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Merged 8.8 quake in Sendai, Japan

Tsunami comes from the Japanese. It's easy to understand why it means 'harbor wave' now.
 
In case someone's interested and hasn't spotted it yet - for a few days now, Google Earth has been showing some of the updated imagery of the coast. There's some cloud cover over Fukushima and Miyagi, but the northern towns of Kesennuma, Rikuzentakata and Ofunato are clear. There's also some partialy cloudy images of Kamaishi.

From what I was able to read, there's more recent images in Google Maps all up and down the coast, but my browsers somehow refuse to show these.

As far as Google Earth goes, click the History button to bring up the recent imagery. Fukushima Daiichi is shown after the first reactor building blew up, Kesennuma (38°54'40.64"N 141°34'48.65"E) has large ships littering the streets, where buildings used to be, Minamisanriku (38°40'35.84"N 141°27'3.06"E) doesn't exist anymore, Rikuzentakata's coastal area (39° 0'36.90"N 141°38'16.10"E) has been scrubbed clean, Kamaishi's great tsunami barrier (39°15'43.50"N 141°55'37.16"E) at the mouth of the bay, apparently in the Guinness book of world records for being the deepest breakwater at 63 meters, has been chopped up. The whole beach from Sendai to Soma, some 60km, shows rectangular outlines of where houses once stood. And that's just the beach that's not hidden behind the clouds.

...

Oh, excuse me, Google Earth has just updated the images some more as I was writing this. Well, at least since this morning when I had the last look. There's much less clouds now in Miyagi and Fukushima and there are multiple images at least for some locations...
 
More gut-wrenching video HERE.

No idea of the location perhaps one of the Japanese speakers here can help?

2 videos of note, the first, shorter, video seems to show the harbour waters emptying in front of the initial surge of the first tsunami. Then, in the second (9 minute) video successive deluges of water eventually breach the harbour defences there. The photographer takes evasive action gradually climbing higher up the tower (?) to avoid the onrush of the water. I don't know whether to applaud the bloke for his bravery or condemn him for his stupidity. Judge for yourself :-








Compus
 
The first one is interesting in that it's the only one I've seen of the initial retreat of the water. Several eye-witnesses have described it, but I think most people were too busy (literally) running for the hills to film it.

The sting in the second one is in the last 30 seconds. Up to that, it's mostly just a big harbour filling up. It's the point where the cameraman runs quickly up a flight of stairs to a higher level (the one he was on plainly about to be inundated) and then focuses on the entire Pacific pouring over a sea wall that's the shock part.

Rolfe.
 
Undesired Walrus said:
This video is simply extraordinary, and is far more terrifying than the 'highwave' tsunami that you see in films like Deep Impact and Armageddon. When I first saw what a real tsunami looked like I was surprised that it didn't come in the form of the 'high wave' but was blown away by its sheer speed and consumption of all around it.
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I've read that this tsunami had produced 10 meter waves. But I don't think I've seen any videos that show any incoming wave that high.
 
The most violent approach of water caught on film was probably at Rikuzentakata. It was apparently recorded as 13 metres.


It's hard to gauge a height, but the water just comes and comes and completely smashes that large building in the foreground without even pausing for breath.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
Have you seen the NASA satellite images, before and after? Here's Rikuzentakata, and I think there may be more, linked.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=49684

Rolfe.
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Yea, I've seen most of these. I've got earth observatory's picture of the day in my speed dial and am checking it almost daily.

CompusMentus said:
More gut-wrenching video HERE.
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If translation tools got the title of the 2nd video right - Oirase Town, this is the best I can do.

40°36'25.72"N 141°27'36.66"E

The dude appears to be on one of those flood gates at the river, there's smoke way down the beach, suggesting that tsunami got to there first, which in turn probably means we have to be to the north of the earthquake. The location at Oirase river fits the data, but I can't be sure. Oirase appears to be to the North of Hachinohe and there might be some fires at their port.
 
I think the measures are a result of the cumalative effect of the tsunami in it's entirety ie the highest point reached. They may be reported at "13 metre waves" but I doubt any such wave came ashore at that height. I haven't seen any one "wave" that seemed to be above 10m. But I think what we have seen here quite a few times is successive walls of water pushing up an inlet of decreasing width and bounded by high ground which causes a funnel effect. Many of the most badly affected areas have geography that indicates this.

Compus
 
I don't know quite how they measure it, but if a LONG 13 metre wave hits a 13 metre sea wall, it's going to go over. Because it can't go back. It's just going to pile up on the sea wall and keep on coming.

I don't know how tall that large building in the Rikuzentakata video was, but it takes a fair bit of time for the wave to reach it. I think it's quite likely it was several metres above sea level.

Rolfe.
 
I've now seen dozens and dozens of these videos including ones that show the tsunami waves approaching and reaching the shoreline and bay inlets. I've never seen a wave that looked like it was 13 meters high.

The floor of a building is about 3 meters, so a 13 meter wave is a bit taller than 4 floors (stories). That is indeed a big ass wall of water coming.

But what I have seen are considerably smaller waves carrying an immense quantity of water (very wide not tall). I would say that this tsunami brought enormous quantity of water but not any wave constituting "a wall of water".
 
CompusMentus said:
"Horizon Special" programme on UK BBC2 tonight about the Japanese earthquak.e HERE (BBC iPlayer)

Some speculation that the event may be a trigger for a large earthquake nearer Tokyo but conversely the gloomy conclusion seemed to be that the prediction of earthquakes is just about impossible and the way forward is preparedness.

A physicist (Prof. Jim AL-Khalili) downplayed the seriousness (of the consequences) of the nuclear plant damage ("it isn't a Chernobyl") but also stated it was of major public concern and that he was worried about higher levels of radioactive substances in the water system thereabouts.

Interesting and informative.
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I watched that on the iPlayer last night and it was indeed fascinating. I was amazed by the televised warnings put out well before the damn earthquake hit - though they weren't doing much for people not watching TV at the time, such as the parliamentarians being televised.

The height of the wave was an interesting point. We're given to understand that a tsunami wave is relatively low and innocuous out at sea, and only gains its height as it approaches the coast. However in these clips, the one that showed the sheer cliff of water was actually the one taken from the deck of the ship out at sea. Possibly because there wasn't anything else around to distract from the scale.

I began to appreciate that the reason we can't see this "13-metre wall of water" is the very long wavelength. When the beginning of the wave hits, the crest is still well out to sea, and the gradient of the slope is relatively shallow. What we see is simply an impression of the sea level rising and rising with respect to the land, rather than a huge wave as such. But the crest really is right up there.

Rolfe.
 
William Parcher said:
I've now seen dozens and dozens of these videos including ones that show the tsunami waves approaching and reaching the shoreline and bay inlets. I've never seen a wave that looked like it was 13 meters high.
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On one particular video (of the Japanese Coastguard ship as it heads into the tsunami in the open sea) I've read that one of the observers on the ship is reported as saying (variously) "it's ten metres! or "it's thirty three feet!". I don't speak Japanese so can't confirm. I also read that this video was shot a few miles off the coast. Tsunami are reputed to gain height as they approach the shoreline so I guess that 13 metres is quite possible.


Compus
 
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CompusMentus said:
On one particular video (of the Japanese Coastguard ship as it heads into the tsunami in the open sea) I've read that one of the observers on the ship is reported as saying (variously) "it's ten metres! or "it's thirty three feet!". I don't speak Japanese so can't confirm. I also read that this video was shot a few miles off the coast. Tsunami are reputed to gain height as they approach the shoreline so I guess that 13 metres is quite possible.


Compus
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I think this is the video in question but I can't watch it on my mobile phone.
Sorry that it's The Daily Mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nt-coast-guard-crew-spot-wave-earthquake.html
 
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