Japan's main island of Honshu suffered a catastrophic 8.9 magnitude earthquake at 2:46 p.m. (their time) on Friday, March 11, 2011, and it is considered to be the fifth largest earthquake in the world since record keeping began in the late 1800's. It is the largest known earthquake to ever hit the region. Because of the way earthquakes are measured; it is considered to be at least 1,000 times stronger than the one that devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month and a thousand times stronger than the one that leveled much of Haiti last year. The Japanese quake destroyed thousands of buildings, killed over a thousand people so far, and caused an incredible series of tsunamis (also called tidal waves) that killed more people and dropped ships onto already devastated communities. Tsunamis have traveled throughout the Pacific basin affecting even California, Alaska, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
1,200 miles of coastal Japan shook for approximately two terrifying minutes and then moments later the 8.9 magnitude earthquake blasted the a 23-foot (seven-meter) tsunami along the northeastern coast of Japan near the coastal city of Sendai. The quake was followed by hundreds by vicious aftershocks; some noteworthy on their own behalf in the 6.0 to 7.4 range. Our U.S. Geological Survey reported that 250 were detected off of Japan's main island of Honshu, 50 of them of magnitude 6.0 or greater at the present time. There is a potential for a 7.9 to 8.0 aftershock and that possibility remains for months.
Fires are burning out of control, oil refineries have exploded, communities are obliterated and now millions of Japanese citizens are in further jeopardy from a nuclear disaster of unprecedented proportions. The true extent of the devastation of this triple threat (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster) is still unknown and the full effects will likely take months and possibly years to be fully understood.
The Fukushima Nuclear facility, reactors 1 & 3, are undergoing catastrophic loss of coolant as we write this and there are dangers of a massive radiation release. Already there are three patients in a nearby hospital close to Sendai with near lethal levels of radiation poisoning. Hundreds more are being tested. Health officials are distributing iodine salts to people close to the nuclear facilities as a precursor to fighting radiation sickness.
The Fukushima Daiichi #1 reactor is forty years old, but it was originally built with greater safeguards than the Chernobyl plant that had created a nuclear disaster in April of 1986. Chernobyl left large sections of the Ukraine still uninhabitable.
The United States, Great Britain, and other countries have already dispatched technical experts and assistance to Japan. President Barack Obama pledged extensive U.S. assistance calling this a potentially "catastrophic" disaster. One U.S. aircraft carrier is already in Japan and a second is on its way to render assistance.
On CNN's news broadcast today, their senior analyst and anchor, Wolf Blitzer, asked his guest, Japan's Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Ichiro Fujisaki, ". . . what can people due to help?" His response was to help by donating to the American Red Cross. Please use this link to the American Red Cross and give what you can. We would add to that a request for your prayers.
