Japan historik earthquakes tsunami and volcanoes :

The Japanese archipelago is located in an area where several continental and oceanic plates meet. This is the cause of frequent earthquakes and the presence of many volcanoes and hot springs across Japan. If earthquakes occur below or close to the ocean, they may trigger tidal waves (tsunami).
Historic earthquakes
Many parts of the country have experienced devastating earthquakes and tidal waves in the past. The Great Kanto Earthquake, the worst in Japanese history, hit the Kanto plain around Tokyo in 1923 and resulted in the deaths of over 100,000 people.
In January 1995 a strong earthquake hit the city of Kobe and surroundings. Known as the Southern Hyogo Earthquake or Great Hanshin Earthquake, it killed 6,000 and injured 415,000 people. 100,000 homes were completely destroyed and 185,000 were severely damaged.
Earthquake measurement
The Japanese "shindo" scale for measuring earthquakes is more commonly used in Japan than the Richter scale to describe earthquakes. Shindo refers to the intensity of an earthquake at a given location, i.e. what people actually feel at a given location, while the Richter scale measures the magnitude of an earthquake, i.e. the energy an earthquake releases at the epicenter.
The shindo scale ranges from shindo one, a slight earthquake felt only by people who are not moving, to shindo seven, a severe earthquake. Shindo two to four are still minor earthquakes that do not cause damage, while objects start to fall at shindo five, and heavier damage occurs at shindo six and seven.
During and after an earthquake
Falling objects, toppling furniture and panic present the greatest dangers during an earthquake. Try to protect yourself under a table or doorway. Do not run outside, and try to remain as calm as possible. If you are in the streets, try to find protection from glass and other objects that may fall from surrounding buildings.
After a strong earthquake, turn off ovens, stoves and the main gas valve. Then listen to the radio or television for news. In coastal areas beware of possible tidal waves (tsunami) while in mountainous areas beware of possible land slides.
Japan is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, with 108 active volcanoes, according to National Geographic. Japan rests on the Ring of Fire, which is "a series of volcanoes and fault lines that roughly circle the Pacific Ocean."
The United States has seen some activity underground recently as well. In Seattle, Wash., a magnitude 4.5 earthquake shook the area, but no damage was reported. Alaska, meanwhile, is paying attention to its Mount Redoubt volcano, which is showing signs of a possible eruption.
Scientific American wrote, "The so-called ring of fire edging the Pacific is known to be highly active. So it's no surprise that said ring is jolting Seattle residents awake and putting denizens of Anchorage on notice of an imminent eruption from the redoubtable Mount Redoubt."

ISHINOMAKI MISSING PEOPEL JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI

 Thousands of families are missing loved ones almost three weeks after a powerful earthquake and tsunami devastated towns and lives along Japan’s northeast coast.
Every evening Suzuki slips under the quilt of her futon shortly after sunset around 7:00 pm because there is nothing to do in the pitch darkness.
This district of Ishinomaki still has no electricity, tap water or gas.“I don’t read newspapers, I don’t listen to the radio. They are talking about horrible things,” Suzuki, who has been a widow for years, says as she prepares to sleep on the second floor of her house.“Why do I have to know more when I’ve seen enough myself?” She wakes up as the sun rises. She goes downstairs to clear rubble left by the tsunami that smashed into the ground floor on March 11 and heaped tragedy on this quiet town in Miyagi prefecture.
It was a day when in Miyagi a man felt his mother’s hand slip out of his tight grasp, three children watched their mother being washed away, and an elderly couple vanished with their grandchild, their three bodies later found.Suzuki clears the debris inside her house, which was hit by a wave that at this point was two metres (six feet) high, against the sound of a helicopter overhead that is carrying away newly retrieved bodies.Mud covers family photos and other keepsakes, and the smell of rotten seawater with fish and kelp fills the air.
In the neighbourhood, overturned cars and ships lie scattered on the roads and in other people’s gardens. People walk under a car that is stuck between two buildings like a bridge.
Suzuki’s most important mission is not to clear up rubble but to find her 41-year-old daughter, who has been missing since the day of the disaster.
Suzuki was in the city of Sendai, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) away from her home town, when the 9.0-magnitude quake struck beneath the sea floor.
She managed to return home on the afternoon of the following day, having shared a taxi from Sendai to a place near Ishinomaki and then walked through knee-deep water amid floating bodies for seven hours.When she got home, her daughter was not in the house they have shared.“I failed to die,” Suzuki says as she ponders her pain.Throwing away her tatami mats, fridge, TV sets and furniture means nothing compared with the agony of searching for her daughter, she says.Whenever she spots earth-moving machinery clearing a mountain of rubble to the side of a road, she trails it. “Please, please do it gently. My daughter may be in there,” she asks the driver.The body of another, elderly woman was indeed found in the debris of a nearby supermarket.Many who are searching for their loved ones have experienced the painful process of feeling their hopes whittled down slowly, day by day.
They initially hope that the person is unhurt, then they think he or she isn’t home or is at a shelter, or has been injured and hospitalised.After they learn that the person’s name is not on the lists of inpatients at hospitals, they are left with the hope the person is in a coma and therefore cannot be contacted. Finally, their wish becomes only to find the person’s body.
Families visit makeshift morgues to find the last thing they want to see.There are lists of bodies, all numbered.Some are identified by the name on the papers they carried, others are anonymous and described only in sparse phrases such as “a female in her 30s. Height about 160cm” or “about three years old”.When you give the police the number of the body you want to see, you are shown its pictures.If you think it is the person you are looking for, you are led into a hall where rows of bodies are laid out in plain-wood coffins or plastic bags, with the smell of burning incense sticks in the air.People weep as they find a person they have cared for dearly or shared their lives with, now a stiff body with drenched hair, naked and in a blanket following their autopsy.In the nearby town of Higashimatsushima, a young couple sits by a coffin, which seems too big for their dead baby inside. They are in utter silence, staring vacantly into space.A line of relatives passes another coffin, and one says to the lifeless body inside: “The way you held out is great!” Identical memos, handwritten in large red letters, are left on two coffins lying side by side.

Tokyo:World Health Organisation Report

 World Health Organisation said on Monday that radiation in food after an earthquake damaged Japanese nuclear plant was more serious than previously thought, eclipsing signs of progress in a battle to avert a catastrophic meltdown in the reactors.
Engineers managed to rig power cables to all six reactors at the Fukushima complex, 240 km north of Tokyo, and started a water pump at one of them to reverse the overheating that has triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.
Some workers were later evacuated from one of the most badly damaged reactors when gray smoke rose from the site. There was no immediate explanation for the smoke, but authorities had said earlier that pressure was building up at the No. 3 reactor.
The amount of smoke later receded and Japan’s nuclear safety agency said there was no significant change in radiation levels at the site.
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami left more than 21,000 people dead or missing and will cost an already beleaguered economy some $250 billion, making it the world’s costliest ever natural disaster.
However, he said there was no evidence of contaminated food from Fukushima reaching other countries.
Tap water
Japan’s health ministry has urged some residents near the plant to stop drinking tap water after high levels of radioactive iodine were detected.
Cases of contaminated vegetables and milk have already stoked anxiety despite assurances from officials that the levels are not dangerous. The government has prohibited the sale of raw milk from Fukushima prefecture and spinach from a nearby area.
There were no major reports of contaminated food in Tokyo, a city of about 13 million people. City officials however said higher-than-standard levels of iodine were found in an edible form of chrysanthemum.
Japan is a net importer of food, but has substantial exports – mainly fruit, vegetables, dairy products and seafood – with its biggest markets in Hong Kong, China and the United States.
The prospects of a nuclear power plant meltdown in the world’s third-biggest economy and its key position in global supply chains rattled investors worldwide last week and prompted rare joint currency intervention by the G7 group of rich nations to stabilise markets.
Tokyo’s markets were closed for a holiday on Monday. The Nikkei index shed 10 per cent last week, wiping $350 billion off market capitalisation, and at one point had lost as much as 20 per cent in value.
In a much-needed boost for the battered market, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said the earthquake and tsunami were an “enormous blow” but should not prompt the selling of Japanese shares. Instead, he called events a “buying opportunity”.
Situation critical at plant
At Fukushima, 300 engineers have worked around the clock inside an evacuation zone to contain the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986.

FUKUSHIMA:The world bank report

The World Bank said in report Monday that Japan may need five years to rebuild from the catastrophic disasters, which caused up to $235 billion in damage, saying the cost to private insurers will be up to $33 billion and that the government will spend $12 billion on reconstruction in the current national budget and much more later.
 The toll of Japan’s triple disaster came into clearer focus Monday after police estimates showed more than 18,000 people died, the World Bank said rebuilding may cost $235 billion and more cases of radiation-tainted vegetables and tap water turned up.
Japanese officials reported progress over the weekend in their battle to gain control over a nuclear complex that began leaking radiation after suffering quake and tsunami damage, though the crisis was far from over, with a dangerous new surge in pressure reported in one of the plant’s six reactors.
The announcement by Japan’s Health Ministry late Sunday that tests had detected excess amounts of radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens marked a low moment in a day that had been peppered with bits of positive news: First, a teenager and his grandmother were found alive nine days after being trapped in their earthquake-shattered home. Then, the operator of the overheated nuclear plant said two of the six reactor units were safely cooled down.
The safety of food and water was of particular concern. The government halted shipments of spinach from one area and raw milk from another near the nuclear plant after tests found iodine exceeded safety limits. Tokyo’s tap water, where iodine turned up Friday, now has cesium. Rain and dust are also tainted.
Early Monday , the Health Ministry advised Iitate, a village of 6,000 people about 30 kilometers northwest of the Fukushima plant, not to drink tap water due to elevated levels of iodine. Ministry spokesman Takayuki Matsuda said iodine three times the normal level was detected there — about one twenty-sixth of the level of a chest X-ray in one liter of water.
In all cases, the government said the radiation levels were too small to pose an immediate health risk.
All six of the nuclear complex’s reactor units saw trouble after the disasters knocked out cooling systems. In a small advance, the plant’s operator declared Units 5 and 6 — the least troublesome — under control after their nuclear fuel storage pools cooled to safe levels. Progress was made to reconnect two other units to the electric grid and in pumping seawater to cool another reactor and replenish it and a sixth reactor’s storage pools.
Police in other parts of the disaster area declined to provide estimates, but confirmed about 3,400 deaths. Nationwide, official figures show the disasters killing more than 8,600 people, and leaving more than 13,200 people missing, but those two lists may have some overlap.
TOKYO:
 The official death toll from Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami has risen to 8,133 with 12,272 still missing.
Police earlier said they feared more than 15,000 people had died in one prefecture alone, Miyagi, in the March 11 disaster.
Some of the missing may have been out of the region at the time of the disaster. In addition, the massive power of the tsunami likely sucked many people out to sea. If the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami is any guide, most of those bodies will not be found.

Japan's nuclear crisis escalates further

 SENDAI: Japan's nuclear crisis escalated Tuesday as two more blasts and a fire rocked a quake-stricken atomic power plant, sending radiation up to dangerous levels.
Radiation around the Fukushima No.1 plant on the eastern coast had "risen considerably", Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, and his chief spokesman announced the level was now high enough to endanger human health.
In Tokyo, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) to the southwest, authorities also said that higher than normal radiation levels had been detected in the capital, the world's biggest urban area, but not at harmful levels.
Kan warned people living up to 10 kilometres (six miles) beyond a 20 km (12-mile) exclusion zone around the nuclear plant to stay indoors.
The fire, which was later reportedly extinguished, was burning in the plant's number-four reactor, he said, meaning that four out of six reactors at the facility are now in trouble.
The official death toll has risen to 2,414, police said Tuesday, but officials say at least 10,000 are likely to have perished.
The crisis at the ageing Fukushima plant has escalated daily after Friday's quake and tsunami which knocked out cooling systems.
On Saturday an explosion blew apart the building surrounding the plant's number-one reactor. On Monday, a blast hit the number-three reactor, injuring 11 people and sending plumes of smoke billowing into the sky.
Early on Tuesday a blast hit the number-two reactor. That was followed shortly after by a hydrogen explosion which started a fire at the number-four reactor.
Hashimoto said supermarkets are open but shelves are completely empty. "Many children are sick in this cold weather but pharmacies are closed. Emergency relief goods have not reached evacuation centres in the city.
Everyone is anxious and wants to get out of town. But there is no more petrol. We are afraid of using a car as we may run out of petrol."
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tokyo had asked for expert assistance in the aftermath of the quake which US seismologists are now measuring at 9.0-magnitude, revised up from 8.9.
But the IAEA's Japanese chief Yukiya Amano moved to calm global fears that the situation could escalate to rival the world's worst nuclear crisis at Chernobyl in the Ukraine in 1986.
Officials have already evacuated 210,000 people in the exclusion zone around the crippled plant.
At one shelter, a young woman holding her baby told public broadcaster NHK: "I didn't want this baby to be exposed to radiation. I wanted to avoid that, no matter what."
Further north in the region of Miyagi, which took the full brunt of Friday's terrifying wall of water, rescue teams searching through the shattered debris of towns and villages have found 2,000 bodies.
And the Miyagi police chief has said he is certain more than 10,000 people perished in his prefecture.
Millions have been left without water, electricity, fuel or enough food and hundreds of thousands more are homeless and facing harsh conditions with sub-zero temperatures overnight, and snow and rain forecast.
Tokyo stocks, which were punished Monday when the markets reopened, sending indexes around the world sliding, plummeted another 12 percent by early afternoon on Tuesday.
Leading risk analysis firm AIR Worldwide said the quake alone would exact an economic toll estimated at between $14.5 billion and $34.6 billion (10 billion to 25 billion euros) -- even leaving aside the effects of the tsunami.

Japan:Tokyo,Osaka earthquake,tsunami update

TOKYO: Japan instructed local authorities to start screening food for radioactivity after accidents at an earthquake-hit nuclear power plant sparked fears of wider contamination.
It is the first time Japan has set radiation limits on domestically produced food, a health ministry official said.
The limits are in line with an anti-disaster programme prepared in advance by the government's atomic power safety commission, said the official.
Limits vary depending on the type of foodstuff but have been set in consultation with internationally accepted levels and average intake in the Japanese diet.
Radioactivity leaked into the air after explosions at the Fukushima No.1 plant, where last week's quake and tsunami knocked out the reactor cooling systems.
Several Asian nations have said they will screen food imported from Japan for radiation while the European Union has called for similar checks.

OSAKA:

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rattled Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture south of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant on Saturday, the US Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued.
The USGS said the quake struck at 6.56 pm (0956 GMT) and was centred 98 kilometres (61 miles) south of Fukushima and 142 kilometres from Tokyo.
The quake shook buildings in Tokyo, but no damage was immediately reported, public broadcaster NHK said, adding that flights at the capital’s Narita Airport were briefly suspended for safety checks before resuming.
The quake struck at a depth of 24.7 kilometres (15.3 miles).
Japan’s meteorological agency measured the quake at a magnitude of 6.1.

TOKYO:

 The number of people confirmed as dead or listed as missing by Japan’s national police agency topped 18,000 on Saturday, eight days after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck.
Hopes of finding many more survivors amid the rubble have diminished amid a cold snap that has hit Japan’s northeast, covering much of the disaster area in snow earlier this week.
The death toll has surpassed that of the 7.2-magnitude quake that struck the western Japanese port city of Kobe in 1995, killing 6,434 people.
The March 11 quake is now Japan’s deadliest natural disaster since the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which killed more than 142,000 people.
The latest police figures for people missing do not include local reports from along the tsunami-hit coast of vast numbers of people unaccounted for.
The mayor of the coastal town of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture said Wednesday that the number of missing there was likely to hit 10,000, Kyodo News reported.
On Saturday, public broadcaster NHK said that around 10,000 people were unaccounted for in the port town of Minamisanriku in the same prefecture.

 

Japan's nuclear crisis

 SENDAI: Japan's nuclear crisis escalated Tuesday as two more blasts and a fire rocked a quake-stricken atomic power plant, sending radiation up to dangerous levels.
Radiation around the Fukushima No.1 plant on the eastern coast had "risen considerably", Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, and his chief spokesman announced the level was now high enough to endanger human health.
In Tokyo, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) to the southwest, authorities also said that higher than normal radiation levels had been detected in the capital, the world's biggest urban area, but not at harmful levels.
Kan warned people living up to 10 kilometres (six miles) beyond a 20 km (12-mile) exclusion zone around the nuclear plant to stay indoors.
The fire, which was later reportedly extinguished, was burning in the plant's number-four reactor, he said, meaning that four out of six reactors at the facility are now in trouble.
The official death toll has risen to 2,414, police said Tuesday, but officials say at least 10,000 are likely to have perished.
The crisis at the ageing Fukushima plant has escalated daily after Friday's quake and tsunami which knocked out cooling systems.
On Saturday an explosion blew apart the building surrounding the plant's number-one reactor. On Monday, a blast hit the number-three reactor, injuring 11 people and sending plumes of smoke billowing into the sky.
Early on Tuesday a blast hit the number-two reactor. That was followed shortly after by a hydrogen explosion which started a fire at the number-four reactor.
Hashimoto said supermarkets are open but shelves are completely empty. "Many children are sick in this cold weather but pharmacies are closed. Emergency relief goods have not reached evacuation centres in the city.
Everyone is anxious and wants to get out of town. But there is no more petrol. We are afraid of using a car as we may run out of petrol."
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tokyo had asked for expert assistance in the aftermath of the quake which US seismologists are now measuring at 9.0-magnitude, revised up from 8.9.

But the IAEA's Japanese chief Yukiya Amano moved to calm global fears that the situation could escalate to rival the world's worst nuclear crisis at Chernobyl in the Ukraine in 1986.
Officials have already evacuated 210,000 people in the exclusion zone around the crippled plant.
At one shelter, a young woman holding her baby told public broadcaster NHK: "I didn't want this baby to be exposed to radiation. I wanted to avoid that, no matter what."
Further north in the region of Miyagi, which took the full brunt of Friday's terrifying wall of water, rescue teams searching through the shattered debris of towns and villages have found 2,000 bodies.
And the Miyagi police chief has said he is certain more than 10,000 people perished in his prefecture.
Millions have been left without water, electricity, fuel or enough food and hundreds of thousands more are homeless and facing harsh conditions with sub-zero temperatures overnight, and snow and rain forecast.
Tokyo stocks, which were punished Monday when the markets reopened, sending indexes around the world sliding, plummeted another 12 percent by early afternoon on Tuesday.
Leading risk analysis firm AIR Worldwide said the quake alone would exact an economic toll estimated at between $14.5 billion and $34.6 billion (10 billion to 25 billion euros) -- even leaving aside the effects of the tsunami.

After the earthquake and tsunami Blast in"Nuclear" plant japan

Fukushima: A hydrogen explosion rocked the earthquake-stricken nuclear plant in Japan where authorities have been working desperately to avert a meltdown, compounding a nuclear catastrophe caused by Friday’s massive quake and tsunami.
The core container was intact, Jiji news agency said, quoting the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), but the local government warned those still in the 20-kilometre evacuation zone to stay indoors. Kyodo news agency quoted Tepco as saying workers were injured in latest explosion.
Edano, citing information from the plant operator TEPCO, said the reactor container was likely undamaged and there was a low possibility of major radiation.
Japan's nuclear safety agency said the blast, at the number 3 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, was believed to be caused by hydrogen.
A hydrogen explosion had hit the number 1 reactor at the same plant on Saturday, a day after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the northeast coast.
Authorities have declared an evacuation zone within a 20 km (12 mile) radius of the plant and evacuated 210,000 people.
"We have strongly advised all the people still within the evacuation area to go inside nearby facilities," said nuclear safety agency spokesman Ryo Miyake.
Some 746 people -- patients, elderly people and care workers at three hospitals and nursing homes -- remained within the 20 km area Monday.

Death toll “above 10,000”

Broadcaster NHK, quoting a police official, said more than 10,000 people may have been killed as the wall of water triggered by Friday’s 8.9-magnitude quake surged across the coastline, reducing whole towns to rubble. It was the biggest to have hit the quake-prone country since it started keeping records 140 years ago
Kyodo said 80,000 people had been evacuated from a 20-kilometre radius around the stricken nuclear plant, joining more than 450,000 other evacuees from quake and tsunami-hit areas in the northeast of the main island Honshu.
Almost two million households were without power in the freezing north, the government said. There were about 1.4 million without running water.
Nuclear crisis

The most urgent crisis centres on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, where authorities said they had been forced to vent radioactive steam into the air to relieve reactor pressure.
The complex was rocked by a first explosion on Saturday, which blew the roof off a reactor building. The government had said further blasts would not necessarily damage the reactor vessels.
Operator Tepco said on Monday it had reported a rise in radiation levels at the complex to the government. On Sunday the level had risen slightly above what one is exposed to for a stomach X-ray, the company said.
Authorities had been pouring sea water in two of the reactors at the complex to cool them down.
Nuclear experts said it was probably the first time in the industry’s 57-year history that sea water has been used in this way, a sign of how close Japan may be to a major accident.
“Injection of sea water into a core is an extreme measure,” Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “This is not according to the book.”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said there might have been a partial meltdown of the fuel rods at the No. 1 reactor, where Saturday’s blast took place, and there was a risk of an explosion at the building housing the No. 3 reactor, but that it was unlikely to affect the reactor core container.
A Japanese official said 22 people have been confirmed to have suffered radiation contamination and up to 190 may have been exposed. Workers in protective clothing used handheld scanners to check people arriving at evacuation centres.

Economic impact
The earthquake has forced many firms to suspend production and shares in some of Japan’s biggest companies tumbled on Monday, with Toyota Corp dropping around seven per cent. Shares in Australian-listed uranium miners also dived.
Already saddled with debts twice the size of its $5 trillion economy and threatened with credit downgrades, the government is discussing a temporary tax rise to fund relief work.
Analysts expect the economy to suffer a hit in the short-term, then get a boost from reconstruction activity.
“When we talk about natural disasters, we tend to see an initial sharp drop in production…then you tend to have a V-shaped rebound. But initially everyone underestimates the damage,” said Michala Marcussen, head of global economics at Societe Generale.
Ratings agency Moody’s said on Sunday the fiscal impact of the earthquake would be temporary and have a limited play on whether it would downgrade Japan’s sovereign debt.
Risk modelling company AIR Worldwide said insured losses from the earthquake could reach nearly $35 billion.
The Bank of Japan has said it would pump cash into the banking system to prevent the disaster from destabilising markets.
It is also expected to signal its readiness to ease monetary policy further if the damage threatens a fragile economic recovery.
Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said authorities were closely watching the yen after the currency initially rallied on expectations of repatriations by insurers and others. The currency later reversed course in volatile trading.
The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. It surpassed the Great Kanto quake of September 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.
The 1995 Kobe quake killed 6,000 and caused $100 billion in damage, the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.

POWERFULL EARTH QUAKE AND TSUNAMI JAPAN

TOKYO: A massive 8.9 magnitude quake hit northeast Japan on Friday, causing many injuries, fires and a four-metre (13-ft) tsunami along parts of the country's coastline.
There were several strong aftershocks and a warning of a 10-metre tsunami following the quake, which also caused buildings to shake violently in the capital Tokyo.
Public broadcaster NHK showed flames and black smoke billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country were halted.
Black smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama's Isogo area.  An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed into the water.
Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers' hands. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand.
Hundreds of office workers and shoppers spilled into Hitotsugi street, a shopping street in Akasaka in downtown Tokyo.
Household goods ranging from toilet paper to clingfilm were flung into the street from outdoor shelves in front of a drugstore.
Crowds gathered in front of televisions in a shop next to the drugstore for details. After the shaking from the first quake subsided.
The U.S. Geological Survey earlier verified a magnitude of 7.9 at a depth of 15.1 miles and located the quake 81 miles east of Sendai, on the main island of Honshu. It later upgraded it to 8.8.
A police car drove down Hitotsugi Street, lights flashing, announcing through a bullhorn that there was still a danger of shaking.
The Tokyo stock market extended its losses after the quake was announced. The central bank said it would do everything to ensure financial stability.
Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
Meanwhile, officials of fishermen's unions in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures said they began conducting on-the-spot examinations to check the extent of damage inflicted by the Wednesday quake on their members' farming facilities like those for oysters and scallops.
The Thursday morning quake brought the number of quakes felt in Japan since Wednesday to more than 30.

POWER FULL EARTHQUAKE CHINA

BEIJING — The death toll from the powerful earthquake that struck western China Wednesday rose to at least 617 people on Thursday, with 10,000 more injured as many remained buried under debris, Chinese state media reported. 
People gathered in open areas after the quake hit. 
The quake, which struck at 7:49 a.m. in Qinghai Province, bordering Tibet, had a magnitude of 7.1, according to China’s earthquake agency. At least 18 aftershocks measuring more than 6.0 followed throughout the day, government officials said, according to Xinhua. 


China’s earthquake agency said the quake centered on Yushu County, a remote and mountainous area sparsely populated by farmers and herdsmen, most of them ethnic Tibetans. The region, pocked with copper, tin and coal mines, is also rich in natural gas. 


As with the devastating earthquake two years ago that killed 87,000 in neighboring Sichuan Province, many buildings collapsed, including schools. But with Qinghai’s far smaller and less dense population, the toll is likely to remain far lower. 


A seismologist, Gu Guohua, said in an interview with the national broadcaster CCTV that 90 percent of the homes in the county seat, Jeigu, had collapsed. The houses, he said, were of “quite poor quality,” with many constructed of wood, mud and brick. 


The dead included at least 56 students and 5 teachers who were crushed in the rubble of collapsing schools or dormitories, the English-language government newspaper China Daily reported. Of that number, 22 students — 20 of them girls — died in the collapse of a vocational school, the newspaper quoted the deputy chief of the Yushu education bureau, Xiao Yuping, as saying. 


Among those still missing were 20 children buried in the wreckage of a primary school, and as many as 50 people were trapped beneath a collapsed office building that houses the Departments of Commerce and Industry, according to news reports. 


“We’re in the process of trying to rescue the students,” Kang Zifu, a local fire department official, told CCTV on Wednesday afternoon. “We’re hurrying to help them.” 


He said at least 32 survivors had been pulled from the debris. 


The prefecture that includes Yushu is on the Tibetan plateau, with a population that is more than 96 percent Tibetan and overwhelmingly poor. Many villages sit well above 16,000 feet, with freezing temperatures not uncommon in mid-April. By Wednesday evening, temperatures in the county seat had already dropped to 27 degrees, and snow and sleet were forecast in the coming days.  


“The most important thing now is that this place is far from everything, with few accessible rescue troops available,” Mr. Wu said. “I feel like the number of dead and injured will keep going up.” 


Officials said that rescue efforts were stymied by a lack of heavy equipment. Medical supplies and tents, they added, were in short supply. Phone calls to local government offices went unanswered Wednesday afternoon. 


State news media reported that 700 paramilitary officers were already working in the quake zone and that more than 4,000 others would be sent to assist in search and rescue efforts. The Civil Affairs Ministry said it would also send 5,000 tents and 100,000 coats and blankets. 


Workers also were rushing to release water from a reservoir after cracks were discovered in a dam, according to the China Earthquake Administration. 


Genqiu Renqin, a teacher who lives in Sichuan Province, about 60 miles from Yushu, said he felt the earth shake and immediately drove to see if relatives who lived near the epicenter were safe. 


“Almost all of their homes were badly damaged, but luckily no one was seriously injured,” he said, speaking by phone from a town about 25 miles from the county seat. “All the people in the area are camping out for now.

Volcanoes arranged by country and region.

Every volcano which has erupted in the past 10,000 years is listed, plus many ancient volcanoes

  Volcanoes arranged by country and region.
Afghanistan                  Ethiopia
Fiji
France
French Polynesia
Galapagos Islands
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Guatemala
Hawaii
Honduras
Iceland
India
Indian Ocean
Indonesia
Iran
Italy
Japan
Kamchatka
Kenya
Korea
Kurile Islands
Libya
Madagascar
Malaysia
Mali
Mariana Islands
Mexico
Mongolia
Myanmar
New Zealand
Nicaragua

Africa
Alaska
Algeria
Antarctica
Arctic Ocean
Argentina
Armenia
Asia
Atlantic Ocean
Australia
Azerbaijan
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Niger
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Tonga
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United States
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Yemen

Volcano Name Location Continuous Eruptions

Volcano Name                         Location                           Continuous Eruptions 

Ambrym                          Vanuatu                                                              1935- 
Tinakula                         Solomon Islands                                                 1951?- 
Erta Ale                         Ethiopia                                                               1967- 
Manam                          Papua New Guinea                                            1974- 
Langila                          Papua New Guinea                                            1960- 
Bagana                         Papua New Guinea                                            1972- 
Semeru                         Indonesia                                                             1967- 
Merapi                          Indonesia                                                              1967- 
Dukono                         Indonesia                                                              1933- 
Sakura-jima                Japan                                                                     1955- 
Suwanose-jima          Japan                                                                     1949- 
Santa Maria              Guatemala                                                              1922- 
Pacaya                     Guatemala                                                               1965- 
Arenal                       Costa Rica                                                              1968- 
Sangay                     Ecuador                                                                   1934- 
Erebus                     Antarctica                                                                 1972- 
Piton de la Fournaise      Reunion                                                          1920- 
Kilauea                      Hawaii                                                                    1983- 

Etna                           Italy                                                                  3500 years 
Stromboli                  Italy                                                                  2000 years
Yasur                        Vanuatu                                                           800 years

BRAZIL,AUSTRALIA FLOOD

BRISBANE: Heavy rain prompted new flood warnings in Australia even as thousands of volunteers cleaned up the gooey mess coating homes and streets in its third-largest city Saturday.

Four states had flood warnings due to overflowing rivers and rain, while Queensland worked to recover from its deadly, weekslong disaster. Large parts of the vast state are still under water and some places are still on alert for flooding. In Brisbane, the water that swamped entire neighborhoods has mostly receded, leaving behind a thick, putrid sludge.

About 7,000 residents joined 600 military personnel in what was dubbed ‘Salvation Saturday’ to shovel, mop and sweep away the mess after the Brisbane River overflowed earlier this week.

Mayor Campbell Newman praised the overwhelming turnout. ‘Everybody rolls up their sleeves in this town,’ Newman said. The volunteers were given mops, garbage bags and cleaning supplies before being bused to the areas of Brisbane most in need.

Survivors of mudslides that killed more than 555 people are growing frustrated, saying Brazil’s government has fallen short in rescuing victims still stranded on remote hillsides and finding the bodies of the dead.
On the fourth night since torrential rains sent avalanches of mud and boulders smashing through communities in the lush mountains outside Rio de Janeiro, many people were still begging officials for aid late Friday. Many also took it upon themselves to search for their dead and help out the living.
‘The ones I’ve seen go up there and really make the effort are all people from here,’ said Sergio Joaquin de Jesus, 48, a construction worker who had just donated blood and was rounding up a crew of co-workers to dig for bodies Saturday morning. ‘Imagine, human beings up there, with no food, no water, nowhere to sleep, in this weather. They’re living like dogs,’ he said. ‘Where is the government? What are they still waiting for?’
The military said that it was sending 11 helicopters and 500 personnel to help approximately 800 rescuers from fire departments and the state civil defence agency who were struggling to reach stricken areas in an incessant rain. The army and navy also pledged heavy digging machinery, ambulances and generators - the last essential to continue the rescue effort in the dark. Low-hanging rain clouds prevented the helicopters from flying in, however, and the military promised it would try again Saturday. Survivors did what they could.
After failing to find his other children, the 31-year-old ranch hand built a gurney from scrap wood, carried his son’s body down a mudslide-wrecked slope before dawn Friday and buried him in a homemade coffin. Then Perfista waited with a crowd in the rain outside the Teresopolis morgue for a chance to plead with officials to help him continue his search. He clutched plastic-covered pictures of his three other children: a chubby 1-year-old and two smiling girls, ages 6 and 10.

Survivors of mudslides that killed at least 537 people in a mountainous area north of Rio de Janeiro streamed into the centre of Teresopolis on Friday.

Amauri Souza, a 38-year-old who helped Perfista carry his son’s body, said a few helicopters had reached isolated areas, but ‘they’re only taking down the wounded.’ He said officials were not dropping off body bags or food or water, adding that he feared the consequences if aid did not arrive soon.

‘The water is rotten, but people are forced to drink it. There is no food. I had meat in my house, but it’s all gone bad,’ Souza said. Officials fear the death toll could rise once remote areas are reached. Authorities did not offer an estimate on the missing, but local reports put it in the hundreds.

There is no central repository of information about survivors and missing people, said Carla Monica Tomazetto, a city worker using a microphone to call out the names of those being sought by relatives just outside a shelter for those who lost their homes.

Teresopolis, a city of 163,000 people next to a national park, sits in a land of thickly forested slopes and sheer mountain peaks, and is a chief training site for Brazil’s national soccer team. It’s home to many ornate weekend homes where the wealthy of Rio escape the summer heat to enjoy horseback riding and other luxuries.

FLOOD WARNING AND FORECAST ALERT REPORT PAKISTAN 2010

FLOOD FORECAST (ALERT )FOR   SUTLEJ  RIVER

According to present Hydro-Meteorological situation & rains observed in the upper catchment areas of River Sutlej, Ganda Singh Wala (Kasur District) may attain a LOW FLOOD level during the period from 1200 PST of  26th  September-2010 to 1800 PST of 27th September-2010  ranging between 50,000 to 60,000 cusecs (Approximately Gauge 18 – 19 feet ).
This may create inundation in low lying areas of river Sutlej. The inhabitants in the river bed around the districts of Kasur, Okara and Pakpattan may affect. It is requested that concerned authorities may take precautionary measures to warn the people residing in the river bed.
SIGNIFICANT FLOOD FORECAST FOR RIVER INDUS AT KOTRI

According to prevailing hydrological conditions the 2nd Flood wave is passing from Kotri and River is maintaining Exceptionally High Flood level with inflow of 964897 Cusecs. It may further rise during next 36-hours. The sustained peak at Kotri may last for next 2 to 3 days. Thereafter it may start falling and is likely to remain between 7,00,000 to 9,00,000 Cusecs during subsequent 7 to 9 days and around 6,00,000 Cusecs for  subsequent one week.
Under this scenario, the inundation and riverine Flooding is expected at low lying areas of Sajawal, MirpurBataro, MirpurSakro, JhangShahi, AllahRakhio, ShadadKot , Jamshoro, Matiari, Makaro, Ketibander, Shahbander in  Thatta and Hyderabad  Districts  along with the river bed.
All concerned authorities are requested to take precautionary measures to avoid loss of human lives and property. 

Flood Alert for Sutlej  Ravi and Chenab Rivers
       
Sutlej River
 According to Indus Water Treaty, India shall inform Pakistan when the release of water from Ferozepur down stream increases to 50,000 Cusecs or more. India has not yet informed Pakistan regarding the release of such quantity of water from Ferozepur. The slight rise in water at Ganda Singh Wala is only due to rains in the lower catchments of Sutlej below Bhakra dam. As such the water in Sutlej is likely to remain around 50,000 Cusecs in next 2-days.
                                                                            

River Ravi
 The rains in the area below Madhopur headworks and in the Catchment of Nullahs of River Ravi (Deg, Bein, Kethar, Ujh, Basanter) have caused a slight increase in the inflow at Jassar and Shahdara. However, the situation is not dangerous. According to Indus Treaty, India shall inform Pakistan when they release the water from Madhopur headworks more than 30,000 Cusecs and they have not yet informed. Therefore it is presumed that the flow in River Ravi shall remain below low flood level i.e. 40,000 Cusecs.


River Chenab
 The prevailing metrological conditions suggest that the chances of heavy rains in the Catchments of river Chenab are minimum during next 2-days. Therefore there is no imminent danger of any flood in river Chenab. However some rain may cause slightly increased flow in river Chenab, which may not be taken as dangerous situation. The flow shall remain at low flood level (around 1,00,000 Cusecs)
According to prevailing hydrological conditions the Flood wave is passing from Kotri and River has attained Exceptionally High Flood level at Kotri with inflow 8,37,982 Cusecs at 1200 PST. It will continue rising and is likely to attain Flood level ranging between 8,50,000 to 9,00,000 Cusecs during next 24-hours. The River Indus at Kotri shall maintain and sustain peak, which is expected to last 4 to 5 days.
Inflow between 7,00,000 to 8,00,000 Cusecs would last for subsequent 5 to 8 days and around 6,00,000 Cusecs for another subsequent 10 days at least.
Under this scenario, the inundation and riverine Flooding is expected at low lying areas of Sajawal , MirpurBataro, MirpurSakro, JhangShahi ,AllahRakhio, ShadadKot , Jamshoro, Matiari, Makaro, Ketibander, Shahbander in  Thatta and Hyderabad  Districts  along with the river bed.
All concerned authorities are requested to take precautionary measures to avoid loss of human lives and property. 
FLOOD WARNING AND FORECAST ALERT REPORT PAKISTAN 2010
 



                                                                              

WHAT IS TSUNAMI AND EARTHQUAKE

With a massive 8.8 earthquake striking near Chile and sending a tsunami across the Pacific, Hawaii readies itself for what could be a devastating strike. The island state has a history of being stricken by tsunamis, some generated locally but many from far off areas.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 50 tsunamis have been reported in Hawaii since the early 1800’s. Of those seven caused major damage. Five of those were generated from areas outside the state.

A tsunami is a series of waves that start out as a disturbance under the sea (such as an earthquake), and then increase in intensity. The disturbance causes the waves to travel outward in all directions. In this article, you will learn more about the causes and effects of tsunamis.

The motion of a tsunami is similar to what happens when you toss a rock in a lake and ripples start to form and move about the water. The time it takes for the waves to fully form is between 5 and 90 minutes. Sometimes, the wave speed in the open ocean will average 450 miles per hour.
Tsunamis that have reached a height of more than 100 feet have been recorded. The closer the waves get to reaching shallow coastal waters, the more normal they appear. The speed also decreases. If a tsunami closes in on the coastline, other conditions arise. It may grow in height and when it reaches the shore – it can be highly destructive.

An earthquake is not the only natural occurrence to cause a tsunami. Landslides, volcanic eruptions, and even meteorites have been known to cause an earthquake. A tsunami can start hundreds or even thousands of miles away from coastal areas. Location can play an important role in the effect of a tsunami. The regions at a great risk for suffering a tsunami are found less than 50 feet above sea level and within one mile of the shoreline.
Tsunamis cause a succession of high and low water levels. These kinds of crests and troughs usually occur about 10 to 45 minutes apart.
 The highest death toll from a tsunami happened on December 26, 2004, when an earthquake with a magnitude of 9 occurred under the Indian Ocean. The tsunami struck off the coast of Indonesia with a wave that affected the coastlines of nine different countries about the Indian Ocean. It was estimated in January 20, 2005 that the tsunami took the lives of at least 226,000 people. The total death toll is a number that will never be known.
Other Facts About Tsunamis

A 1964 earthquake in Alaska caused a tsunami with waves that measured between 10 and 20 feet high. The effects of the tsunami were felt along the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington. In Alaska, more than $84 million in damage was incurred and the tsunami killed 123 people.
Since 1945, more people have lost their lives as a result of tsunamis than as a direct result of what happens with an earthquake.
Tsunamis are rare along the Atlantic coastline. However, a serious earthquake that took place on November 18, 1929 in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. A tsunami developed and as a result, a great deal of damage and deaths took place at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
The most common way that a person dies during a tsunami is by drowning. Other causes of death include flooding, polluted water supplies, and damaged gas lines.
A tsunami that occurred in 1946 sent waves of 20 to 32 feet to crash into Hilo, Hawaii. The downtown part of the city flooded and in the process, 159 people were killed.
An estimate 10,000 people died in Hong Kong when a typhoon accompanied by a tsunami took place in 1906.
The Tsunami Warning Centers in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Palmer, Alaska, keep an eye on the disturbances that can lead to tsunamis. When a tsunami is detected – it is tracked. Tsunami warnings are then issued for areas in danger.

The worst tsunami to strike Hawaii in modern history occurred in 1946 and was caused by an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands. The tsunami struck without warning and claimed the lives of 170 people, mainly near Laupahoehoe and Hilo. Wave heights near Hilo reached 30 feet while the maximum height was 55 feet at the northern tip of the island near the Pololu Valley.

Waves as high as 35 feet struck Hilo, Hawaii and caused 61 deaths and $75 million in damage. Hilo Bay itself was struck the worst where 600 acres of land inland were inundated and only the most reinforced buildings survived. On Maui, the Kahului area was struck the worst where a warehouse and some houses were destroyed.

Tsunamis caused closer to the epicenter of a quake are often more deadly as there is less warning. Two locally generated tsunamis have also caused damage in Hawaii, one in 1868 and another in 1975. The 1868 tsunami destroyed two villages while waves from the 1975 tsunami claimed two lives.

As the wave approaches land, it slows but they increase in height
and the distance between them shrinks. (Wikipedia)A tsunami is typically generated by the movement of tectonic plate boundaries that move abruptly causing an earthquake. As one of the plates moves upward, it pushes the water up and outwards.

 

POWER FULL EARTHQUAKE KARACHI

KARACHI: A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.2 shook southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, jolting residents of cities as far apart as New Delhi and Dubai, but doing little damage in the sparsely populated region.
The quake was more than 80 km underground, close to the town of Dalbandin in Balochistan province, near the Afghan and Iranian frontiers, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
Akbar Durrani, interior secretary of Balochistan province, said there were no reports of casualties.
“There has been partial damage to house in villages near Dalbandin but there were no casualties,” he told Reuters.
Naeem Shah, head of Dalbandin police, said he had no reports of any injuries or deaths.
“There were no human losses,” Shah said. “The walls of a few houses and offices collapsed but there are no reports of any casualties.”
The USGS said the epicentre of the quake, which struck at 1:23 a.m., was 55 km west of Dalbandin, a town of about 15,000 people, and at a depth of 83 km.
Poor communications delayed reports from the remote area but despite the strength of the shock, its depth seems to have limited damage. The USGS had first said the earthquake was much shallower.
People in India’s northwestern border state of Rajasthan said cracks appeared in the walls of rural dwellings.
US forces in Afghanistan were unaffected by the quake, according to preliminary reports from the US military.
People flee their houses
In Quetta, the capital and largest city in Baluchistan, 330 km northeast of the epicentre, a woman died at a hospital from a heart attack following the quake, hospital officials said.
In the major Pakistani port of Karachi, 400 km away, people rushed from their homes as the quake hit.

“I felt like my bed was shaking. I got up and ran to check the children,” said Masooma Rizvi. “It was very scary. I have never felt anything like this before.”

The Pacific Tsunami Center said the quake had not triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

A major quake of this magnitude, if at a shallow depth and close to population centres, is capable of causing widespread and heavy damage. Pakistan is still reeling from devastating floods last year that left more than 10 million people homeless.

At least 160 people were killed when a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Balochistan, about 60 km north of Quetta, in October 2008.

In 2005, a 7.6 magnitude quake 95 km northeast of Islamabad killed more than 70,000 people.

A 7.7-magnitude earthquake in 1935 hit Quetta, killing between 30,000 and 60,000 people, making it one of the deadliest quakes to hit South Asia in recorded history..

world climate change

NASA’s announcement this year – that 2010 ties 2005 as the warmest year in the 131-year instrumental record – made headlines. But, how much does the ranking of a single year matter? Global temperature records in close agreement, despite subtle differences
Multiple institutions monitor global surface temperatures. Despite subtle differences in the ways the scientists perform their analyses, these four widely referenced records show remarkable agreement. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Groups of scientists from several major institutions – NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the Japanese Meteorological Agency and the Met Office Hadley Centre in the United Kingdom – tally data collected by temperature monitoring stations spread around the world and make an announcement about whether the previous year was a comparatively warm or cool year. The availability of and access to climate change information remains insufficient, according to many of the world's leading financial institutions. A pioneering study launched  confirms the increasing financial relevance of climate change and the fact that insurers and lenders need better information regarding the physical and economic impacts of the world's changing weather patterns.

Financial service providers and their customers are increasingly affected by the impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events. Moreover, the survey shows that insurers, reinsurers, lenders, and asset managers expect these kinds of risks to increase in the future.

Given that financial institutions are able to influence their clients and investee companies across all sectors of the economy, they can play a key role in accelerating the implementation of adaptation measures by the private sector.

But in order for the sector to manage climatic risks affecting their business portfolios and to give the best possible advice to their customers, financial institutions need access to applied information such as climate change predictions, modelling, analysis, and interpretation. Such information needs to be appropriate to the duration of contracts, the regions where customers hold assets or undertake operations and the hazards that are material to the operations of borrowers, investees, and the insured.
Not all that much, emphasizes James Hansen, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City. In the GISS analysis, for example, 2010 differed from 2005 by less than 0.01°C (0.018 °F), a difference so small that the temperatures of these two years are indistinguishable, given the uncertainty of the calculation.
Meanwhile, the third warmest year -- 2009 -- is so close to 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2007, with the maximum difference between the years being a mere 0.03°C, that all six years are virtually tied.
Even for a near record-breaking year like 2010 the broader context is more important than a single year. “Certainly, it is interesting that 2010 was so warm despite the presence of a La Niña and a remarkably inactive sun, two factors that have a cooling influence on the planet, but far more important than any particular year’s ranking .