
Japan issues tsunami warning after magnitude 7.3 earthquake - v4n4d1s
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38059371
======
euske
This is a good opportunity so I'm gonna post what I, a native-born Japanese,
have been always thinking: This country is literally shaped by earthquakes.
This is true not only in a geological sense but it also applies to the
culture. Earthquakes affect how all the buildings here are made, the way of
transportation, and virtually every aspect of our daily life. We always fear
them and talk about them, but we're kinda resigned to accept the fate. This
concept of resignation is seen in many ways in the Japanese culture. But it's
also earthquakes that make us truly united. I realized this when the big quake
hit the country five years ago. As much as we hate them, we are defined by
earthquakes.

~~~
staticelf
I am planning a trip to Japan for a month next year and I wonder, if such a
quake would hit, what do I do and how dangerous is it?

When my ass hit the chair the vibration is probably larger than the largest
quake that have ever hit Sweden. ;)

~~~
nandemo
Read this:

[http://www.pref.aichi.jp/global/en/living/prevention/](http://www.pref.aichi.jp/global/en/living/prevention/)

Something that's missing there: don't use elevators during or immediately
after a quake.

IMO the single most important thing is: when you're at the beach or close to
the coast at sea level make sure you know where the nearest evacuation area
is.

------
cossatot
Accroding to the USGS's page (linked to by civilian), the earthquake was a
strike-slip earthquake, where two blocks of crust slide laterally relative to
eachother on a vertical fault, with no real uplift of subsidence of the
seafloor. It's unlikely that there will be a major tsunami, as these are
caused by rapid displacement of lots of water by the seafloor. However, given
the right topography along the fault, it is possible.

~~~
honkhonkpants
Authorities are warning of at most 1m above high tide levels.

[http://ptwc.weather.gov/ptwc/text.php?id=pacific.TSUPAC.2016...](http://ptwc.weather.gov/ptwc/text.php?id=pacific.TSUPAC.2016.11.21.2129)

~~~
huangc10
For reference, the tsunami from the Tohoku earthquake from 2011 (which caused
the Fukushima disaster) was as high as 40m.

~~~
samwilliams
I was going to ask for a source for that 40m figure, but I just found it.

That is absolutely terrifying.

Edit: To put in context, even if your were at the top of a ten story building,
the wave (and ensuing mass of water) would still reach you.

~~~
rconti
And if you were at the top of an eleven story building, you'd find yourself
without 10 stories to support you!

------
rdlecler1
I was in Tokyo at my hotel when it happened. I thought maybe I had a Japanese
vibrating bed for an alarm clock before realizing what was happening. I was on
the 7th floor of a hotel and there was a slight sway for about 45 seconds.
Given the duration I assumed it was fairly sizeabke but far away.

~~~
kazinator
_Japanese_ vibrating bed?

Motels in America have had those since the 60's.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Houghtaling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Houghtaling)

 _John Joseph Houghtaling (pronounced HUFF-tay-ling;[1] November 14, 1916 –
June 17, 2009[1]) was an American entrepreneur and inventor who in 1958
invented the Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed, a common feature in mid-priced
hotels and motels from the 1960s to the early 1980s._

(Well, maybe they _are_ Japanese, _now_ , haha).

The Japanese invented massage chairs some years before this, though, and a
vibrating bed might be regarded as a derivative thereof:

 _Robotic massage chairs were first brought to market in 1954 by the Family
Fujiryoki company._

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massage_chair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massage_chair)

Anyway, cheers to lucky you to be in Japan, even if shaken up!

~~~
flukus
It's funny how our attitudes change depending on the location. In Japan a
vibrating bed is seen as technological sophistication, in America it's old and
tacky.

~~~
ramchip
> In Japan a vibrating bed is seen as technological sophistication

What makes you think that?

~~~
Scuds
Japanese electronics (especially in the boom years of the 80's and early 90's)
have a certain 'Technology for Technology's Sake' design sensibility among
them.

~~~
ethbro
Exhibit A: my 20 button Tokyo toilet

*Not exaggerating, I just counted the buttons

------
b_emery
Apparently not a threat to Hawaii - Tsunami threat for Japan:

[http://ptwc.weather.gov/text.php?id=hawaii.TIBHWX.2016.11.21...](http://ptwc.weather.gov/text.php?id=hawaii.TIBHWX.2016.11.21.2109)

"THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER HAS ISSUED A TSUNAMI THREAT MESSAGE FOR
OTHER PARTS OF THE PACIFIC LOCATED CLOSER TO THE EARTHQUAKE. HOWEVER... BASED
ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA THERE IS NO TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII."

~~~
rubiquity
If I read your link correctly, that announcement is saying the earthquake is
not a threat to Hawaii.

~~~
Freestyler_3
It also says that there are warnings for places closer to the earthquake. (ie
Japan)

------
hccampos
Live stream:
[http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/live/](http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/live/)

~~~
johansch
I have been watching this (through their great Apple TV fourth gen app) for
the past hour.

They have been excellent at doing live-translations of the primary NHK
domestic broadcast. About 45 minutes ago the tone of the japanese language
speaker in the background was really, really emotional, loud and fast. Reports
of tsunami sightings at various distances from the seaside, factory fires etc
were coming in by the minute.

They are warning people of returning to the seaside too early; now warning of
a possible ~90 cm tsunami that might still be very strong.

Edit: Prime minister Abe made a brief, live speech to the nation.. and the NHK
put him in a small picture-in-picture box in the lower left part of the screen
so that they could still show the live view of the seaside. That was special.

~~~
huxley
Was that Abe, I thought it was one of his cabinet ministers?

~~~
johansch
Oops, may have been. I wasn't paying full attention to the TV at the time,
just heard the english translator say "something something prime minister Abe
something live statement something something" and then saw a small box with a
Japanese man of approximately the right age speaking.

------
civilian
USGS map:
[http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us10007b88#...](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us10007b88#map)

//edit Any idea when the tsunami will hit? The original news happened at 20:59
UTC (1pm PST), but I'm not sure how fast tsunamis travel.

A sister comment referenced tsunami.gov, which is for US dwellers, but this
NOAA website has more information for people living outside the US:
[http://ptwc.weather.gov/?region=1&id=pacific.TSUPAC.2016.11....](http://ptwc.weather.gov/?region=1&id=pacific.TSUPAC.2016.11.21.2129)

text:
[http://ptwc.weather.gov/text.php?id=pacific.TSUPAC.2016.11.2...](http://ptwc.weather.gov/text.php?id=pacific.TSUPAC.2016.11.21.2129)

    
    
      ESTIMATED TIMES OF ARRIVAL
      --------------------------
    
      * ESTIMATED TIMES OF ARRIVAL -ETA- OF THE INITIAL TSUNAMI WAVE
        FOR PLACES WITHIN THREATENED REGIONS ARE GIVEN BELOW. ACTUAL
        ARRIVAL TIMES MAY DIFFER AND THE INITIAL WAVE MAY NOT BE THE
        LARGEST. A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF WAVES AND THE TIME BETWEEN
        WAVES CAN BE FIVE MINUTES TO ONE HOUR.
    
        LOCATION         REGION             COORDINATES    ETA(UTC)
        ------------------------------------------------------------
        KATSUURA         JAPAN             35.1N 140.3E   2150 11/21
        KUSHIRO          JAPAN             42.9N 144.3E   2217 11/21
        HACHINOHE        JAPAN             40.5N 141.5E   2236 11/21
        SHIMIZU          JAPAN             32.8N 133.0E   2312 11/21
        NOBEOKA          JAPAN             32.5N 131.8E   2319 11/21
    
    

So, Katsuura was just hit, and the other cities will be hit soon.

------
huangc10
(Edit) Japan Meteorological Agency has updated the earthquake to 7.4
magnitude.

~~~
glandium
It has been upgraded to 7.4 according to NHK.

------
dandelany
Worryingly, TEPCO is reporting that the cooling system for the 3rd reactor at
Fukushima Daiichi has stopped (via the NHK live TV stream)... Supposedly there
is enough water in the pool that it will not be dangerous for quite awhile,
but this needs to get fixed soon.

~~~
johansch
A week, they just said, I think. That seems manageable. The cooling system
stopped operating because of the odd water movements, but wasn't reported to
be damaged.

"TEPCO expects the cooling system to operate normally in 1-2 hours from now."

~~~
flukus
TEPCO doesn't have the most trustworthy track record.

~~~
NamTaf
It's already back up and running according to ABC Aus.

------
komali2
The livestream is talking about how 2 methods of water cooling at the
Fukushima power plant, but there's no immediate danger because of some third
system. Anybody have more details on this?

"Right now the water temperature is 27 degrees and the water temperature will
not rise to dangerous levels... for a while."

------
reddytowns
I have a Japanese friend who said whenever a quake in NZ hits, the whole of
Japan is on edge for the next month because Japan quakes often follow NZ
quakes after a couple of weeks.

It seems to have happened again. I wonder why you don't hear anything in
scientific circles about this.

~~~
sdrothrock
It might be that the scientific circles have more data (that is, those of us
in Japan only really notice the big ones and the local ones) that show that
there isn't really a correlation at all due to the frequency of quakes in both
areas.

------
temp
10km depth
[http://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/earthquake/20161122055...](http://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/earthquake/20161122055958.html)

------
oolongCat
Everytime something important happens I notice reddit is a better source of
getting an aggregate of information than twitter or (sometimes) news outlets.

Relevant reddit thread for this incident.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/5e6jzt/73_magnit...](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/5e6jzt/73_magnitude_earthquake_hits_fukushima_japan_3/)

Also, /u/TheEarthquakeGuy should be posting soon.

~~~
rangibaby
Except for that time they framed someone completely innocent for the Boston
bombing. We did it Reddit!

~~~
manachar
Good for news and raw info - REALLY bad at analysis.

------
SeoxyS
I was woken up by the quake this morning. Pretty strong feeling; it shook for
a good few minutes. As far as I can tell everyone's safe in Tokyo, though the
trains are a bit delayed and the elevators in my building weren't running.

Stronger by far than any quake I've ever felt in 8 years in San Francisco.

------
euske
Tsunami alerts/forecasts:
[http://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/tsunami/](http://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/tsunami/)

They should really provide an English version of this page. Come on, Yahoo
Japan.

~~~
enzanki_ars
[http://www.jma.go.jp/en/tsunami/](http://www.jma.go.jp/en/tsunami/) The
Japanese Meteorological Agency provides a greater source of info.

------
yitchelle
Reading the news article, it says that the waves are about 1m in height, some
are about 60cm in height. How do they distinguish that these waves are caused
by the earthquake and not waves created by other causes (ocean currents, wind
etc)?

------
ekianjo
Was there this morning the shake was pretty long, several minutes. Its rare.

------
criley2
Out of curiosity... why is this on Hacker News?

~~~
Practicality
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

This fits "Anything that good hackers would find interesting." "anything that
gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

 _Major_ world events are pretty much always on topic. We just don't need
minor regular news events here.

~~~
mbesto
> "Anything that good hackers would find interesting." "anything that
> gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

So that can literally be anything...

> If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

This caveats it nicely. This is certainly off-topic for HN.

~~~
mynameisvlad
> _probably_ off-topic

Probably !== certainly. The only people who can really speak to something
being _certainly_ off-topic are the moderators.

~~~
flukus
Javascript or PHP?

~~~
mynameisvlad
Heh, didn't even realize it, but JS (well, Typescript.)

