Even as Japan begins to dig out from this devastating earthquake, some communities are facing the threat of a nuclear meltdown due to failures in the core cooling system. As I post, the threat is diminished somewhat as seawater has been pumped into the system, averting a meltdown (at least for the moment...).
As a precaution, approximately 170,000 individuals were moved out of the affected area.
While (if interested), you can go to numerous sites for more information... let's talk about the magnitude of this quake.
8.9 on the Richter scale. Huge!
As a 2.0 would barely register, a 7.0 constitutes a major quake. Not only was the quake in Japan five minutes in duration, it was at least 900 times greater than the quake that struck Loma Prieta, CA in 1989 (6.9) and 30 times greater than the San Francisco quake in 1906 (7.9).
Geologically, the Pacific Northwest can expect an earthquake in the 9.0 range every 300-500 years... the product of deep fault lines which create lengthy shaking.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 1700 Cascadia earthquake involving the Juan de Fuca Plate in the Pacific Ocean off Canada caused a tsunami that struck Japan (reverse of what occurred on Friday).
photos: San Francisco road schism, 1906.
March 11, 2011 the remains of the city after the tsunami.
March 11, 2011 the remains of the city after the tsunami.
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