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BBC MUNDO RADIO
3:46pm UK, Friday March 11, 2011
A 8.9 magnitude quake that devastated Japan's northeastern coast is the biggest to hit the country since records began 140 years ago.
The tremor triggered a 10-metre high tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, ships and vehicles.
Earthquake expert Dr David Whitehouse told Sky News: "This was a tremendous, historic earthquake. One of the largest ever recorded.
"It occured under the ocean therefore its impact on the landmass of Japan was not as great as say the Kobe earthquake of a few years ago which occured underground.
"But the tsunami has completely blasted the coast of Japan."
<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=b9e2984d9d">Tsunami Hits Japan</a>
The 1995 Kobe quake was the most expensive natural disaster in history, with the estimated cost of the damage reaching $100bn.
The latest quake came just over two weeks after New Zealand second-most populous city was rocked by a tremor that left scores of people dead and caused widespread damage.
But seismologist Dr Roger Musson said: "There is a huge contrast between this earthquake and the recent Christchurch earthquake.
"This is totally different - it is capable of affecting a huge area and it's a rare event. It's something you would normally expect only once in a decade.
A 6.3 magnitude quake in Christchurch caused widespread damage
"Instead of having a concentrated destruction in one city as you had in Christchurch, here, there is going to be damage over a very wide area in the northeast of Japan."
Professor Bob Holdsworth, of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Durham, said the magnitude of Japanese quake was "staggering".
"It is almost 1,000 times more powerful that the recent Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand and nearly 100 times more powerful that the 2010 Haiti earthquake. It is slightly smaller than the Sumatra earthquake of 2004, a magnitude 9.1 event. These last two events combined killed over 500,000 people."
The strength of Friday's initial tremor surpassed the previous Japanese record-breaker - the Great Kanto quake of September 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.
An 8.8 magnitude quake in Chile last year triggered a tsunami
It was also more powerful that the 8.8 quake that hit Chile in February last year, triggering a tsunami and leaving more than 500 people dead.
As tsunami alerts were announced across the Pacific, they revived memories of the devastating tsunami that battered Asia in 2004.
That was triggered by a massive magnitude 9 earthquake in the Indian Ocean, off Indonesia's Aceh province.
About 230,000 people were killed as huge waves hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other countries.
However, even this quake was not the most powerful in the last century.
That record is held by the 9.5 magnitude quake that struck Santiago and Concepcion in Chile in 1960, triggering tidal waves and volcanic eruptions.
About 5,000 people were killed and two million made homeless.
Tsunami Waves Hit Hawaii Islands After Devastating Japan Coast
Waves hit the deserted Waikiki shoreline on March 11, 2011 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Photographer: Lucy Pemoni/Getty Images
The tsunami that slammed Japan hit Hawaii early today, and waves were spreading as people along the island chain’s coast evacuated and warnings were issued for U.S. West Coast states.
Hawaii was hit by a 1-meter (39-inch) wave, according to scientists at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which wasn’t anticipating major damage.
The Coast Guard in Hawaii has received no emergency calls, according to Kurt Fredrickson, chief petty officer for the 14th district, based in Honolulu. Ports in Honolulu and Guam remain closed until any damage can be assessed, he said.
The tsunami swept through Hawaii about seven hours after Japan was struck by its strongest earthquake on record. The 8.9- magnitude temblor shook buildings across Tokyo and unleashed a seven-meter-high tsunami that killed hundreds as it engulfed towns on the northern coast. Within hours of reaching Hawaii, waves were hitting the coast of Oregon, the Associated Press reported.
The Philippines, Indonesia and Chile were among more than 20 countries told to brace for a possible tsunami, after the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center raised an alert. The U.S. issued tsunami warnings and watches in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington state, as well as Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate said in a statement.
“We remind everyone who lives in the region to monitor their local news for instructions from their state and local officials, and if told to evacuate, evacuate,” Fugate said.
San Francisco
President Barack Obama said that he has instructed FEMA to be ready to assist Hawaii and other U.S. states and territories that may be affected by a tsunami.
“We are asking all our citizens in the affected region to listen to their state and local officials,” Obama said in a written statement released by the White House today.
The first tsunami waves are expected to hit San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge at about 11:08 a.m. New York time and Santa Barbara at 11:17 a.m., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Golden Gate service disruptions aren’t expected, Marie Curie, spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge District that operates the bridge, ferries and a bus service, said in an interview on KGO-TV in San Francisco.
“Ferry service is planning regular service,” Curie said. “We are cautioning people to be careful with their coffees.”
Making Preparations
Lieutenant Commander Rick Foster of the Coast Guard in San Francisco said the guard is taking steps to keep its equipment safe in the event it is needed. They are putting additional mooring lines on cutters and taking smaller boats out of the water. Although all ports in California remain open, the guard is urging "mariners to not get on the water,’’ he said.
The San Francisco Police Department is asking people not to go to area beaches, Lieutenant Troy Dangerfield, a spokesman for the department, said in a telephone interview.
“We have closed the beach area in San Francisco from Los Lobos and 48th Avenue all the way south to Lake Merced, which is most of the Pacific Beach area,” Dangerfield said. “We’re advising people not to hang out at the beaches and stay on higher grounds.”
Santa Cruz notified 6,600 residents who live near the coast to evacuate their homes, said Enrique Sahagun, public information officer of Santa Cruz County, which he estimated has 250,000 residents.
Waikiki Hit
In Waikiki, a tourist area of Honolulu, guests at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach and Outrigger Reef hotels were moved above the fourth floor well before the tsunami’s arrival. Hotel managers and employees gathered in an 11th-floor suite to watch the tsunami from 100 feet above.
Bonnie Lopez and her daughter Pasha, who live on the second floor of a two-story walk up on nearby Lewers Street, sought shelter at the Outrigger.
“It was scary when the police and fire department came through our neighborhood,” Lopez said. “Last year’s tsunami wasn’t like this one.”
The waves hit about 20 minutes later than predicted. When the water began to retreat off Waikiki Beach, Lopez said that she’d never seen anything like it.
“It was like someone had taken the thing out of the bath tub and let all the water run out,” she said.
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