Yesterday a very strong 地震 (earthquake) hit the South American country of Chile.
Damage in Chile from 2010 Feb 27 earthquake
This earthquake caused a strong 津浪 (tsunami), tidal wave, in the Pacific Ocean…and it’s currently headed straight for the Pacific coast of Japan (which includes Tokyo)!
On this map, the areas in red are in danger of 3m waves, in orange is in danger of 2m, and the yellow areas have a warning of 0.5m waves. Tokyo is in part of the orange area.
This tsunami is forecast to hit Japan at about 2:30PM today. People near the east coastal areas of Japan have been advised to evacuate. We live far enough inland that we should be fine.
The last tsunami warning Japan had was after the Indonesian earthquakes last winter. (Click here to read the post I wrote about it.)
No tsunami hit Japan that time.
The last tsunami to hit Japan was in the summer of 1993. Over 200 people died in the northern island of Hokkaido.
Hopefully no one will even be injured in this one!
—By the way, as I mentioned in my post yesterday, the 2010 Tokyo Marathon is being held today…and a friend of mine is running in it.
Hopefully everyone will be OK. It was raining very hard this morning in Tokyo, so I didn’t go out to watch the marathon…I’m watching it on TV.
Tokyo Five 
Japan just have strike 8.9 earthquake. This is a wakeup call to unite in work and effort to keep the the world vigilance. And redeem our investments, and force the investors and those manufacturers to invest on what is our new way of living if we want to be safe.
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Yes, the 2011 Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami struck yesterday and that area in northern Japan has been devastated.
Actually, I wrote a post about it. That post is here:
https://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/biggest-earthquake/
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I wrote this post on 2010 February 28th…and at the end of the post I mentioned:
“…the 2010 Tokyo Marathon is being held today…”
Well, it’s now 2011 February 27th. Almost exactly a year later and the 2011 Tokyo Marathon was held today. Unlike last year’s marathon and the year before…the weather is beautiful today.
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Everywhere seems to be having earthquakes these days…
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Yeah, and hopefully that’s the end of them for at least awhile.
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Ive never experienced a real earthquake but just a tremor from neighbouring Indonesia when it happens. Just to feel that is enough to make me rush and get my important documents and valuables ready on stand byjust in case. Back at my homeland, neighbouring country Sabah was advised to be aware of the tsunami as no one knows how strong the impact of the tsunami can be. I am sort of worried about our beach house in the Philippines tho …
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>Ive never experienced a real earthquake
If you’re lucky, you never will!
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I hope not to tho even that slight tremor put me on edge as silly as it may sound esp. when I live in a condominium of 32 floors but yea i do hope thats the last of earthquakes to be heard right now ..its very worrying esp. after this last one where the axis of the earth has shifted.
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Earthquakes are scary because they can strike anytime at all with no warning at all.
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I’m glad that Japan and the other countries near the pacfic ocean are okay… no need for another natural desaster like Haiti…
On the otherside, maybe most people who are actually confronted with earthquakes wouldn’t understand it, but I am kind of fascinated by earthquakes and would like to feel at least a small one for once… In Europe there are absolutely no earthquakes since there is not really a huge continental drift going on with the eurasian plate. There is this table on Wikipedia comparing the magnitudes of earthquakes with the amount of tnt you would need to create one of the same strength. almost makes my eyes pop out… Please don’t take any offense, I know how cruel earthquakes can be… It’s just my curiosity… 😉
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Believe me, earthquakes aren’t fun!
I feel that they’re the worst natural disaster because they strike so violently and suddenly…and there’s no warning for one like there is for hurricanes, tsunami, etc.
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like I said… I know how cruel earthquakes can be… at least from the media. I am just pretty much into science and therefore I have this kind of curiosity… And I never said that earthquakes are fun, maybe I would be the first one cowering in the corner of the room because of fear…
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I see. Well, as for me, I’ll be happy to never experience another earthquake ever.
There’s a Japanese expression that says the four scariest things in the world are:
地震 (earthquakes), 雷 (Lightning), 火事 (fire), and 親父 (father).
I mention this expression in my post about last year’s tsunami warning:
https://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2009/01/04/tsunami/
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There was a Tsunami alert for here in California but nothing major happened. There was some unusual tidal movements that did some odd things in some of the local harbors though but no damage.
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As I wrote above, Japan is OK too.
It’s better that they over-estimate a disaster than under-estimate it.
No harm in being ready for something that doesn’t occur than the other way around.
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good luck. it didn’t hurt hawaii at all.
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Thanks. Japan’s fine too.
Actually, the rain stopped by late morning and it was a beautiful day in Tokyo today.
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