Climat en furie!

A l'heure où le Japon compte ses morts et disparus une pensée profonde pour ce peuple vivant dans cette region du globe la plus vulnérable aux tremblements de terre.

Est ce que notre humanité en est en partie la cause?

Personnellement, je pense que notre réchauffement climatique est en cause responsable de l'emballement des accelérations sismiques vulcanologiques et bien d'autrres phénomènes à venir.

Sommes nous résponsables?

Il est facile de comprendre que notre terre rendue à l'etat d'effet de serre par le rebondissement de la chaleur sur la couche d'ozone accentue un poid considérable provoquant une pression atmosphérique importante par la fonte des pôles, la désalinisation des océans, ne pouvant provoquer que des perturbations élevées sur les zones du globe deja fragilisées.

Quel héritage laissons nous à nos enfants?

Notre humanité devra bien comprendre et s'adapter à l'évolution des catastrophes naturelles s'intensifiant, et changer notre mode de vie qui en sera bouleversé.

Cause à effet ?

Notre nature nous montre que nous allons subir une modification géographique dans l'avenir et s'éloigner des zones à risques.

Quel temps nous reste t'il?

Le temps n'a pas d'importance face à ce que nous démontre notre planète car au fur et à mesure des années le changement nous mettra de toute façon à contribution et nous fera comprendre ce que nous devons faire pour survivre à notre civilisation.

Toutes mes condoléances au peuple Japonnais qui est notre...

Jef

It just blew up.

No way????

It did! A huge explosion rocked the power plant and the authorities fear a meltdown is likely. Radiation levels inside are 1,000 times normal and the surrounding area contains more radiation than is normally absorbed by a person in a year. Over 100,000 people living in the region have been evacuated and they do not believe there is any danger beyond the six mile limit for the power plant. That however remains to be seen.

Oh shit!!!!

With the reported levels of radiation there is every likelihood that the immediate area will be unusable for years and years.... and that's even before a core meltdown.  It surely isn't something Japan needs, given its population and that land is always at a premium there.

I also read before that Japanese authorities are saying that it could be weeks, even months before a final death toll can be released.  I can believe that, given the footage I saw of the tsunami and how far and wide it reached inland.  That was horrendous in anyones language.

Unfortunately, both the news of the shutdown and the explosion are true. The explosion was probably caused by the accumulation of hydrogen gas.

"FUKUSHIMA, Japan, March 12 (Reuters) - Radiation leaked from
an unstable Japanese nuclear reactor north of Tokyo on Saturday,
the government said, after an explosion blew the roof off the
facility in the wake of a massive earthquake.

An unchecked rise in temperature could cause the core to
essentially turn into a molten mass that could burn through the
reactor vessel," risk information service Stratfor said in a
report before the explosion. "This may lead to a release of an
unchecked amount of radiation into the containment building that
surrounds the reactor."

This is really bad news. The one ray of goodness out of all this are all the disaster teams being rushed to Japan. At least in all this devastation the world is cooperating in trying to help those in this overwhelming catastrophe.

On another note, the quake shifted the earth's axis 25 cm. (or 9.84 in.). That will have climate repercussions. To what degree, I have no idea. The Chilean quake shortened days very slightly (1.26 millionths of a second). This quake may partially reduce or reinforce that.

We already have a human catastrophe in Japan, but if what happened in Chernobyl happens there too, a 30 Km (19 miles) area around the reactor will have to be evacutated and will remain inhabitable for several years. This would be like nothing we have ever seen in an island the size of Japan, with over 127 million people crammed into it being exposed to the effects of nuclear fallout (not to mention that the nuclear reactor is right by the seaboard, and Japan is really close to mainland China and Russia).

Being a major economical power, the repercussions of such an event would be tremendous all over the world. This is trully becoming a disaster of biblical proportions.

Let's pray for the best.

It isn't that bad yet. There are contingency plans being implemented. Even if it does go into meltdown it won't be nearly as bad as Three Mile Island or Chernobyl.

Precisely, and all the tectonic, volcanic activity of the past 5 years is more likely the cause of global warming than anything man has or could have done.  The Earth is a huge and dynamic chunk of rock with many dynamic ecosystems, and man is but a piddling dot on its surface who could not possibly match the awesome power of the planet's overall dynamics. 

Yes, humanity needs to clean up its act, but charging ordinary and poor folk a carbon tax will do nothing other than line the pockets of those who seek to become considerably wealthier than they already are.  If the proposed carbon tax is implemented here in Australia, my quarterly power bill will rise to a $1,000 +.  That's going to be $4,000 p/a and closing in on  a quarter of what I get to live on.... if only I could afford to similarly pay a bunch of scientists to produce findings that were in my/our better interests.

Anyhow, I digress and my anti-global warming rant won't change the bullshit or the minds of those set to benefit most.  I am considerably better off than those affected by this horrendous natural disaster.   At least I have power... and a roof over my head.

Fortunately, Japan is well equipped and many countries have sent search and rescue teams to assist in the bid to find survivors, etc.

Let's hope not, neither Japan or the world at large can afford such a disaster... it would take decades to recover economically and otherwise, like the necessary exclusion zone in an island nation the size of Japan.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42045714#42045714

Actual footage. The first "cube" (reactor building) on the left was the one to blow, and left just the steel scaffolding.

This in the country whose memory includes Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Not sure this'll help the nuclear industry much...

Given Chernobyl, the devastion there, I dunno we wanna help it.

Put it this way, I wouldn't want to like within 500km of a nuclear plant.

Facinating...

I just read that the whole island of Japan has shifted 2.4 meters to the east. That's almost 8 feet!

I also read that the earths axis shifted 10cm (almost 4 inches).

And the day shortened by another millionth of a second. It was the shifting of the Earth's mass during the quake. When you displace that huge a chunk of real estate there are bound to be changes however slight. Lets hope the ring settles down now. Four quakes and three of them rather large inside of a week so close together is not a good thing by any stretch.

I somehow don't think it is all over just yet.  With such a major shift on one side of the Pacific, it is quite possible there will be a similar event on the other side in the not too distant future.  For every action there is a reaction, and when such a huge chunk of real estate is suddenly shifted with such great force, there must be consequences elsewhere. 

The Earth, being dynamic, will make the necessary adjustments to recalibrate itself in order to remain a constant as it had done for billions of years.  The alternative would/could be, however, a too great an axis shift, with irregular rotations and an unstable orbit... all of which would create abnormal conditions world-wide.  This has occurred in the past, resulting in ice ages and/or unseasonally hot weather conditions, such as El Nino, etc.  Hopefully the planet will readjust and avert such a catastrophic event.

Oh, and BTW, I studied tectonics and vulcanology when I went back to school to better myself in the late 80's, and while I'm no expert I do have some understanding of the dynamics of the subject.

It's never over. as long as the crust floats on the magma and the earth rotates.

News from my cousin in Okinawa. There are 5 power plants with cooling issues, not 2 like the news is reporting over here.

The mainland of Japan protected Okinawa from the tsunami, so all they saw there was some waves that looked like high tides.

Thanks for the truth, Xiandi. I think the worst mistake governments make is not to tell the full truth as soon as they learn it. Transparancy in a nuclear accident would seem axiomatic.

No, it's never over, and for the reasons you gave, but we can hope that the counter event to balance things out is quite mild in comparison.

     I'm not an expert, far from it, I just dabble. As far as compensation for the island shifting, that has already happened. The shortening of the day is a direct result and starkers counter event. The process of plate tectonics is a natural one as I'm sure every one here is aware of. That arc of the Ring of Fire is the most active one. I checked out an earthquake map from the USGS that displays the number and location of earthquakes over a seven day span. On the map were over 800 earthquakes around the world. Most were located on the western edge of the ring and up north in Alaska. The least amount along the southern west coast of the US.

      The Pacific plate is moving north and slightly northwest at about three inches a year. Not a whole helluva lot but over time the pressure accumulates, especially when plates are 'locked', here the San Andreas comes to mind. Japan sits on top of a subduction zone, meaning that in that part the Pacifuc plate is subducted, slides under, the plate it comes up against. (Don't remember the name of that plate) I think its the Eurasian plate but I'm not sure. Anyway .... that movement accounts for Japan being displaced by how much? Eight feet according to Lady Xiandi. I wouldn't be surprised if the elevation has changed.

      In comparison on the US west coast the San Andreas fault zone is called a 'slip' fault. The Pacific plate sliding by the North American plate (remembered that one) at the same rate of movement. There the pressure continues to build and is sometimes partially eased by the micro-quakes and mini temblors that occur there on an almost regular basis. The 'Big One', the one that's supposed to send California into the pacific has yet to happen. The one in 1906 was given, I believe it was, an 8.0 rating. Japan's was a 8.9 (revised up from an 8.4). There are larger ones, 9.1 for example. That's close to a hundred times more powerful and its only two points higher. I wonder if all that movement on the western part of the ring is easing the stress on the eastern part or increasing it. It wouldn't come as a surprise were geologists to discover that the Pacific plate is rotating slight counterclockwise. If that's the case then the US west coast is in for a sudden 'shock'. No pun intended.

That is the counter event which is quite likely, looking at the opposites and historical records.  Christchurch in the Southern Pacific in relation to Japan... Japan in the Western Pacific in relation to the US.  Often the opposite seismic event follows within a relatively short period [not months or years] so it is reasonable to assume an event on the West Coast of the US is possible in the not too distant future. 

The South American Continent may also produce major seismic events during this time also.... meaning further events in the North Pacific and/orin the vicinity of Indonesia would likely follow.

Actually, on my evening news [13.03.11] it was revised upward to a 9.0... making it the 4th largest quake since records began, and equal in intensity to the Kamchatka quake of 1952.  More info on that here