For days. Me? ...Well, I was living in an absolute fortress of a dormitory at the time. Slept right through it (and I'm not from a quake-prone area at all--never been in an earthquake at all before that); didn't feel a thing.

Oddly enough there was another 4-point-something quake about a year later, near where I was going to college. Early morning hours again...and again, I slept right through it (when most of the campus didn't). Maybe I'm just a heavier sleeper than I thought.

That's the thing, though, there aren't any. I live at the top of a valley with a reservoir nearby, so I don't even get floods or droughts that plague the rest of the country. Some of us really do live in stable and non-threatening environments.

Same here. Worst we ever get is a tornado warning, but those just go and destroy Leander and its Leanderthals. Us civilized folk nearer to Austin rarely have to deal with actual tornadoes.

There was one back in 2001 around William Cannon.

FYI: Austin can still get hit by tornados. Austin and Dallas getting hit are considered to be one of the greater disasters that could happen to the United States in terms of costs and loss of life

Only if it takes the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue.

A 6.1 magnitude earthquake just struck off the coast of Tonga, there will likely be more tsunami warnings coming soon.

I was actually hit by one in Britain, it took the glasses off the pub table and tore some roof tiles up, though, so it wasn't all that devastating. Freak stuff like that is so mild here it's a novel curiosity rather than a danger.

Did you know there are actually more tornadoes in the UK than anywhere else in the world, proportionate to size? Though, they are much smaller than the one that the US is famous for.

I can believe it, the way the wind whips up at night.

Man, I am so glad that my buddy literally just got back from Japan last Thursday. He's been over there for nearly 2 years in the airforce and he just finished his tour over there. This [censored] is freaking scary and so terribly sad . My thoughts and prayers are with everyone over in Japan, and I truly hope these after-shocks stop. Even their buildings can only take so much before they collapse.

Looks like they are predicting the Nuclear Power Plant might meltdown...

In b4 "OMG Chernobyl!"

Remember: 3 mile island had half it's core melt, without much environmental impact. If the core does indeed melt, hopefully it will be mostly uneventful