NUCLEAR THREAT AS DEATH TOLL SOARS

NUCLEAR THREAT AS DEATH TOLL SOARS

(Sunday Telegraph March 13^th 2011) By: Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo.

Reeling from its worst earthquake (Friday 11/3/2011 5:30pm Australian time) and a devastating tsunami that has claimed more than 1000 lives, Japan was plunged into a new nightmare last night after an explosion at a quake-damaged nuclear power plant.

The blast occurred at the Fukushima Dia-ichi plant, north of Tokyo, where workers had been desperately trying to prevent a nuclear meltdown after the failure of the reactor cooling system following Friday’s shockwave.

One of the reactor’s walls collapsed, leaving only a skeletal metal frame standing and puffs of smoke could be seen spewing out of the plant.

Nearby residents who had already been evacuated outside of a 10km radius, were warned not to go outside.

We are now trying to analyse what is behind the explosion, said government spokesman Yukio Edano.

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the plant had been venting “radio-active” vapours, to ease a build up of pressure, and radio-active levels in the vicinity were up to 20 times normal levels.

The nuclear emergency added to the apocalyptic scenario of blazing buildings and razed coastal towns, which have left 215,000 homeless after one of the largest earthquakes in history triggered devastating tsunami waves.

As the 10m-high tsunamis receded, fires in oil refineries and buildings continued to burn unabated.

The waves created panic throughout the Pacific, sweeping eastward at the speed of jet planes before slamming into the west coast of the US, claiming at least one life and causing extensive damage. The unfathomable chaos was still unfolding in Japan last night, with the extent of destruction in the nation’s north, near the epi-centre of the 8-9 magnitude quake, still unknown.

At least 1000 people are believed dead. The Gillard government revealed grave fears were also held for dozens of Australians.

Half the country was without power, with four million homes in Tokyo alone cut off, as the army was deployed to quake-hit areas to help relief efforts.

However, those relief efforts were hampered by at least 50 reported aftershocks, including a 6.6 magnitude tremor which hit Tokyo.

Two high-speed bullet trains were missing and a cruise ship carrying 100 passengers  was swept away. One of the trains was reported to be carrying 400 passengers. The ship was found late yesterday, and 81 survivors were rescued.

A state of emergency was declared near a nuclear power plant in Fukushima after the earthquake caused the cooling system to fail.

Meanwhile, between 200 and 300 bodies have been found in Sendai city alone, while another 151 were confirmed killed, with 547 missing. Police also said 798 people were injured.

The tsunami struck Sendai, which has a population of about one million, on the northeast coast on Friday. It followed the earthquake, which was hit at 2:46pm local time, at a depth of 10km. The area is 380km northeast of Tokyo.

The quake shook dozens of cities and villages on a 2100km stretch of coast and tall buildings swayed in Tokyo, hundreds of miles from the eri-centre. Prime Minister Naoto Kan was addressing parliament when the earthquake struck.

After flying over the devastated north, the Prime Minister said: What used to be residential areas were mostly swept away in many coastal areas and fires are still blazing there.

The quake was the fifth largest since 1900, almost 8000 times stronger than the quake that devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month.

A global investment banking group estimated overall losses of about $US10 billion.

US President Barack Obama has pledged American assistance following what he described as a potentially catastrophic disaster.

WAVES SURGE ACROSS THE PACIFIC

(Sunday Telegraph March 13^th 2011) By: Michael Thurston and Michael Hanlon.

Surging waves from earthquake-striken Japan raced thousands of kilometres across the Pacific Ocean, causing evacuations in Hawaii and other islands, damaging harbours on the US west coast and forcing Ecuador’s oil industry to shut down.

Waves as big as 1.4m crashed ashore in California and Oregon, and claimed at least one victim, up to 12 hours after the 8.8 magnitude quake triggered tsunami alerts in dozens of Pacific countries.

California governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in four coastal countries, as powerful surges wreaked havoc in marinas and terrified locals.

In Crescent City, 560km north of San Francisco – and more than 11,000km from Japan –emergency services manager Cindy Henderson said at least 35 boats had been crushed.

We have boats on top of other boats, she said.

The US Coast Guard launched a search for a man who was swept away while taking photographs of the tsunami waves on the California coast.

Americans witnessed the bizarre sight of waves travelling up rivers and channels.

In a precautionary move, Exuador suspended crude-oil exports to protect shippingand maritime terminals and declared a state of emergency.

Before reaching the US mainland, the tidal waves hit Hawaii, which had been given only four hours to evacuate low-lying areas.

Sirens blarred as locals and tourists scrambled to higher ground.

The tsunami warning came after the largest recorded earthquake in Japan’s history released so much energy it was equivalent to about 1000 times the combined power of all the world’s nuclear weapons.

As with the Christchurch quake, last year’s devastating magnitude 8.8 quake in Chile, which killed several hundred, and the tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004 that killed more than 250,000, this catastrophe was a result of titanic geological forces operating around the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

This is a 40,000km belt of earthquakes and volcanoes encircling the Pacific Ocean, a chain of giant fault lines that separate some of the largest of Earth’s tectonic plates – the slabs of solid rock that made up our planet’s crust.

When tectonic plates collide or grind against one another, unimaginable forces are generated as the Earth’s crust buckles and deforms under the strain.

Under the ocean, this displaces millions of tonnes of water, creating the giant waves that form tsunamis.

The earthquake occurred along a 354km long and 95km wide patch of undersea fault line. The Pacific Ocean Plate was being pushed into and underneath the North American plate, forming a subduction zone that build up so much pressure it ruptured.

The earthquake displaced the sea floor, causing the ocean above it to bulge, which triggered the tsunami. A tsunami is actually a series of ocean waves, not a single wave, with very long wavelengths up to hundreds of kilometres long.

Once the tsunami reaches shallow water it slows down and its size grows, a process known as shoaling. That means a tsunami may be unnoticeable or minor in deep water but become several metres high as it approaches land.