Via Waking Times, 5 September 2013 - More than 43 species of fish in the immediate area around the disaster have already been tested and are too toxic to consume.
While Greenpeace may toot their own horn as environmental watch-dogs on occasion, and no less frequently exaggerate the deranged practices of oil companies, corporate polluters, and nuclear energy sites, understandably, for effect, it seems Fukushima is really as bad as they say it is. According to a recent article by the environmental group, “Japan anxiously hid the leaks” that are now dumping nuclear-contaminated water back into the Pacific Ocean, and they are calling for more transparency so that the site can be shored up and the ongoing radiation leaks controlled.
National Geographic is calling the ongoing disaster at Fukushima a level 3 disaster rating out of 7. It was elevated significantly just over a week ago since it’s original rating of 1 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). According to the INES, ‘events’ are rated according to several criteria, but namely how the incident affects people, the environment, radiological barriers, and control. The scale is designed, ‘so that the severity of the event is about ten times greater for each increase in level on the scale.”
An veteran nuclear engineer, David Lochbaum, who works for the Union of Concerned Scientists said simply, “In some respects, it’s not that big of an issue. . .but its still the same mess.”
What this means for Japan, is obviously devastating. Health concerns ranging from cancer to radiation sickness are now a risk for all people who live in our near Japan, but the full depth of radiation damage caused by both the accident and the leak at Fukushima are still being assessed and scientists are now compiling some startling statistics from Japanese fisheries about the levels of irradiation in a world food supply – and they are persistently high.
Radiation levels are in fact, 18 times higher than previously thought. These new levels of radiation have been found near a water storage tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said radiation near the bottom of the tank measured 1,800 millisieverts an hour – high enough to kill an exposed person in four hours. Furthermore, 300 tonnes of radioactive water have been leaked into the ocean just since the original leak was discovered. These new levels of radioactive waste are what caused the Fukushima incident to be raised from a 1 to a 3 on the INES scale.
The Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, called the matter ‘an urgent issue’ and ‘an emergency’, especially considering that the leak is seeping past an underground barrier that the Tokyo Electric Power Company attempted to set up to act as a barrier. Unfortunately, the contaminated water has been leaking into the Pacific Ocean since March of 2011. For more than two years now, all marine life in the Pacific has been consistently exposed to irradiated water.
More than 43 species of fish in the immediate area around the disaster have already been tested and are too toxic to consume. While the ocean is a large and dynamic place, we here in the US need to be very wary of consuming ‘Fukushima Fish.’ Scientists are measuring 1000 times the levels of cesium in fish from the Pacific. While this level of contamination becomes diluted as the waters of the ocean ebb and flow, cesium is still flowing and contaminating sea life. These are also just the levels being measured in fish now – the plant is still leaking hundreds of tons of radioactive waste-water into the ocean daily. Nicolas Fisher, a marine biologist from Stony Brook University in NY says that seafood could contain unhealthy levels of irradiation. He says more peer-reviewed scientific studies need to be conducted before seafood from the area is deemed ‘safe.’
It’s up to you if you want to take a chance on Fukushima fish, but you could suffer neurological damage, seizures, headaches, dizziness, tremors, loss of muscle control and other physical damage from high levels of radiation exposure which causes radiation sickness.
------------------- About the Author Christina Sarich is a musician, yogi, humanitarian and freelance writer who channels many hours of studying Lao Tzu, Paramahansa Yogananda, Rob Brezny, Miles Davis, and Tom Robbins into interesting tidbits to help you Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga for the New World. Her latest book is Pharma Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of Yoga.
September 06, 2013 - GUATEMALA - A 6.6-magnitude earthquake shook Guatemala's Pacific coastline on Friday evening, causing some adobe homes to collapse in a town near the epicenter. There were immediate reports of injuries.
USGS earthquake location - Terrain View.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter was 6 kilometers (3 miles) south of the small town of Pajapita, near the border with Mexico, and 168 kilometers west of Guatemala City. It had a depth of 67 kilometers (41 miles). EMSC is giving a magnitude of 6.5 at a depth of 95km. Both calculations show that this was a deep earthquake.
USGS earthquake location - Satellite View.
Guatemala's fire department issued a statement saying some poorly-built homes were destroyed in the town of Patzicia, located between the epicenter and the capital city. The Central American nation's natural disaster agency said that at least three uninhabited homes collapsed, and two highways were blocked by landslides. Reports of Damage:
1:42 UTC: -4 homes collapsed in San Miguel Sigüila, Quetzaltenango. -A house collapsed in the village of San Sebastián Lemoa, Quiché. -2 women were injured in San Marcos. -There are damaged houses in Patzicia, Chimaltenango. -A house caught on fire due to the quake in Tiquisate, Escuintla -Damage can be seen on the roof of Rafael Landívar University. -Ceiling fell on the Enriquez passageway in Xela. 1:14 UTC: There are collapsed and heavily damaged houses around Quetzaltenango. Also 1 person has been injured by falling debris in there. 1:08 UTC: Unconfirmed reports indicate that 3 houses, damaged on last years quake, have collapsed with no people inside. 1:03 UTC: People have been injured, most of them from traffic accidents. 12:49 UTC: There are reports of damaged houses as well as collapsed walls around Guatemala. A very big landslide has been reported in kilometer 214. 12:44 UTC: USGS expects that 41,000 people felt a Very Strong shaking (Mercalli Scale of VII), 1,351,000 a strong shaking (MMI of VI) and almost 4 million people feeling a Moderate shaking (MMI V). If these values are correct then this is a very dangerous earthquake. 12:39 UTC: Damage has been reported in San Marcos, Guatemala. Broken windows have been observed in a municipal building of San Marcos. 12:37 UTC: Power is out in some locations around Guatemala. Landslides could had happened since the area has been hit by hard rains lately.
The quake was felt strongly in the capital of Guatemala City, and caused blackouts in some areas, but authorities did not immediately report any damage there. "People living in Guatemala City's tall buildings were panicked," said Eddy Sanchez, director of Guatemala's National Institute of Seismology.
USGS earthquake shakemap intensity.
People ran outside their homes and some motorists stopped their cars in the capital. An aftershock of a lower magnitude further frightened capital-dwellers. Eye-Witness Reports - USGS:
Guatemala City - The house started shaking and it got a little worse but is was only scary for a few seconds. San Pedro La Laguna - Lasted about 40 seconds. Mild at first, everything stated rumbling when it peaked Panajachel, Guatemala - I was on the phone with my mother who was calling from Panajachel as it happened, she said it was pretty strong and everyone was running outside. Guatemala, City - very strong shaking : Guatemala City - (I'm a pilot staying overnight in Guatemala City at the Crown Plaza by the airport. On the second floor my bed started moving as I watched TV and progressively got worse for about 10 seconds then subsided. A very weak aftershock occurred 5-10 min later. So far no damage can be seen. Pacoxom - Light fixture swayed, dishes rattled, we exited house. Quetzaltenango - On second floor of colonial hotel in center a good 30 second shake - quickly exited down stairs and out to the street with a number of other people as it stopped. Some folks were shaken up. Every cell phone was out. As others, felt aftershock about 10 minutes later - maybe 5-10 seconds in duration. And life goes on... San Pedro La Laguna, Lago Atitlan - Everything was shaking, things fell of the shelf, I ran outside and all my puppies were crying. Quetzaltenango - very strong shaking small items have fallen, San Marcos La Laguna - My apartment was shaking very strongly for what felt like a minute or two. Lots of noise as windows and refrigerator and pots/pans shook. Only one small item fell on the floor, and no other visible damage, but the noise and shaking were quite strong.
Eye-Witness Reports - EMSC:
Panajachel - No objects knocked down, but good amount of shaking and seemed to be an aftershock w/in 5-10 minutes. Guatemala - I felt my knees shake. And I ran out the door. Antigua / Guatemala - was sitting on the bed with some friends watching a movie when the room began to shake and books fell off the shelves. ran outside and the ground continued to roll for a few seconds. moderate shaking - felt one weaker aftershock so far. San Cristobal de las casas, Mexico - Started to feel the sway while at my desk. I ran outside and it lasted for what seemed to be about a minute. I am still feeling things settle into place, several minutes later. Guatemala City - It was horrible. Santa Cruz la Laguna - A few seconds. Nothing major. San Jose Chacaya - Moderate shaking but very long... about 15 sec. San Pedro La Laguna - Ground shook. What else to say? Quetzaltenango - the quake was strong and long. still feeling aftershocks. Guatemala City - Yea I was sitting on my bed then felt a little shake and boom it hit Buena Vista - We have an Academy here and the block walls were waving up and down. san marcos la laguna solola guatemala - I have a restaurant here in the village centre and the shake took bottles of the shelves.The building shook quiet a lot Ciudad de Guatemala - stuff shook! Antigua / Guatemala - the roof started creaking first and then the ground began to move. i got into a reinforced doorway and then the whole house began to roll like on a giant wave. no damage, other than to nerves Guatemala City - Closet and shower door were moving. It went on about a minute. Guatemala City - Shaking side to side in my hotel Santa Cruz la Laguna - I felt shaking for approx. 15 seconds. Not as bad as the one in the fall of 2012, which was 7.2. Slight aftershock. Antigua - light shaking felt inside and outside. small after tremor centro dos south of nuva concepcion - Reading a book when it started felt pretty strong nothing broke here just a long period of shaking Antigua - I was looking up information in Wikipedia on the Island of Garbage in the pacific, and also learning some icelandic when, Bam, here it comes, and I'm like, today is far too hung over a day to die. Zone 14 Guatemala City - On floor 12 multi axis shaking 90 seconds with several aftershocks. On phone with person across town who also felt it. Strongest felt in 2 years. Panajachel - The bed and closet units started moving around, floor shaking, lasted about 30 seconds, no damage! Antigua - My 3 story hotel was rocking...pretty strong.
The temblor was also felt in neighboring Mexico and El Salvador, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage in those countries.
Google earthquake location.
Friday's temblor was one of the strongest in Guatemala since a 7.4-magnitude earthquake last November killed 42 people in the country's west. That quake was the strongest in 36 years and left thousands of people homeless and without electricity or water. SOURCES: ABC News | Earthquake Report.
Tectonic Summary.
The September 7, 2013 (UTC) Guatemala earthquake (Mw6.6) occurred near the west coast of Guatemala in the Middle American trench. The event occurred at or near the interface between the Cocos and North America plates. The style of faulting based on the W-phase source mechanism indicates slip likely occurred on a shallow thrust fault consistent with the subduction interface. At the latitude of this event, the Cocos plate moves towards the north-northeast with respect to the North American plate at a rate of 78 mm/yr.
The broad scale tectonics of the western and southwestern coast of Central America are dominated by the northeastward subduction of the Cocos oceanic plate beneath the North America plate. Thrust- and normal-type earthquakes are a common occurrence along this plate boundary and the Guatemala region, with events occurring both within the subduction zone and in the overriding plate. Over the past 40 years, 27 events of Mw6.0 or greater have occurred within 300km of the September 2013 event. Events of note in this region include earthquakes on November 2012 Mw7.4 offshore of Guatemala, which killed 39 people; September 1993 Mw7.2 offshore of Chiapas, Mexico, which killed one person; and December 1983 Mw7.0 offshore of Guatemala. Other early 20th century earthquakes in the Guatemala region include August 1942 Mw7.9, which killed 38 and April 1902 M7.5, which killed more than 5000 people.
Seismotectonics Of The Caribbean Region And Vicinity.
Extensive diversity and complexity of tectonic regimes characterizes the perimeter of the Caribbean plate, involving no fewer than four major plates (North America, South America, Nazca, and Cocos). Inclined zones of deep earthquakes (Wadati-Benioff zones), ocean trenches, and arcs of volcanoes clearly indicate subduction of oceanic lithosphere along the Central American and Atlantic Ocean margins of the Caribbean plate, while crustal seismicity in Guatemala, northern Venezuela, and the Cayman Ridge and Cayman Trench indicate transform fault and pull-apart basin tectonics. Along the northern margin of the Caribbean plate, the North America plate moves westwards with respect to the Caribbean plate at a velocity of approximately 20 mm/yr. Motion is accommodated along several major transform faults that extend eastward from Isla de Roatan to Haiti, including the Swan Island Fault and the Oriente Fault. These faults represent the southern and northern boundaries of the Cayman Trench. Further east, from the Dominican Republic to the Island of Barbuda, relative motion between the North America plate and the Caribbean plate becomes increasingly complex and is partially accommodated by nearly arc-parallel subduction of the North America plate beneath the Caribbean plate. This results in the formation of the deep Puerto Rico Trench and a zone of intermediate focus earthquakes (70-300 km depth) within the subducted slab. Although the Puerto Rico subduction zone is thought to be capable of generating a megathrust earthquake, there have been no such events in the past century. The last probable interplate (thrust fault) event here occurred on May 2, 1787 and was widely felt throughout the island with documented destruction across the entire northern coast, including Arecibo and San Juan. Since 1900, the two largest earthquakes to occur in this region were the August 4, 1946 M8.0 Samana earthquake in northeastern Hispaniola and the July 29, 1943 M7.6 Mona Passage earthquake, both of which were shallow thrust fault earthquakes. A significant portion of the motion between the North America plate and the Caribbean plate in this region is accommodated by a series of left-lateral strike-slip faults that bisect the island of Hispaniola, notably the Septentrional Fault in the north and the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault in the south. Activity adjacent to the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault system is best documented by the devastating January 12, 2010 M7.0 Haiti strike-slip earthquake, its associated aftershocks and a comparable earthquake in 1770. Moving east and south, the plate boundary curves around Puerto Rico and the northern Lesser Antilles where the plate motion vector of the Caribbean plate relative to the North and South America plates is less oblique, resulting in active island-arc tectonics. Here, the North and South America plates subduct towards the west beneath the Caribbean plate along the Lesser Antilles Trench at rates of approximately 20 mm/yr. As a result of this subduction, there exists both intermediate focus earthquakes within the subducted plates and a chain of active volcanoes along the island arc. Although the Lesser Antilles is considered one of the most seismically active regions in the Caribbean, few of these events have been greater than M7.0 over the past century. The island of Guadeloupe was the site of one of the largest megathrust earthquakes to occur in this region on February 8, 1843, with a suggested magnitude greater than 8.0. The largest recent intermediate-depth earthquake to occur along the Lesser Antilles arc was the November 29, 2007 M7.4 Martinique earthquake northwest of Fort-De-France.
USGS earthquake historic seismicity.
The southern Caribbean plate boundary with the South America plate strikes east-west across Trinidad and western Venezuela at a relative rate of approximately 20 mm/yr. This boundary is characterized by major transform faults, including the Central Range Fault and the Boconó-San Sebastian-El Pilar Faults, and shallow seismicity. Since 1900, the largest earthquakes to occur in this region were the October 29, 1900 M7.7 Caracas earthquake, and the July 29, 1967 M6.5 earthquake near this same region. Further to the west, a broad zone of compressive deformation trends southwestward across western Venezuela and central Columbia. The plate boundary is not well defined across northwestern South America, but deformation transitions from being dominated by Caribbean/South America convergence in the east to Nazca/South America convergence in the west. The transition zone between subduction on the eastern and western margins of the Caribbean plate is characterized by diffuse seismicity involving low- to intermediate-magnitude (Magnitude less than 6.0) earthquakes of shallow to intermediate depth. The plate boundary offshore of Colombia is also characterized by convergence, where the Nazca plate subducts beneath South America towards the east at a rate of approximately 65 mm/yr. The January 31, 1906 M8.5 earthquake occurred on the shallowly dipping megathrust interface of this plate boundary segment. Along the western coast of Central America, the Cocos plate subducts towards the east beneath the Caribbean plate at the Middle America Trench. Convergence rates vary between 72-81 mm/yr, decreasing towards the north. This subduction results in relatively high rates of seismicity and a chain of numerous active volcanoes; intermediate-focus earthquakes occur within the subducted Cocos plate to depths of nearly 300 km. Since 1900, there have been many moderately sized intermediate-depth earthquakes in this region, including the September 7, 1915 M7.4 El Salvador and the October 5, 1950 M7.8 Costa Rica events. The boundary between the Cocos and Nazca plates is characterized by a series of north-south trending transform faults and east-west trending spreading centers. The largest and most seismically active of these transform boundaries is the Panama Fracture Zone. The Panama Fracture Zone terminates in the south at the Galapagos rift zone and in the north at the Middle America trench, where it forms part of the Cocos-Nazca-Caribbean triple junction. Earthquakes along the Panama Fracture Zone are generally shallow, low- to intermediate in magnitude (Magnitude less than 7.2) and are characteristically right-lateral strike-slip faulting earthquakes. Since 1900, the largest earthquake to occur along the Panama Fracture Zone was the July 26, 1962 M7.2 earthquake. -USGS.
September 02, 2013 - CHINA - Jingchu network news (reporters Zhang Yang) on September 2, the number of dead fish from the fuhe River floating in the Wuhan section to the surface, according to the Wuhan Municipal Government Emergency Office publishing Twitter showed dead fish or upstream pollution-related. Emergency personnel at all levels of government departments and salvaging of dead fish along the coast at the same time, many fishermen come "cheap" part of dead fish into the market.
5 o'clock in the afternoon, reporters rushed to the waters near the fuhe bridge, flakes floating on water surface shining white of dead fish, mostly two or three centimeters long carp and white-mouth culter Erythroculter. Underwater, the more dead fish heads out of struggling to breathe, a humming sound of people worried.
Ouyangdaoming said to the fishermen lived here your whole life, from the 80 's of the last century to the present, large areas of dead fish almost every summer. Li Tun communities where he had few people rely on fish for a living, residents considered xiaogan, among others the sewage discharged from the upper river, resulting in the death of fish. As of press, huangpi district environment Department water sampling results still hadn't been announced.
"Dead, consider themselves unlucky, who won't pay you. "Ouyangdaoming Frank to fish in the River, like gambling, could only be made water abundant year. This year, he has invested 200,000 fish fry, due to upstream water reduction, "there is no dilution of hazardous substances in the river water, has lost at least a hundred thousand of".
In order to stop, ouyangdaoming fishing in the River, dozens of half-metre long dead catfish. In the presence of reporters, he sold more than 20-pound catfish, waiting on the shore of hawkers, journalists learn from what they are saying, it won't be long before these dead fish appear in public on the dinner table. "The gutter is the one who could live in the river died, and you say how much toxic? "On the sidelines collecting small fish to feed the cat a villager said, which she can't eat. Then, to the departments concerned in this case.
Reporter from Wuhan dongxihu EPA enforcement agency learned that dead fish has nothing to do with the outfall area, South head, should be the River, xiaogan caused by water pollution. Several nearby residents said this morning when the water is green, from xiaogan bayi bridge to the bridge on the River, dozens of full of dead fish in the water. Later, Wuhan Municipal Government Emergency Office official microblog confirmed that: "after the initial investigation, may be related to pollution upstream. ”
It is understood that the Wuhan Municipal Government has strictly huangpi, dongxihu, jiangan district organizations leading to the scene of uninterrupted salvage dead fish, prevent the market. This network will continue to pay attention to this. - Kaixian. [Translated]
September 03, 2013 - UNITED STATES - In Assumption Parish, you “make the round,” as people here say, only if you must.
The “round” is the long, long way between Pierre Part and Napoleonville when La. 70 is closed in the wrong spot.
Advocate staff photo by Heather McClelland - Lousiana 70, far left in the photo taken in December, is 1,100 feet north of the growing, now 25-acre sinkhole between the Grand Bayou and Bayou Corne communities in Assumption Parish. State highway officials are studying a detour and a separate bypass away from the sinkhole.
Drivers can spend an hour and a half or more heading north through White Castle and Bayou Pigeon or south through Morgan City to travel between the two communities, just 19 miles apart through La. 70.
The more than year-old, growing sinkhole just south of La. 70 in the Bayou Corne area has raised worries about subsidence that could cut off La. 70 in just the wrong place. Commuters and school buses would be forced to make the time-consuming round, some fear.
School Board member Jessica Ourso, who represents the Pierre Part area, said the thought of what could happen on La. 70 and of school children passing the sinkhole daily gives her pause.
“I cringe every time I pass there, I kid you not,” she said.
In response, the state Department of Transportation and Development is in the early stages of a two-tiered planning process for a northern alternative: a temporary detour that could be built quickly in the event of a sudden failure, and then a more-permanent bypass.
The reception to the proposals — unveiled last month at a DOTD community meeting attended by 33 residents — has been divided.
Some, like Ourso, want a proposed four-mile-long bypass farthest from the sinkhole built right away, while others, including business people on La. 70, are wary of that route and favor a shorter temporary detour.
“We are examining both options because we do not know what, if any, impacts there will be from the sinkhole to infrastructure in the area,” Dustin Annison, DOTD spokesman, said in an email.
No cost estimates or time lines are yet available, he said. Annison added that any new route “would only be built if it were necessary to close La. 70.”
The northern edge of the sinkhole is 1,100 feet from the highway, parish officials said, and the sinkhole has been growing southward, away from La. 70.
Annison said ongoing monitoring of La. 70 and its bridges shows they are not subsiding.
But sitting in a front-porch chair last week at his home in Pierre Part off La. 70, Herman Mabile, 75, said DOTD needs to build the longer route soon.
“You’re getting away from all the mess right here,” Mabile said, pointing to the sinkhole on a map with the proposed routes.
“That mess right there, you can’t control it. There’s no way they can control that hole right there.”
Known as Alignment 1, the route Mabile prefers would tie La. 70 to La. 69 near its intersection with La. 996 along a looping path through the swamp. The bypass would start from a point on La. 70 west of the Bayou Corne area.
But at Action Industries on La. 70 past Bayou Corne, Alternative 1 and two other two-mile-long bypass routes drew skepticism.
Some workers at the facility, which houses several businesses under one roof, would have to take the longer detour to work every day.
Roy LeBlanc Jr., manager of Shelby Gaudet Contractor Inc., said the company’s bread and butter is work for salt dome operators along La. 70. Alignment 1 would be a problem, he said.
Advocate staff photo by David J. Mitchell. Sport utility vehicles and pickups pass on Louisiana 70 through the Bayou Corne community August 27 as protest signs remind drivers of the more than year-long evacuation of residents and of the gas trapped under the area due to a nearby 25-acre sinkhole. State highway officials are studying detour and bypass routes north of Louisiana 70 in case the sinkhole south of the highway forces its closure.
“If you couldn’t pass there (La. 70), it would be difficult,” he said.
LeBlanc said he prefers the shorter detour route, if anything, and doubts Alignment 1 would be built because, he said, DOTD does not have the funding.
“I don’t see it happening,” he said.
Two one-mile-long detour routes are proposed and each detour would veer just north off La. 70 near Gumbo Street in the Bayou Corne area and parallel the highway until meeting La. 69.
Police Jury President Martin “Marty” Triche said the temporary detour seems to be the most practical way to keep traffic flowing, but he has heard constituent concerns about the permanent routes cutting off Bayou Corne and businesses.
“I am kind of like them (DOTD officials), sitting, looking and evaluating all the options,” he said.
Annison said DOTD is spending $735,000 for the ongoing feasibility study, which is expected to be finished later this month. DOTD also has a $400,000 environmental analysis under way that should be finished in the spring.
WATCH: Latest Flyover Video - September 3, 2013.
He said the state would pursue Texas Brine Co. of Houston, the owner of the failed salt dome cavern suspected of causing the sinkhole, for construction funding if needed.
Sonny Cranch, Texas Brine spokesman, said the company is focused on containing the sinkhole and removing natural gas caught in an aquifer under the community. The company is also buying out some evacuated Bayou Corne residents. As of mid-Friday, 29 of the 64 buyout settlements reached had been closed, he said.
“The issue of the re-route is something that we will address at the appropriate time,” Cranch said.
Phil Daigle, 47, a Pierre Part native and a pharmacist who works in Baton Rouge and Gonzales, said adding even 10 minutes to his commute is significant. He said the Alignment 1 bypass is not something he would favor, but maybe the detour.
Still, Daigle, whose brother evacuated from Bayou Corne, said video of the sinkhole swallowing cypress trees last month in less than a minute “hit home.”
“The video made me look at it (the sinkhole) differently, definitely differently,” he said. “Seeing them trees being sucked under, it just makes me look at it, you know, how far can it go.” - The Advocate.
September 03, 2013 - JAPAN - A strong 6.5 magnitude earthquake hit eastern Japan on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said, but local authorities said there was no risk of a tsunami.
The quake struck at 0018 GMT at a depth of 404 kilometres (251 miles), the USGS said.
USGS earthquake location.
"The epicentre is in the Pacific, hundreds of kilometres (miles) south of Tokyo. We see no risk of a tsunami," a spokesman for the Japanese weather agency said.
Fukushima operator TEPCO reported there were no new problems at the stricken nuclear plant.
The quake, measured at 6.9 by Japanese seismologists, was centred on a spot more than 600 kilometres south of Tokyo, the USGS said.
Twitter users report Japan quake:
AFP journalists in the Japanese capital reported feeling a long, rumbling quake that shook buildings. They said it was the largest they had felt in the quake-prone city for some time.
A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power said the earthquake did not cause any additional damage at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the site of the worst nuclear accident in a generation where radioactive waste water has been leaking into the Pacific Ocean.
USGS earthquake shakemap intensity.
"We have confirmed that there was no immediate abnormality," according to data collected by monitoring equipment, a TEPCO spokesman said, adding that crews will patrol the crippled plant's vast campus to survey whether any physical damage has been caused.
A series of leaks of radioactive water at the nuclear plant has left TEPCO on the back foot in recent months.
On Tuesday the Japanese government announced it was stepping in with 47 billion yen ($470 million) of public money to build a wall of ice underneath the plant to prevent polluted water seeping out into the sea. - Channel News Asia.
Tectonic Summary - Seismotectonics of the Philippine Sea and Vicinity.
The Philippine Sea plate is bordered by the larger Pacific and Eurasia plates and the smaller Sunda plate. The Philippine Sea plate is unusual in that its borders are nearly all zones of plate convergence. The Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, south of Japan, beneath the Izu-Bonin and Mariana island arcs, which extend more than 3,000 km along the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. This subduction zone is characterized by rapid plate convergence and high-level seismicity extending to depths of over 600 km. In spite of this extensive zone of plate convergence, the plate interface has been associated with few great (Magnitude greater than 8.0) ‘megathrust’ earthquakes. This low seismic energy release is thought to result from weak coupling along the plate interface (Scholz and Campos, 1995). These convergent plate margins are also associated with unusual zones of back-arc extension (along with resulting seismic activity) that decouple the volcanic island arcs from the remainder of the Philippine Sea Plate (Karig et al., 1978; Klaus et al., 1992).
South of the Mariana arc, the Pacific plate is subducted beneath the Yap Islands along the Yap trench. The long zone of Pacific plate subduction at the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea Plate is responsible for the generation of the deep Izu-Bonin, Mariana, and Yap trenches as well as parallel chains of islands and volcanoes, typical of circum-pacific island arcs. Similarly, the northwestern margin of the Philippine Sea plate is subducting beneath the Eurasia plate along a convergent zone, extending from southern Honshu to the northeastern coast of Taiwan, manifested by the Ryukyu Islands and the Nansei-Shoto (Ryukyu) trench. The Ryukyu Subduction Zone is associated with a similar zone of back-arc extension, the Okinawa Trough. At Taiwan, the plate boundary is characterized by a zone of arc-continent collision, whereby the northern end of the Luzon island arc is colliding with the buoyant crust of the Eurasia continental margin offshore China.
USGS plate tectonics for the region.
Along its western margin, the Philippine Sea plate is associated with a zone of oblique convergence with the Sunda Plate. This highly active convergent plate boundary extends along both sides the Philippine Islands, from Luzon in the north to the Celebes Islands in the south. The tectonic setting of the Philippines is unusual in several respects: it is characterized by opposite-facing subduction systems on its east and west sides; the archipelago is cut by a major transform fault, the Philippine Fault; and the arc complex itself is marked by active volcanism, faulting, and high seismic activity. Subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate occurs at the eastern margin of the archipelago along the Philippine Trench and its northern extension, the East Luzon Trough. The East Luzon Trough is thought to be an unusual example of a subduction zone in the process of formation, as the Philippine Trench system gradually extends northward (Hamburger et al., 1983). On the west side of Luzon, the Sunda Plate subducts eastward along a series of trenches, including the Manila Trench in the north, the smaller less well-developed Negros Trench in the central Philippines, and the Sulu and Cotabato trenches in the south (Cardwell et al., 1980). At its northern and southern terminations, subduction at the Manila Trench is interrupted by arc-continent collision, between the northern Philippine arc and the Eurasian continental margin at Taiwan and between the Sulu-Borneo Block and Luzon at the island of Mindoro. The Philippine fault, which extends over 1,200 km within the Philippine arc, is seismically active. The fault has been associated with major historical earthquakes, including the destructive M7.6 Luzon earthquake of 1990 (Yoshida and Abe, 1992). A number of other active intra-arc fault systems are associated with high seismic activity, including the Cotabato Fault and the Verde Passage-Sibuyan Sea Fault (Galgana et al., 2007).
Relative plate motion vectors near the Philippines (about 80 mm/yr) is oblique to the plate boundary along the two plate margins of central Luzon, where it is partitioned into orthogonal plate convergence along the trenches and nearly pure translational motion along the Philippine Fault (Barrier et al., 1991). Profiles B and C reveal evidence of opposing inclined seismic zones at intermediate depths (roughly 70-300 km) and complex tectonics at the surface along the Philippine Fault.
Several relevant tectonic elements, plate boundaries and active volcanoes, provide a context for the seismicity presented on the main map. The plate boundaries are most accurate along the axis of the trenches and more diffuse or speculative in the South China Sea and Lesser Sunda Islands. The active volcanic arcs (Siebert and Simkin, 2002) follow the Izu, Volcano, Mariana, and Ryukyu island chains and the main Philippine islands parallel to the Manila, Negros, Cotabato, and Philippine trenches.
Seismic activity along the boundaries of the Philippine Sea Plate (Allen et al., 2009) has produced 7 great (Magnitude greater than 8.0) earthquakes and 250 large (Magnitude greater than 7) events. Among the most destructive events were the 1923 Kanto, the 1948 Fukui and the 1995 Kobe (Japan) earthquakes (99,000, 5,100, and 6,400 casualties, respectively), the 1935 and the 1999 Chi-Chi (Taiwan) earthquakes (3,300 and 2,500 casualties, respectively), and the 1976 M7.6 Moro Gulf and 1990 M7.6 Luzon (Philippines) earthquakes (7,100 and 2,400 casualties, respectively). There have also been a number of tsunami-generating events in the region, including the Moro Gulf earthquake, whose tsunami resulted in more than 5000 deaths. - USGS.
September 02, 2013 - JAPAN - The drip, drip, drip of bad news about Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant keeps going. There's been a sharp spike in radiation levels measured in the pipes and containers holding water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan.
Radiation Readings Are 18 Times Higher Than Previously Measured.
Japan's nuclear watchdog members, including Nuclear Regulation Authority members in radiation protection suits, inspect contaminated water tanks at the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in the town of Okuma, Fukushima prefecture on August 23, 2013. (JAPAN POOL/AFP/Getty Images)
An operator at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan has said radiation readings are 18 times higher than previously measured. The staff member said they had found highly radioactive water dripping from a pipe used to connect two coolant tanks and that it had been patched up using tape. The discovery of the pipe came a day after Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it found new radiation hotspots at four sites around coolant tanks, with one reading at 1,800 millisieverts per hour - a dose that would kill a human left exposed to it in four hours. Last week the plant operator admitted 300 tonnes of toxic water had seeped out of one of the vast containers - one of around 1,000 on the site - before anyone had noticed.
The facility was destroyed by a tsunami in March 2011
The spill sparked fears the toxic water may have seeped into the nearby ocean and was categorised as a Level 3 event, the most serious category since the meltdown itself. The plant was severely damaged in March 2011 following an earthquake and tsunami which killed thousands of people and displaced many more. In response to growing domestic and international criticism over Tepco's handling of the crisis, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised the world his government would play a greater role in stopping leaks of highly radioactive water.
Water tanks at the plant.
"The accident in Fukushima cannot be left entirely to Tokyo Electric Power. There is a need for the government to play a role with a sense of urgency, including taking measures to deal with the waste water," he said. Mr Abe's pledge came as the world's nuclear watchdog urged Japan to explain more clearly what is happening at Fukushima and avoid sending "confusing messages" about the disaster. WATCH: Earth is softening and leaks are out of control.
Sky's foreign affairs correspondent Lisa Holland visited Fukushima on August 23 and was given access to government efforts to restore confidence in the crippled plant. She said there was little sign of life in the residential areas around the facility and spoke to people who said they will not go back to their homes until they have been told the truth about the dangers by ministers. - SKY News.
Photo Showing "Boiling Sea" Off Japan Coast Near Fukushima.
A Twitter photo showing a “boiling sea” off the coast of Japan, near the Fukushima nuclear power plant with radiation leaks, has gone viral online.So, why is the sea ‘boiling’? The answer can be found on the NaturalNews.com report. “After a 29-month cover-up, the Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) is now calling for international help and has all but admitted Fukushima's radiation leaks are spiraling out of control. In addition to the leaking water storage units that are unleashing hundreds of tons of radioactive water each day, Tepco now says 50% of its contaminated water filtration capability has been taken offline due to corrosion,” the news website published Tuesday. DemocracyNow.org posted that Japan’s nuclear regulator said Wednesday it has officially raised the radioactive water leak severity rating to Level 3 on the international scale for radiological releases. In an interview, nuclear energy industry expert Arnie Gundersen warned that the problem at Fukushima “is going to get worse.” - Cool Buster.
Fukushima's Radioactive Plume Could Reach U.S. Waters By 2014.
An Aug. 26 photo provided by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. shows Toshimitsu Motegi, Japan's economy, trade and industry minister, in a red safety helmet at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant during inspections of tanks holding contaminated water. TEPCO says it has found new radiation hotspots near tanks storing toxic water, with one reading peaking at 1,800 millisieverts per hour. TEPCO via AFP - Getty Images
A radioactive plume of water in the Pacific Ocean from Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, which was crippled in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, will likely reach U.S. coastal waters starting in 2014, according to a new study. The long journey of the radioactive particles could help researchers better understand how the ocean’s currents circulate around the world. Ocean simulations showed that the plume of radioactive cesium-137 released by the Fukushima disaster in 2011 could begin flowing into U.S. coastal waters starting in early 2014 and peak in 2016. Luckily, two ocean currents off the eastern coast of Japan — the Kuroshio Current and the Kuroshio Extension — would have diluted the radioactive material so that its concentration fell well below the World Health Organization’s safety levels within four months of the Fukushima incident. But it could have been a different story if nuclear disaster struck on the other side of Japan. “The environmental impact could have been worse if the contaminated water would have been released in another oceanic environment in which the circulation was less energetic and turbulent,” said Vincent Rossi, an oceanographer and postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems in Spain. Fukushima’s radioactive water release has taken its time journeying across the Pacific. By comparison, atmospheric radiation from the Fukushima plant began reaching the U.S. West Coast within just days of the disaster back in 2011. Tracking radioactivity’s path The radioactive plume has three different sources: radioactive particles falling out from the atmosphere into the ocean, contaminated water directly released from the plant, and water that became contaminated by leaching radioactive particles from tainted soil. The release of cesium-137 from Fukushima in Japan’s more turbulent eastern currents means the radioactive material is diluted to the point of posing little threat to humans by the time it leaves Japan’s coastal waters. Rossi worked with former colleagues at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in Australia to simulate the spread of Fukushima’s radioactivity in the oceans — a study detailed in the October issue of the journal Deep-Sea Research Part 1. Researchers averaged 27 experimental runs of their model — each run starting in a different year — to ensure that the simulated spread of the cesium-137 as a "tracer" was not unusually affected by initial ocean conditions. Many oceanographers studying the ocean’s currents prefer using cesium-137 to track the ocean currents because it acts as a passive tracer in seawater, meaning it doesn't interact much with other things, and decays slowly with a long half-life of 30 years. “One advantage of this tracer is its long half-life and our ability to measure it quite accurately, so that it can be used in the future to test our models of ocean circulation and see how well they represent reality over time,” Rossi told LiveScience. “In 20 years' time, we could go out, grab measurements everywhere in the Pacific and compare them to our model.” Journey across the Pacific Rim The team focused on predicting the path of the radioactivity until it reached the continental shelf waters stretching from the U.S. coastline to about 180 miles (300 kilometers) offshore. About 10 to 30 becquerels (units of radioactivity representing decay per second) per cubic meter of cesium-137 could reach U.S. and Canadian coastal waters north of Oregon between 2014 and 2020. (Such levels are far below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s limits for drinking water.) By comparison, California’s coast may receive just 10 to 20 becquerels per cubic meter from 2016 to 2025. That slower, lesser impact comes from Pacific currents taking part of the radioactive plume down below the ocean surface on a slower journey toward the Californian coast, Rossi explained. A large proportion of the radioactive plume from the initial Fukushima release won't even reach U.S. coastal waters anytime soon. Instead, the majority of the cesium-137 will remain in the North Pacific gyre — a region of ocean that circulates slowly clockwise and has trapped debris in its center to form the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” — and continue to be diluted for approximately a decade following the initial Fukushima release in 2011. (The water from the current power plant leak would be expected to take a similar long-term path to the initial plume released, Rossi said.) But the plume will eventually begin to escape the North Pacific gyre in an even more diluted form. About 25 percent of the radioactivity initially released will travel to the Indian Ocean and South Pacific over two to three decades after the Fukushima disaster, the model showed. - Huffington Post.
Contamination Could Pollute Entire World, At Least Pacific Ocean.
Joel Legendre, RTL (French radio network): We hear that what happened in Fukushima, what is ejected from there – cesium and those things – might eventually pollute the whole world, at least the Pacific Ocean, the eastern coast of Japan, the Japan Sea coast. One concern people have all around the world is to know: Might it effect more than the east coast of Japan?... Hirohiko Izumida, Governor of Niigata Prefecture: ...Levels [of radioactive contamination detected in food in Niiagata Prefecture] went up as a result of Fukushima, and I believe that most likely throughout the world similar trends have been observed.
WATCH: Press Conference with Hirohiko Izumida, Governor of Niigata Prefecture.
Simulation Shows ENTIRE PACIFIC OCEAN Polluted By Radioactive Water In JUST 6 YEARS.
This graphic shows the gradual contamination of the Pacific Ocean due to leaks of radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. The simulation, which was run by a German marine research institute, shows the ENTIRE Pacific waters being polluted by radioactive water in just six years. Although the results failed to grab attention when first released last year, experts now fear that the hypothesis may become a scary reality, after the Japanese government recently admitted that some 3-hundred tons of radioactive water have leaked into the ocean everyday. Mitsuhei Murata, a former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland: “TEPCO recently admitted to leaks of radioactive water. The amount is much greater than what the simulation had taken into account [10 petabecquerels of Cs-137].” - Arirang. WATCH: Radioactive water may contaminate entire Pacific Ocean in 6 years.
