MetaFilter posts tagged with tsunami and Japan

Electricity in Japan

thewalrus — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 20:38:48 -0800

In the year and a half since the earthquake and tsunami caused an industry-wide Japanese nuclear shutdown , Japanese consumers and businesses have been urged to conserve energy whenever possible. Although a few reactors are being brought back online temporarily, the Japanese government has pledged to move away from nuclear power sources. Yesterday the Japanese government announced what may be the world's highest solar photovolatic feed-in tariff at 53 cents per kWh generated. What to do with all that contaminated land near Fukushima? Build what may be the world's largest solar power plant, where it won't particularly matter if the solar panels and equipement are slightly irradiated.

Spring, When the Harleys Return to British Columbia to Spawn...

Etrigan — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:41:29 -0800

Ikuo Yokoyama lost his home and three family members in the Japanese tsunami last year. Among the losses was a Harley-Davidson motorcycle he had bought five years ago and keeping in the back of a cube van... which floated across the Pacific Ocean and was found by Peter Mark, a resident of British Columbia, on an beach on Graham Island (it's the big one up the B.C. coast, near Alaska). Aside from some rust, the motorcycle seems to be in decent condition, and Harley-Davidson plans to restore it and ship it back to Yokoyama.

Floods, aftershocks, and fallout.

markkraft — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:10:41 -0800

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom. Japan, still feeling the aftershocks of the earthquake, the tsunami, the Fukushima exclusion zone... An opportunity for everyone to reflect on the disaster, share stories, and contemplate the impact of a year ago and what it means today.

Japan Tsunami Pictures - Before and After

KokuRyu — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:31:24 -0800

Japan Tsunami Pictures - Before and After See how Japan has rebuilt in the 11 months since the earthquake and tsunami

Tsunami Drive-By

mannequito — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:18:21 -0800

Yu Muroga was doing his job making deliveries when the 11 March 2011 earthquake hit in Japan. Unaware, like many people in the area, of how far inland the Tsunami would travel, he continued to drive and do his job. The HD camera mounted on his dashboard captured not only the earthquake, but also the moment he and several other drivers were suddenly engulfed in the Tsunami. He escaped from the vehicle seconds before it was crushed by other debris and sunk underwater.

Come and see for yourself ...

woodblock100 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:09:43 -0800

On Monday, Google released Memories for the Future, a website that allows you to "... walk the scarred coastline [after the Japanese tsunami] virtually". "... it is possible to see the full extent of the damage by finding an image in Street View and then clicking the “Before” and “After” links at the top to see how the earthquake and tsunami impacted that area." The Japan Real Time blog has a good introduction and writeup.

"We'll be fine."

zarq — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:06:52 -0800

GQ: The Man Who Sailed His House. On the third day after the Japanese tsunami, after the waves had left their destruction, as rescue workers searched the ruins, news came of an almost surreal survival: Nine miles out at sea, a man had been found alone, riding on nothing but the roof of his house. Single page version Via GQ's "Newsmakers" tag rss feed.

The Fukushima Robot Diaries

homunculus — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:11:11 -0800

Fukushima Robot Operator Writes Tell-All Blog. "An anonymous worker at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has written dozens of blog posts describing his experience as a lead robot operator at the crippled facility." [Via]

'Do Not Cry'

PepperMax — Tue, 10 May 2011 08:49:40 -0800

JKTS: A Japanese medical aid worker's diary An anonymous blog written by a Japanese nurse as she cared for victims of the tsunami has given strength to survivors and fellow relief workers.

'Til Death Tries To Do Us Part And Beyond

mannequito — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:52:29 -0800

The Honeymoon From Hell. Stefan and Erika Svanstrom had planned a long trip that would start in Singapore in early December and end in China four months later. But things didn't go exactly as planned. They encountered floods, fires, tsunamis and earthquakes along the way.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Hi-Res Photos

T.D. Strange — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 07:28:39 -0800

The long running "eyeball" series from noted cryptography and information freedom site Cryptome [many previously] hosts hi-res photos of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear site taken from a UAV and inside the stricken plant. Also eyeball shots of other Japanese nuclear reactors.

Yakuza To The Rescue

kingv — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:19:32 -0800

Even Japan’s infamous mafia groups are helping out with the relief efforts and showing a strain of civic duty. "The Kanagawa Block of the Inagawa-kai, has sent 70 trucks to the Ibaraki and Fukushima areas to drop off supplies in areas with high radiations levels. They didn't keep track of how many tons of supplies they moved. The Inagawa-kai as a whole has moved over 100 tons of supplies to the Tohoku region. They have been going into radiated areas without any protection or potassium iodide."

Japanpost-earthquake nuclear crisis keeps going

mediareport — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:10:28 -0800

Fukushima Dai-ichi status and potential outcomes The Oil Drum has begun posting daily threads about the Japanese nuclear plant event. As during the last energy crisis, the comments there tend to have a good signal-to-noise ratio.

The Orphan Tsunami

Danf — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:01:15 -0800

Around midnight on January 27, 1700, a mysterious tsunami stole through several villages on the eastern coast of Japan. But in the days leading up to the 1700 tsunami, no earthquakes had been detected. Miho's leader wrote that such a thing was unheard of and wondered what to call the waves. "It is said that when an earthquake happens, something like large swells result, but there was no earthquake in either the village or nearby," he wrote. With no parent earthquake to claim it, the tsunami was labeled an "orphan." Based on geologic evidence, scientists think that a massive magnitude-9.0 earthquake rocked the Cascadia Subduction Zone region off Oregon and Washington sometime between 1680 and 1720. In 1997, analysis of tree-rings from the Cascadia region narrowed the time of the natural disaster to a 10-month window, from August 1699 to May 1700. In Japan this event triggered the Orphan Tsunami. (The last link is to a 144 pg. pdf document that will take forever to load, will tie up your computer while it does, but to the geology or history nerd, so worth it.)

A crash course in nuclear wessels.

Dr. Zira — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 21:06:28 -0800

Amidst the massive aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami being discussed in this thread, the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plants continues to unfold. For objective information, discussion, and analysis of the ongoing efforts to stabilize the fuel cores in the boiling water reactors of the type in Fukushima, nuclear engineers such as @arclight are providing laypeople with a much needed crash course on the inner workings of nuclear reactors.

Large earthquake off coast of Japan

Celsius1414 — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:12:18 -0800

Preliminary magnitude 7.9 off Honshu at 05:46 UTC The Pacific Ring of Fire has been living up to its name lately. BBC flash reporting a Tsunami Alert has been issued.

8.0 Earthquake in Hokkaido, Japan

majcher — Thu, 25 Sep 2003 13:57:08 -0800

8.0 Earthquake in Hokkaido, Japan. Holy crap. The Kobe quake in 1994 was a 6.9 - am I right to think that an 8.0 is about ten times worse than that one? Any mefites in Japan who can give us more information?