Earthquake in Japan....9.0...ouch!

Energize said:
You say that as though it is even remotely comparable to the effect of a magnitude 9 earthquake and 10m tsunami. When we had a bit of flooding it did not cause a state of emergency with nuclear plants melting down, loss of power and tens of thousands dead.
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There were only minor injuries in Tokyo (30 million population) and no buildings collapsed, you can't stop the country from running or it will collapse even quicker than a follow-up cataclysm would.

None of those people will help with the nuclear plants, emergency services are all over the place on the coast that was affected by tsunami. People have to get back to normal so that shelters, food, water, emergency service are provided to survivors and eventually builders will start working in affected areas.

Azza said:
Why are the BBC listing every single after-shock now?
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No other news? People are bored of a single footage shown throughout the day, they want something to keep them interested.
 
Mr Krugga said:
I've seen quite a few reports of large aftershocks and it always turned out to be a mediocre one.
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Depends what large is, not a 9.0 doesn't make it small, and you've got a country of wound up, tired, shaken, sad people, a 2.0 would be pretty terrifying at the moment.

Energize said:
You say that as though it is even remotely comparable to the effect of a magnitude 9 earthquake and 10m tsunami. When we had a bit of flooding it did not cause a state of emergency with nuclear plants melting down, loss of power and tens of thousands dead.
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Thats not the point and I didn't even remotely suggest they were comparable, however a person dies in a Tsunami, a person dies in a flash flood, area's devestated, people dead, emergency work going on, on the other side of the country, that didn't happen. Do you think after every emergency anywhere in the world the guys on the other side of the country just didn't go to work? Countries would fall apart if no one went to work for 4 days.

THe fact is a banker in Tokyo can't search for dead bodies, stop a meltdown, generate electricity, but he can do his job so thats what he does. The stock market is open, supermarkets are open, the police, army, nurse, doctors, airport staff, train staff, power grid staff, plumbers, electricians, people are needed and they are all working. Petrol stations are open, farms that weren't damaged can't just ignore their work. Most of the country will get on with it, even in such a insanely difficult situation. Some people can't go to work, some can, some won't want to, plenty of people did go to work.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Thats not the point and I didn't even remotely suggest they were comparable, however a person dies in a Tsunami, a person dies in a flash flood, area's devestated, people dead, emergency work going on, on the other side of the country, that didn't happen. Do you think after every emergency anywhere in the world the guys on the other side of the country just didn't go to work? Countries would fall apart if no one went to work for 4 days.
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When there are so many people dead it has a huge impact in areas unaffected by the quake itself whose families have been killed by the tsunami. I imagine most normal people are not going to say "oh well all my family were going to die eventually anyway" and go back to work the next day like nothing happened, never mind school which is not a necessity.
 
Mr Krugga said:
There were two experts on BBC News a couple of hours ago, one in the studio was comparing the current situation to Chernobyl and said that a large explosion is possible, adding fuel to BBC's sensationalist approach (although the presenters were asking some good questions).

The other claimed that the biggest problem for Japan atm is lack of electricity.
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Well, it is possible despite what people are saying, the base of that containment building is designed to hold a load of stupidly hot liquid uranium and not let it leak, its also been through a massive earthquake and everything else that was supposed to work didn't. The reason they are venting the pressure in the tanks is because they can't just take infinate pressure, its a VERY small chance and WAY less than Chernobyl, just because Chernobyl didn't have protection doesn't mean these plants containment will work. Theres every chance it will, everyones hoping it will, but in the worst case scenario no one planned for this, really no one could have.

AS for electricity, its a far less bad situation than it would be here. Again the Japanese are doing their part and very well, they've delayed power cuts because the Japanese are being unselfish and doing what was asked of them, using as little power as possible. If it was here everyone would be watching the news infront of their 60" plasma boiling the kettle every 5 minutes while running the washing machine, tumble drier, 3 computers and a console. We'd last 30 seconds in the same situation.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Depends what large is, not a 9.0 doesn't make it small, and you've got a country of wound up, tired, shaken, sad people, a 2.0 would be pretty terrifying at the moment.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale

2.0 wouldn't even be felt. We're talking 5.0-5.5 aftershocks here.


drunkenmaster said:
AS for electricity, its a far less bad situation than it would be here. Again the Japanese are doing their part and very well, they've delayed power cuts because the Japanese are being unselfish and doing what was asked of them, using as little power as possible. If it was here everyone would be watching the news infront of their 60" plasma boiling the kettle every 5 minutes while running the washing machine, tumble drier, 3 computers and a console. We'd last 30 seconds in the same situation.
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Have you ever seen Tokyo? That city shines like Las Vegas.
 
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Mr Krugga said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale

2.0 wouldn't even be felt. We're talking 5.0-5.5 aftershocks here.




Have you ever seen Tokyo? That city shines like Las Vegas.
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Yes, I know 2.0 wouldn't be felt, have you never seen someone exagerate to make a point. Japanese people usually barely flich at a smaller quake, after a 9.0, they're in "this could be the big one" mode, big lorry hits a speed bump outside and everyone gets worried.

AS for Tokyo, it shines, sure, when you flip the switch, the lights go off and then, you know, stop using electricity.
 
Of course people in Japan are expecting another big one (i.e. 7.6+). Apparently Baths Law, agreed with by Richter, says that the biggest aftershock is pretty much invariably 1.1-1.2 less than the primary no matter what size the primary was. As yet there has not been an aftershock anywhere near 7.7 so quite naturally it is being anticipated.

For Baths Law see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftershock

I for one am not going to predict that this law will be wrong this time.
 
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