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9.0 Earthquake strikes Japan


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CNN had a geologist on about a hour ago. He explained tsunamis and displacement. The guy they had on immediately before him trying to explain it with computer generated animation was horrible.

I saw that. LOL he had Japan floating on top of the ocean.

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http://www.youtube.c...h?v=vTwnxVIlWss

Incredibly dramatic and full length footage of the tsunami that CNN keeps playing parts of. From about 5:00 into the video to the end at 15:00 just watch the roads, fields, and tops of buildings. People are everywhere in cars, running on foot, and on roof tops. They probably figured they were far enough inland. Just awful.

The hardest part was seeing that truck just before 7 minutes in turn around just before he got to a road where he might have escaped. He didn't realize he was driving back right toward the other part the wave coming in. The video cuts just before he is obviously taken by the water.

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The hardest part was seeing that truck just before 7 minutes in turn around just before he got to a road where he might have escaped. He didn't realize he was driving back right toward the other part the wave coming in. The video cuts just before he is obviously taken by the water.

I'm very thankful the staff of that Japanese news station was very considerate for that, nobody wants to see live devastation when it comes to one's life.

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I'm not sure if that was the case when it was live

I don't know, I hope the purpose of the live footage was to capture the raw power of nature for future studies, not for live death film. I think in this case it was impossible to avoid footage where people were obviously dying but they tried to cut out, in the case of the truck getting wiped out. I guess this is why I never understood the passion for filming live tornados devestating lives.

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I don't know, I hope the purpose of the live footage was to capture the raw power of nature for future studies, not for live death film. I think in this case it was impossible to avoid footage where people were obviously dying but they tried to cut out, in the case of the truck getting wiped out.

Honestly, while some of the reasoning behind the live footage of the waves inundating the villages was to capture the power of what was going on.... in the case of at least the local media agencies... I'm pretty sure some of the reasoning was also to get people watching the broadcasts to take the threat seriously, in the same manner that media outlets here in the U.S. show live chaser video or skycam footage of tornadoes to get people to take action by confirming the threat.

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The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is under NOAA and was under NWS and it's predecessors back to when it was established after the 1946 Tsunami in HI.

Steve

That makes sense since tsunamis are oceans and NOAA is National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The USGS is the main "go-to" people for regular earthquakes. I guess Japan has no equivalent?

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I'm not sure if that was the case when it was actually live in real time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTwnxVIlWss

This video was recorded live as far as I know (and already posted in this thread) and if you pay attention, you can see that they definitely were trying to avoid showing the actual deaths of people trying to escape in vehicles. They either veered the camera away or switched shots.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTwnxVIlWss

This video was recorded live as far as I know (and already posted in this thread) and if you pay attention, you can see that they definitely were trying to avoid showing the actual deaths of people trying to escape in vehicles. They either veered the camera away or switched shots.

Agreed. Where it was obvious someone was about to get engulfed, they moved the shot or avoided it all together.

Obviously they probably weren't able to avoid all of them, but in the clear instances where a moving vehicle was about to get overcome, we didn't see it.

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:rolleyes:

Honestly, while some of the reasoning behind the live footage of the waves inundating the villages was to capture the power of what was going on.... in the case of at least the local media agencies... I'm pretty sure some of the reasoning was also to get people watching the broadcasts to take the threat seriously, in the same manner that media outlets here in the U.S. show live chaser video or skycam footage of tornadoes to get people to take action by confirming the threat.

Yeah I never had a problem showing footage of tornados ravaging the countryside destroying only trees and other natural objects, but I guess where I draw the line is showing destruction of property and life. Would you like it if people saw the death of your family conveyed to the public? Maybe Im just being overly sensitive :huh: We don't though because destruction and fear sell, because its "entertainment"

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTwnxVIlWss

This video was recorded live as far as I know (and already posted in this thread) and if you pay attention, you can see that they definitely were trying to avoid showing the actual deaths of people trying to escape in vehicles. They either veered the camera away or switched shots.

I was talking about how the poster said they "cut away" as in ended the broadcast , like the youtube video...but you are right they do move around,

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Is he even a met? Isn't he just a TV met, not a REAL met?

IIRC, Sam Champion, like Crystal Eggers on TWC, hired for appearance over knowledge, has a 60 hour certificate from Miss State. Eggers has a BA in communications. (I checked)

By definition, the 60 hour certificate can't be heavy in math or science, as your average BA holder didn't take much. Real basic intro to weather, and courses on standing in front of a green screen and making graphics. KPRC Channel 2 in Houston has the 60 hour wonders, and used to pay for AccuWeather services. Now the ABC affiliate , KTRH, which doesn't have degreed mets, uses AccuWeather.

KHOU-TV 11 is the only Houston station with real mets.

When I lived in New York, Dr. Frank was a degreed met, sent to college by the Army during the war, but he was a medical doctor. Useless trivia

BTW, some degreed mets do the MSU 60 hour program, I guess to get a leg up on landing a job on TV. Mike Prangley is one, Lyndon State for a BS in met then the 60 hour MSU program. But most are BAs in communications or journalism.

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Quake moved Japan coast 8 feet; shifted Earth's axis

""At this point, we know that one GPS station moved (8 feet), and we have seen a map from GSI (Geospatial Information Authority) in Japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass," said Kenneth Hudnut, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)."

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Wow what an amazing quake to shift the Japan coast a whole 8 foot!

A mega-quake by any defition I'd say, still can't believe 2 out of the top 5 strongest quakes since 1900 have come in the last 6 years....

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Here's the shake map from the USGS, showing the intensity of shaking on the modified Mercalli Scale (which goes from I-XII).

According to this map, the shaking was generally strong but not violent-- and I noticed that in most of the videos, the shaking doesn't look especially severe. Like, you see stuff falling from shelves and things jiggling, but don't see furniture and large objects really getting tossed around. (If anyone has links to footage like that, let me know.) However, the shaking did last a very long time. (Part of the reason the shaking wasn't too violent on land is of course because the center was offshore.) I noticed the same thing with the tremendous Chilean quake earlier this year-- that the shaking covered a huge area and lasted long, but wasn't pushing the upper limits of the MM scale in terms of intensity, and the video footage I saw did not blow me away.

The Kobe Earthquake in 1995-- a much smaller event of 6.8-- seemed to produce much more violent shaking. The videos were wild. Same with the moderate-size but very violent Northridge Earthquake in California in 1994 (another 6.7 that covered a relatively small area but produced shaking up to Level IX - Violent).

This is a good illustration of how Richter magnitude does not equal the intensity of the shaking. These are two different things, although people often get them confused.

post-19-0-58296600-1299934052.jpg

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