9.0 Earthquake just hit Japan.

[Kym]

That's right - but also when you consider the pictures from Toyko of the actual quake (all be it there was little damage) and then you consider that was 400klm away from the epicentre it's incredible.

Agreed! The inverse square law means a M9 quake is a big bugga as demonstrated by the Tokyo pics!

[Patagonia]

What happens between the plates is called Subduction:


Magma emerges in the middle of the pacific ocean "creating" land that moves permanently east and west, when it reaches the continental plates it goes under them putting lot of pressure on these continental plates. It finaly melts again.
Rising mountain systems and volcanoes are a result of this as are earthquakes that happens usually when a lot of pressure has not been released because of this movement.

As and example the Nazca plate moves 6 cm/year torwards the south american plate, on the other hand the later moves 2 cm/year on the opposite direction. During the 1960 9.5 Richter earthquake in Valdivia the plates moved 20 meters!! in a distance covering more than 1.000 kms.

regards

[arthurking83]

Oh nooooooo

The end of the world is nigh (May 21st actually)

Kiwi! you have no idea on how true this really is!!

Tectonic plate movements are not a recent phenomenon.
The difference between what we've recently seen(past few years), and what's been happening over the course of the past 4 billion years is that now everyone want to know about them.. because we see the realtime fottage on Twatter, Youtool and all manner of realtime video capable communications devices.

Imagine how the Earth would have been hundreds of millons of years back when Australia didn't even exist.

I remember seeing a doco on these so called Nostradamus prophecies, with the basic concluded that his 'prophecies' are nothing of the kind, and that they are so open to interpetation that you could easily come one conclusion that where predicts that pink elephants subjugate humankind in a Planet of the Apes style future scenario.

Nostradamus.. LOL!

anyhow... plates move, collide and cause massive destruction, massively beautiful scenery(you didn't think the Himalayas were just there from day one 4 billion years ago, now did you!), and some massive mean @$$ed surfing conditions(for those that care).

We just have to live with this fact, and be prepared to expect more of this in the future.

How does Nostradamus fit into this? That he prophecised that the end of the world is nigh.. in unquestionable.. when is purely speculative. the Earth is doomed, has been doomed from the day it formed. Possbily 4 billion years from now, maybe sooner. When it happens, who really cares? if it happens and causes a real armageddon, does it really matter that Nostradamus predicted this.. chances are that he really didn't ... we're mislead into believing that he did, because someone wanted to find something to write about.(there must be money in writing such garbage.. why else would someone waste their lives doing so?)

KIWI!! relax, I'm about to get to your comment!

Apollo62 got it right when he said...

.... Life on this planet must conform to the ecosystem that allows all living things to exist on planet Earth and humans tend to forget they are not the masters of their environment as we have been led to believe..

Life on this planet must conform! If it doesn't conform, it will(almost certainly!!) perish. As the ecosystem is the irresistable force here, but without any immovable object to complete the cliche ... not even the tectonic plates.
Tectonic plates are the kinds of objects that we usually refer to as rock solid and stable so forth.
Dinosaurs didn't expect it, and look at what heppened to them. I wonder if they had their own version of Notradamus too(not that it'd have made any difference anyhow).
Whether they did or didn't, it didn't seem to help them all that much, did it? And from that, I believe that our Nostradamus isn't really going to be all that much help to our cause either.
So us mammals arose to claim dominance of the Earth in the vacuum of power that henceforth existed with the demise of the large lizards(who may or may not have cared for their nostradamus'es literature) and there is a very high likelyhood of history repeating itself all over again.
The question really is ... what(species), if any, will subsequently step up to claim dominance of the Earth with our demise?
My prophecy is of course those pink elephants previously referred too.

... and I reckon there's money in that claim .. and I'm the one going to make it this time! All I need y'all to do for me is to spread this rumour around ... in the mean time, I'm sure I'll figure out a way to organise the literature to appear to be disguised discombobulated diatribe.

All that loot!! Whoot!. I'm sure I'll find a suitable manner of equitable transfer of it all.. not on high end Nikon gear of course(KIWI!!.. I'm almost there.. you got this far, just hang on one more minute or so).
Nope.. not high end Nikon gear.. it'll have to be far more equitable than that.

SO, back to Kiwi's claim.. the end is nigh .. well in the USA, it's close enough to Nigh .. Nigh-Kon that is. High end Nikon gear .. stopped dead in it's tracks.
I have all the sympathy in the world for the disaster that Japan, Tokyo and Sendai faced, and the loss of life and displacement of lives, but the point of importance for us Nikonians here is Sendai.
While lots and lots of Nikon gear comes from Thailand and China, all the high end gear comes from their Sendai plant.. Apparently it's badly damaged, and obviously without any power to operate anyhow .. so ...

No new D4 coming soon. No D700 replacement coming soon. Even if it were ready on the 10th of March.. it simply isn't coming out.. until further notice(I suspect).
Nope! nothing, nuts, nada, not one iota!
I suspect and expect many people to sympathise and empathise with the people in Japan for their current turmoil, us Nikon gear heads also have an inner turmoil to deal with as well ... All we want is Nikon to prioduce soemthing else for us to 'brag about'! But, Nikon is currently dead(the real Nikon, Sendai that is .. everything else may as well be Nostradamus for all I care!).

Nigh-Kon news.. NOT brought to you courtesy of Nostradamus.


(lets just hope that these bugga's still have a very long wait).

[kiwi]

Nah mate, I've put in a leave application that day. Might go to the pub

[Phil777]

arthurking83, You said "Imagine how the Earth would have been hundreds of millons of years back when Australia didn't even exist."

What do you imagine humans looked like way back then?

[Analog6]

If you go to google maps and look at sea levels you can see the drop off right at the coast of Japan, and that is the edge of the plate they are on. With the Pacific plate relentlessly pushing west, and Japan sitting four square in the way, quakes are always going to be a fact of life and this was just one helluva big 'adjustment'.

The fact that there was so little structural damage from the quake is due to japan's wonderful building codes and construction methods, but these have developed from years of pain and destruction by quakes since 'modern' society evolved. I read they actually build the structures on sort of floating bases so the whole building moves with the quake, instead of the ground going one way the building resisting - which is what happened in Christchurch with conventional structure methods.

maybe NZ needs to look to Japan for building codes.

Regarding the nuclear status and debate, so far 'experts' keep telling us it won't affect us. Umm . . . isn't that ocean I look out on the Pacific, does it not touch our shores, and do we not eat the fish from it? I read that cesium 127 (I think I've remembered the right number) which is being released from the reactors CAN cause cancer and builds up in the food chain. I'm very worried about the emissions and subsequent fallout. The plants are right on the sea, they even appear to be built out into the ocean somewhat. At least Chernobyl was inland.

[farmer_rob]

Chernobyl may well have been inland, however there were subsequent impacts in britain - welsh and cumbrian lamb grazed on high hills was considered unfit to eat for some number of years because of nuclear fallout. It is still subject to restrictions according to wikipedia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster_effects "24 years after...". From memory, there was a similar impact on cheese production related to milk from animals grazed on similar high pastures. There was measurement off fallout in bees and milk in Oregon in the US.

[kiwi]

Re chch building codes, earthquakes were never expected there, however Wellington buildings are all of a very high earthquake standard , in fact since 1988 every CBD building basically had to be earthquake proofed no matter how old

[Analog6]

Chernobyl may well have been inland, however there were subsequent impacts in britain - welsh and cumbrian lamb grazed on high hills was considered unfit to eat for some number of years because of nuclear fallout. It is still subject to restrictions according to wikipedia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster_effects "24 years after...". From memory, there was a similar impact on cheese production related to milk from animals grazed on similar high pastures. There was measurement off fallout in bees and milk in Oregon in the US.

Yes, I did realise that Rob but I probably worded it badly, I meant the immediate fallout from Chernobyl did not go into the sea. Of course, Chernobyl had no containment vessel which made the accident much worse than it needed to have been. At least the Japanese ones have containment vessels, gives a bit of time for action to remediate the escape of radiation.

[ApolloLXII]

arthurking83, You said "Imagine how the Earth would have been hundreds of millons of years back when Australia didn't even exist."

What do you imagine humans looked like way back then?

There were no humans when the land mass that was to become this country had yet to shift from the super continent which had formed as a result of the rotation of the Earth, after the planet had cooled from it's formation. Like it or lump it, humans are a species of ape that believe that they are blessed with "intelligence" however there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that the level of said intellect is not very high. You don't illuminate the interior a gunpowder factory using candles so why would you build a nuclear reactor in a country known to be prone to earthquakes?

[Patagonia]

If you go to google maps and look at sea levels you can see the drop off right at the coast of Japan, and that is the edge of the plate they are on. With the Pacific plate relentlessly pushing west, and Japan sitting four square in the way, quakes are always going to be a fact of life and this was just one helluva big 'adjustment'.

The fact that there was so little structural damage from the quake is due to japan's wonderful building codes and construction methods, but these have developed from years of pain and destruction by quakes since 'modern' society evolved. I read they actually build the structures on sort of floating bases so the whole building moves with the quake, instead of the ground going one way the building resisting - which is what happened in Christchurch with conventional structure methods.

maybe NZ needs to look to Japan for building codes.

Regarding the nuclear status and debate, so far 'experts' keep telling us it won't affect us. Umm . . . isn't that ocean I look out on the Pacific, does it not touch our shores, and do we not eat the fish from it? I read that cesium 127 (I think I've remembered the right number) which is being released from the reactors CAN cause cancer and builds up in the food chain. I'm very worried about the emissions and subsequent fallout. The plants are right on the sea, they even appear to be built out into the ocean somewhat. At least Chernobyl was inland.

Yes in Japan now its common for big buildings to be buit isolated from the ground (a very rough comparison would be a car suspension system) but also the Christchurch quake had its epicenter only at 10 km depth and that is very shallow and produces huge damage.

[jim]

Re chch building codes, earthquakes were never expected there, however Wellington buildings are all of a very high earthquake standard , in fact since 1988 every CBD building basically had to be earthquake proofed no matter how old

Christchurch was regarded as being at lower risk than Wellington, not as being safe. Building codes there were still pretty strict as far as I know, at least by Australian standards.

For what it's worth I spent my first 25 years there and never felt one.

[rellik666]

For those, including AK, interested in the Nik on's.....

http://www.adorama.com/ALC/News.aspx...EmailALC030911

Very interesting thread this...I have learnt a lot...thankyou all.....who said this was just abour photography.

Good luck to all those in the world who have been affected by this.....

Roo

[Phil777]

There were no humans when the land mass that was to become this country had yet to shift from the super continent which had formed as a result of the rotation of the Earth, after the planet had cooled from it's formation. Like it or lump it, humans are a species of ape that believe that they are blessed with "intelligence" however there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that the level of said intellect is not very high. You don't illuminate the interior a gunpowder factory using candles so why would you build a nuclear reactor in a country known to be prone to earthquakes?

Good point about not using intelligence as to where to locate nuclear reactors in the world.

Getting back to the humans are species of apes thing - do you think that all the different countries' humans came from one species of ape or many different species of apes? You know - was there a Japanese ape for instance and an Icelandic ape too?

[kiwi]

The theory of evolution is well set scientifically regarding the origin of t human species...to answer your question, no, there is one traceable source of humanity

[ApolloLXII]

Kiwi is correct. All humans are descended from a common ancestor and split into differing nationalities in much the same way as dogs, of which there are different breeds but they are all descended from wolves.

[kiwi]

Anyhow, back on topic, 25000 expected deaths now and you have to look on in horror at possible China syndrome situation

[ApolloLXII]

With all the workers now having been evacuated from the plant and people within a 30km radius of the reactors being told that is unsafe to venture outdoors, we can fairly assume that the situation is beginning to spiral out of control. It has been stated that there are containment measures in place to prevent any possible China Syndrome scenario however just how much strength in truth this statement holds remains to be seen.

[Analog6]

Have a look at this interactive quake map simulator/mapper. This chap has produced a similar map for the Christchurch quakes - it is very interesting. The power is absolutely amazing.

Apollo, where did you see all the workers had been evacuated? The latest I saw on the web was that a crew of 180 were going in in shifts of 50 to keep trying to douse the reactors/fires with water.

[Phil777]

Kiwi is correct. All humans are descended from a common ancestor and split into differing nationalities in much the same way as dogs, of which there are different breeds but they are all descended from wolves.

So if we are al descended from one ancestor we are all really brothers and sisters and should not be going to war with each other.
Even the Chihuahua came originally from a wolf? Well what do you know! Amazing!