Magnitude 5.8 - 6.0 Earthquake Hits Virginia Aug. 23, 2011

Adding updates as they come out below post.A link to history of VA earthquakes for those who are interested is down below as well.



USGS has the details and will have an update on their Preliminary magnitude which is 5.8 for the earthquake that hit Virginia. [Update] USGS now calling it a 5.9 magnitude earthquake.

[Update] Now news is reporting USGS has just downgraded the quake again to a 5.8, but the USGS site isn't showing that change as of yet.



Reuters is reporting it as a 6.0 and saying it struck the U.S. East Coast from Virginia to Boston.



The Daily Caller says it was felt in Washington, New York City, North Carolina.



Trivia- History of earthquakes that have hit Virginia. More Virginia earthquake information at USGS.



[Update] Wapo reports that this might just be "foreshock," and more possibly to come:

Minutes after the quake, the director of the U.S. Geological Survey, Marcia McNutt -- who watched objects falling from the shelves in her office -- cautioned that the shaking might not be over.



“What the concern is, of course, is that this is a foreshock. If it’s a foreshock, then the worse is yet to come.”

Fox:

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was 3.7 miles deep and struck near Mineral, Va., a city 83 miles from Washington, D.C.



The U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and other buildings were evacuated. Pictures in the Capitol building reportedly fell from the walls. Buildings in New York City shook briefly Tuesday afternoon.



The Eric Holder, the attorney general, has been evacuated from the Department of Justice.

[Update] NewsNet 5 is saying it was felt in Ohio.

There are reports coming in after a Virginia-based earthquake was felt in Northeast Ohio on Tuesday.



The quake happened just before 2 p.m. The U.S. Geological Survey said the 5.9 earthquake happened near Mineral, Va., and was felt in Washington, New York City, North Carolina.



In downtown Cleveland, the ground shook at the WEWS studios, causing lights to sway.

Television news is reporting that two nuclear reactors close to quake site have been taken offline and calling it standard operating procedure. [Update] Link added



[Update] Local ABC (New York) is providing live coverage, via video feed.



[Updates] Reports of some minor damage to buildings, many evacuations and questions of structural damage to buildings not built for this type of event.



[Update] Cell services are crashing due to an influx of non-emergency calls.



[Update] More on the nuclear power plants from WSJ and CNN.



CNN:

Tuesday's Virginia earthquake triggered the shutdown of a nearby nuclear power plant and alerts at nine others across the East Coast, U.S. authorities reported.



Dominion Virginia Power said both reactors at its North Anna plant, less than 20 miles from the epicenter of the magnitude-5.9 quake, shut down after the first tremors. Amanda Reidelbach, an emergency management spokeswoman for Louisa County, said the plant venting steam, but there was no release of radioactive material.



David Heacock, the utility's chief nuclear officer, said the plant was operating on emergency power and the units were safely deactivated.



"The plants are designed for this kind of a seismic event," Heacock said. "There is no apparent damage to anything at the plant right now."

WSJ:

The North Anna Power Station, which has two nuclear reactors, is now using four diesel generators to maintain cooling operations. The plant automatically shut down in the wake of the earthquake.



"As far as we know, everything is safe," said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman David McIntyre.



Nine nuclear plants have declared "unusual events" today, which is the lowest of four emergency situations, the NRC said.



The plants are located in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Side Note: I didn't see this amount of attention given to the earthquake in Colorado yesterday.

The largest natural earthquake in Colorado in more than a century struck Monday night in the state’s southeast corner, but there had been no reports of damage or injuries.

(Headline change to reflect reporting of conflicting magnitudes)

Another Earthquake Hits Japan: August 19, 2011

According to USGS a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Japan today Near The East Coast Of Honshu.



An hour ago, Reuters reported an event as a 6.8 magnitude:

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 jolted northeastern Japan off Fukushima prefecture on Friday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, although no damage was reported and a tsunami advisory for the area was lifted after no waves were sighted.

Washington Post reports a 6.5 and says this is one of the biggest in a month and that Japan's northeastern coast has been the site of more than 1,000 aftershocks of magnitude 4.0 or higher since March.



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7.4 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Alaska's Aleutian Islands

Alaska's Aleutian Islands were rocked by a 7.4 magnitude earthquake and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said a tsunami warning was in effect for the coastal areas of Alaska from Unimak Pass to Amchitka Pass. (Source)

The warning covers an area from 80 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor to about 125 miles west of Adak.

Details here.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damages.

More reports from Sacbee, and Fox News.

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Already Devastated Japan Hit By 7.4 Earthquake

Japan, already devastated by last month's 8.9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami which left tens of thousands missing and dead and also caused so much damage that a portion of their nuclear reactors hit partial meltdown, has just had more bad news.

A reported 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit 25 miles off the coast of Miyagi prefecture.

This is being called an aftershock and the Japan meteorological agency has issued a tsunami warning for a wave of up to one meter.

These poor people just can't seem to catch a break.

More at Seattlepi.com.

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Japan Nuclear Crisis Updates And 'Tiny Miracle'

Japan can't seem to catch a break. Not only did Japan get hit with a 8.9 magnitude earthquake, followed by a massive Tsunami that left hundreds of thousands without homes, tens of thousands dead and many missing, but they have suffered an incredible amount of aftershocks, the majority of which were over a 5.0 magnitude.

Top that off with a volcano erupting and you have a very bad week.

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused extensive damage at Japan's nuclear plants, specifically three reactors and they have suffered their third explosion at a reactor.

No one knows exactly what will happen but the world is watching, praying for the people of Japan and praying just as hard that their nuclear crisis doesn't become a worst-case scenario.

NYT:

Japan’s nuclear crisis verged toward catastrophe on Tuesday after an explosion damaged the vessel containing the nuclear core at one reactor and a fire at another spewed large amounts of radioactive material into the air, according to the statements of Japanese government and industry officials.

In a brief address to the nation at 11 a.m. Tokyo time, Prime Minister Naoto Kan pleaded for calm, but warned that radiation had already spread from the crippled reactors and there was “a very high risk” of further leakage. Fortunately, the prevailing winds were sweeping most of the plume of radioactivity out into the Pacific Ocean, rather than over populated areas.

The sudden turn of events, after an explosion Monday at one reactor and then an early-morning explosion Tuesday at yet another — the third in four days at the plant — already made the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl reactor disaster a quarter century ago.

In another NYT's piece we see a different problem and concern for the Japanese government and citizens:

Even as workers race to prevent the radioactive cores of the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan from melting down, concerns are growing that nearby pools holding spent fuel rods could pose an even greater danger.

The pools, which sit on the top level of the reactor buildings and keep spent fuel submerged in water, have lost their cooling systems and the Japanese have been unable to take emergency steps because of the multiplying crises.

Experts now fear that the pool containing those rods from the fourth reactor has run dry, allowing the rods to overheat and catch fire. That could spread radioactive materials far and wide in dangerous clouds.

The pools are a worry at the stricken reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant because at least two of the three have lost their roofs in explosions, exposing the spent fuel pools to the atmosphere. By contrast, reactors have strong containment vessels that stand a better chance of bottling up radiation from a meltdown of the fuel in the reactor core.

If any of the spent fuel rods in the pools did indeed catch fire, nuclear experts say, the high heat would loft the radiation in clouds that would spread the radioactivity.

“It’s worse than a meltdown,” said David A. Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists who worked as an instructor on the kinds of General Electric reactors used in Japan. “The reactor is inside thick walls, and the spent fuel of Reactors 1 and 3 is out in the open.”

Scientific American tells us what a worst case scenario looks like:

"So there's some advantages to the BWR in terms of severe accidents. But one of the disadvantages is that the containment structure is a lightbulb-shaped steel shell that's only about 30 or 40 feet [nine to 12 meters] across—thick steel, but relatively small compared to large, dry containments like TMI. And it doesn't provide as much of an extra layer of defense from reactor accidents as containments like TMI [do]. So there is a great deal of concern that if the core does melt, the containment will not be able to survive. And if the containment doesn't survive, we have a worst-case situation."

And just what is that worst-case scenario? "They're venting in order to keep the containment vessel from failing. But if a core melts, it will slump to the bottom of the reactor vessel, probably melt through the reactor vessel onto the containment floor. It's likely to spread as a molten pool—like lava—to the edge of the steel shell and melt through. That would result in a containment failure in a matter of less than a day. It's good that it's got a better containment system than Chernobyl, but it's not as strong as most of the reactors in this country."

The Guardian reports that nuclear experts are concerned about the level of transparency because experts cannot get their hands, or in this case their eyes, on any radiation readings which leads them believe the Japanese government is covering up the extent of the damage already being suffered.

Nuclear experts have thrown doubt on the accuracy of official information issued about the Fukushima nuclear accident, saying that it followed a pattern of secrecy and cover-ups employed in other nuclear accidents. "It's impossible to get any radiation readings," said John Large, an independent nuclear engineer who has worked for the UK government and been commissioned to report on the accident for Greenpeace International.

"The actions of the Japanese government are completely contrary to their words. They have evacuated 180,000 people but say there is no radiation. They are certain to have readings but we are being told nothing." He said a radiation release was suspected "but at the moment it is impossible to know. It was the same at Chernobyl, where they said there was a bit of a problem and only later did the full extent emerge."

While political pundits are busy playing political games over the use of nuclear power versus other energy sources, Japan is desperately trying to avert another potentially catastrophic event that would compound the the devastation they are already suffering.

A Tiny Miracle

In the midst of disaster, a bright spot occurs when a four-month old infant is found amongst the rubble, alive.

The sound of a baby’s cry amid the rubble seemed so impossible that soldiers searching a tsunami-smashed village dismissed it as a mistake.

But it came again. And they realised they had not been hearing things.

They pulled away wood and slate, dug back thick oozing mud – and there was the child they were to describe as a ‘tiny miracle’.

The four-month-old girl had been swept from her parents’ arms in the shattered village of Ishinomaki when the deadly wave crashed into the family home.

For three days, the child’s frantic family had believed she was lost to them for ever.

But yesterday, for a brief moment, the horrors of the disaster were brightened by one helpless baby’s story of survival.

Soldiers from the Japanese Defence Force had been going from door to door pulling bodies from the devastated homes in Ishinomaki, a coastal town northeast of Sendai.

Most of the victims were elderly, unable to escape the destructive black tide.

But for this precious moment, at least, it was only the child who mattered to the team of civil defence troops who found her.

One of them picked her up in his arms, wrapped her in a blanket which had been handed to him and cradled the child as his colleagues crowded around, not believing that someone as young as this had survived when all hope had been lost.

The tiniest survivor was cold and wet and crying, but she is believed to have suffered no other injuries. Why she did not drown remained a mystery.

But the soldiers were somehow able to trace her overjoyed father, who had been taking refuge in his wrecked home with the rest of his family.

Now that is a feel good moment in the midst of horrific tragedy if I ever heard one.

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Japan: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Nuclear Meltdowns And A Shift Of The Earth's Axis

The devastation from the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and following Tsunami in Japan is widespread as news reports show thousands dead, tens of thousands missing, Japan's nuclear reactors going into meltdown, hundreds of thousands of people being evacuated and the Japanese coast has literally moved 8 feet as the Earth's axis shifted.

Video coverage of the quake and subsequent Tsunami was covered the day of the event but followup news shows the true devastation and challenges facing Japan now.

Linkage below:

NYT reports on the partial meltdown of two of Japan's nuclear reactors:

Japanese officials struggled on Sunday to contain a widening nuclear crisis in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and tsunami, saying they presumed that partial meltdowns had occurred at two crippled reactors and that they were bracing for a second explosion, even as they faced serious cooling problems at four more reactors.

The emergency appeared to be the worst involving a nuclear plant since the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago. The developments at two separate nuclear plants prompted the evacuation of more than 200,000 people. Japanese officials said they had also ordered up the largest mobilization of their Self-Defense Forces since World War II to assist in the relief effort.

On Saturday, Japanese officials took the extraordinary step of flooding the crippled No. 1 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, 170 miles north of Tokyo, with seawater in a last-ditch effort to avoid a nuclear meltdown. That came after an explosion caused by hydrogen that tore the outer wall and roof off the building housing the reactor, although the steel containment of the reactor remained in place.

Then on Sunday, cooling failed at a second reactor — No. 3 — and core melting was presumed at both, said the top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. An explosion could also rock the No. 3 reactor, Mr. Edano warned, because of a buildup of hydrogen within the reactor.

More at CNN on the reactors, the explosions and the meltdowns.

In other news, the Earthquake that hit as well as the 160 aftershocks, most reaching the level of a 5.0 magnitude or higher, has literally moved the main island of Japan 8 feet and shifted the 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).

Reports from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy estimated the 8.9-magnitude quake shifted the planet on its axis by nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters).

More news and discussion about Japan's tragedy and the after affects in the wake of the earthquake and Tsunami over at Memeorandum.

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Video- Japan Hit With 8.9 Quake And Massive Tsunami

Bumped to top

Video below of live coverage and horrible images of cars, houses, farms and more being swept away by the Tsunami that hit Japan after a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake:



A state of emergency has been called, 200-300 bodies found in the port city of Sendai and many more unaccounted for still.

The effects were felt as far as Tokyo and tsunami warnings were extended across the Pacific to North and South America.

More from BBC, NYT, CNN and AP.

More video below:



West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center issued warnings on 03/11/2011 at 12:51AM PST for coastal areas of California and Oregon from Point Concepcion, California to the Oregon-Washington border, coastal areas of Alaska from Amchitka Pass, Alaska (125 miles W of Adak) to Attu, Alaska, coastal areas of California from the California-Mexico border to Point Concepcion, California and coastal areas of Washington, British Columbia and Alaska from the Oregon-Washington border to Amchitka Pass, Alaska (125 miles W of Adak).

More from West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center here and here.

In Hawaii @ 6:38 am LA Times reports:

Reporting from Oahu, Hawaii and Los Angeles --
Tsunami waves have reached Hawaii, but the first waves hitting the state are only about a foot higher than usual, according to officials and local news reports.

Officials had ordered an evacuation of Hawaii's coastal areas after the devastating 8.9 earthquake near Japan, which was expected to begin hitting the state at about 3 a.m. local time, or 5 a.m. Pacific time. Authorities warned of maximum wave heights of up to 6 feet.

There have been no immediate reports of widespread damage. Still, authorities said more tsunami waves were expected and it was too early to tell whether Hawaii would escape harm.

By 8AM more news from Hawaii, via SFGate:

Tsunami waves swamped Hawaii beaches and brushed the U.S. western coast Friday but didn't immediately cause major damage after devastating Japan and sparking evacuations throughout the Pacific.

Kauai was the first of the Hawaiian islands hit by the tsunami, which was caused by an earthquake in Japan, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. Water rushed ashore in Honolulu, covering the beach in Waikiki and surging over a break wall in the world-famous resort but stopping short of the area's high-rise hotels.

Waves about 7 feet high were recorded on Maui, and 3 feet in Oahu and Kauai. Officials warned that the waves would continue and could become larger, and a scientist at the tsunami warning center said there was likely some damage to mooring facilities and piers.

"We called this right. This evacuation was necessary," said geophysicist Gerard Fryer in Hawaii. "There's absolutely no question, this was the right thing to do."

More video below:

Oil refinery ablaze after devastating Japan earthquake, tsunami



[Update] The U.S. has delivered coolant to Japan for a Japanese nuclear plant affected by a massive earthquake according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

[Update] Business Insider reports 88,000 people missing... note that some could simply be stranded.

More footage from TV9 Japan below:



News is reporting that the aftershocks are expected and could be almost as strong and cause yet more Tsunamis.

More video from CBS at YouTube, video embedding disabled, so click over.

Video of video shot as the earthquake was hitting Japan, by IReporter at CNN.



At 3:29 into the next video the newscaster actually says that while Hawaii prepares for the Tsunami, Hawaii suffered a smaller 4.5 magnitude earthquake. I haven't heard that anywhere else yet, but she says it.



More as news comes out.

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