MAJOR TSUNAMI HITS JAPAN AFTER MASSIVE QUAKE
Yahoo!7 and agencies March 11, 2011, 8:20 pm
A massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake shook Japan on Friday, unleashing a powerful tsunami that sent ships crashing into the shore and carried cars through the streets of coastal towns.
The quake hit in the early afternoon, also strongly shaking buildings in greater Tokyo, the world's largest urban area with 30 million people.
The first quake struck about 382 kilometres (237 miles) northeast of Tokyo, the US Geological Survey said, revising the magnitude from an earlier 7.9.
Japan, is located on the "Pacific Ring of Fire" and dotted with volcanoes, and Tokyo is situated in one of its most dangerous areas.
Super quake terrifies tremor prone nation
Biggest quake in Japan for 140 years
People buried, power cut to four million homes
Quake brings fires, landslide and aftershocks
A tsunami warning was issued for Japan, Taiwan, Russia and the Mariana Islands, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
• DFAT hotline for Australians concerned about family and friends 1300 555 135
UPDATE 9:09PM AEDT
A tsunami warning was issued late on Thursday for Hawaii after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck in the Pacific near Japan, prompting state civil defense officials to order all coastal areas evacuated by 2 a.m. local time.
The warning from the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu said that all islands in the Hawaiian chain were in the path of potential damage from a tsunami.
The government advisory put the estimated arrival time in Hawaii of a first tsunami wave at 3 a.m. local time.
More
UPDATE 8:35PM AEDT
Even in a nation accustomed to tremors, Friday's massive earthquake in Japan, and the tsunami it triggered, were terrifyingly different.
"It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago," said Reuters journalist Linda Sieg.
"The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks," she said.
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 and on average, an earthquake occurs every 5 minutes.
But Friday's quake, coming a few weeks after New Zealand's city of Christchurch was devastated by a strong earthquake, was petrifying.
"I was terrified and I'm still frightened," said Hidekatsu Hata, 36, manager of a Chinese noodle restaurant in Tokyo's Akasaka area. "I've never experienced such a big quake before."
"People were very frightened. Very rare since people in Japan are used to quakes. Today was very different," Reuters Insider reporter Kei Okamura posted on Twitter.
More
UPDATE 8:15PM AEDT
Philippines tells residents to leave coastal areas
Japan warns of imminent strong quake on northeastern Honshu island
Japanese press reports say at least eight people have been killed including a 67-year-old man crushed by a wall and an elderly woman killed by a fallen roof, both in the wider Tokyo area. Three were crushed to death when their houses collapsed in Ibaraki prefecture northeast of Tokyo.
Hawaii scrambles to evacuate coast in tsunami alert
Hawaii orders evacuations after tsunami alert
Strong after shock felt in Tokyo
Beijing residents report feeling the Japan quake
Hawaii issues tsunami warning, braces for waves
UPDATE 8:01PM AEDT
Kevin McCue, a seismologist and adjunct professor at Central Queensland University based in Canberra, says this earthquake is the biggest earthquake to hit Japan.
More
UPDATE 7:48PM AEDT
Some Japanese nuclear power plants and oil refineries were shut down on Friday and a major steel plant was ablaze after a powerful earthquake rocked the country, triggering tsunami, buckling roads, and knocking out power to homes and businesses.
UPDATE 7:08PM AEDT
The Bureau of Meteorology says there are no tsunami warnings for Australia following the deadly 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan.
The latest Bureau of Meteorology update, issues at 1646 AEDT, says Australia's mainland, islands and territories are safe.
More
UPDATE 6:50PM AEDT
The Japanese Prime Minster Naoto Kan says there are no reports of damage at Nuclear Power plants.
There are reports of injuries but Kan wouldn't confirm numbers of people dead or injured.
UPDATE 6:40PM AEDT
A widespread tsunami warning is in place for much of the Pacific Ocean including Russia, Guam, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Mexico, and much of Central and Southern America.
UPDATE 6:38PM AEDT
Multiple injuries, but no immediate deaths, were reported from the Pacific coastal area of Miyagi on the main Honshu island, police said according to media, and TV footage showed widespread flooding in the area.
There were several strong aftershocks and a warning of a 10-meter tsunami following the quake, which also caused buildings to shake violently in the capital Tokyo.
TV pictures showed a vast wall of water carrying buildings and debris across a large swathe of coastal farmland.
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.
"An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicentre within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours," the centre said in a statement.
It also put the territories of Guam, the Philippines, the Marshall Islands, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Micronesia and Hawaii under a lower tsunami watch.
The yen fell to 83.30 against the dollar from 82.81 before the quake struck.
The mega-city of Tokyo sits on the intersection of three continental plates -- the Eurasian, Pacific and Philippine Sea plates -- which are slowly grinding against each other, building up enormous seismic pressure.
The government's Earthquake Research Committee warns of a 70 percent chance that a great, magnitude-eight quake will strike within the next 30 years in the Kanto plains, home to Tokyo's vast urban sprawl.
The last time a "Big One" hit Tokyo was in 1923, when the Great Kanto Earthquake claimed more than 140,000 lives, many of them in fires. In 1855, the Ansei Edo quake also devastated the city.
More recently, the 1995 Kobe earthquake killed more then 6,400 people.
More than 220,000 people were killed when a 9.1-magnitude quake hit off Indonesia in 2004, unleashing a massive tsunami that devastated coastlines in countries around the Indian Ocean as far away as Africa.
Small quakes are felt every day somewhere in Japan and people take part in regular drills at schools and workplaces to prepare for a calamity.
Nuclear power plants and bullet trains are designed to automatically shut down when the earth rumbles and many buildings have been quake-proofed with steel and ferro-concrete at great cost in recent decades.
Hết trích .
(còn tiếp .. )
No comments:
Post a Comment