A massive explosion has struck a Japanese nuclear power plant after Friday's devastating earthquake.
A huge pall of smoke was seen coming from the plant at Fukushima and several workers were injured.
Japanese officials fear a meltdown at one of the plant's reactors after radioactive material was detected outside it.
A huge relief operation is under way after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 600.
Hundreds more people are missing and it is feared about 1,300 may have died.
The offshore earthquake triggered a tsunami which wreaked havoc on Japan's north-east coast, sweeping far inland and devastating a number of towns and villages.
Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan declared a state of emergency at the Fukushima 1 and 2 power plants as engineers try to confirm whether a reactor at one of the stations has gone into meltdown.
It is an automatic procedure after nuclear reactors shut down in the event of an earthquake, allowing officials to take rapid action.
Television pictures showed a massive blast at one of the buildings of the Fukushima 1 plant, about 250km (160 miles) north-east of Tokyo.
A huge cloud of smoke billows out and large bits of debris are flung far from the building.
Japan's NHK TV showed before and after pictures of the plant. They appeared to show that the outer structure of one of four buildings at the plant had collapsed after the explosion.
The Tokyo Electric Power Co, the plant's operator, said several workers had been injured.
Cooling systems inside several reactors at both the Fukushima plants stopped working after Friday's earthquake cut the power supply.
Japan's nuclear agency said on Saturday that radioactive caesium and iodine had been detected near the number one reactor of the Fukushima 1 plant.
The agency said this may indicate that containers of uranium fuel inside the reactor may have begun melting.
Air has been released from several of the reactors at both plants in an effort to relieve the huge amount of pressure building up inside.
Mr Kan said the amount of radiation released was "tiny".
Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate the area near the plants. BBC correspondent Nick Ravenscroft said police stopped him 60km from the Fukushima 1 plant.
Analysts say a meltdown would not necessarily lead to a major disaster because light-water reactors would not explode even if they overheated.
The 8.9-magnitude tremor struck in the afternoon local time on Friday off the coast of Honshu island at a depth of about 24km, 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo.
It was nearly 8,000 times stronger than last month's quake in New Zealand that devastated the city of Christchurch, scientists said.
Some of the same search and rescue teams from around the world that helped in that disaster are now on their way to Japan.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Japan Earthquake 2011 Summary
The 03/11/2011 earthquake (preliminary magnitude 8.9) near the east coast of Honshu, Japan, occurred as a result of thrust faulting on or near the subduction zone interface plate boundary between the Pacific and North America plates. At the latitude of this earthquake, the Pacific plate moves approximately westwards with respect to the North America plate at a velocity of 83 mm/yr. The Pacific plate thrusts underneath Japan at the Japan Trench, and dips to the west beneath Eurasia. The location, depth, and focal mechanism of the March 11 earthquake are consistent with the event having occurred as thrust faulting associated with subduction along this plate boundary. Note that some authors divide this region into several microplates that together define the relative motions between the larger Pacific, North America and Eurasia plates; these include the Okhotsk and Amur microplates that are respectively part of North America and Eurasia.
The March 11 earthquake was preceded by a series of large foreshocks over the previous two days, beginning on March 9th with an M 7.2 event approximately 40 km from the March 11 earthquake, and continuing with a further 3 earthquakes greater than M 6 on the same day.
The Japan Trench subduction zone has hosted 9 events of magnitude 7 or greater since 1973. The largest of these was an M 7.8 earthquake approximately 260 km to the north of the March 11 event, in December 1994, which caused 3 fatalities and almost 700 injuries. In June of 1978, an M 7.7 earthquake 35 km to the southwest caused 22 fatalities and over 400 injuries.
The March 11 earthquake was preceded by a series of large foreshocks over the previous two days, beginning on March 9th with an M 7.2 event approximately 40 km from the March 11 earthquake, and continuing with a further 3 earthquakes greater than M 6 on the same day.
The Japan Trench subduction zone has hosted 9 events of magnitude 7 or greater since 1973. The largest of these was an M 7.8 earthquake approximately 260 km to the north of the March 11 event, in December 1994, which caused 3 fatalities and almost 700 injuries. In June of 1978, an M 7.7 earthquake 35 km to the southwest caused 22 fatalities and over 400 injuries.
Tsunami Warning/Advisory
Region name Sanriku Oki
Depth about 20km
Magnitude 8.8
| Issued at 13:50 JST 12 Mar 2011 *******************Text******************** Changed; Tsunami Warning --> Tsunami Warning EASTERN PART OF PACIFIC COAST OF HOKKAIDO CENTRAL PART OF PACIFIC COAST OF HOKKAIDO WESTERN PART OF PACIFIC COAST OF HOKKAIDO IBARAKI PREF. WAKAYAMA PREF. KOCHI PREF. Tsunami Warning --> Tsunami Advisory JAPAN SEA COAST OF AOMORI PREF. KUJUKURI AND SOTOBO AREA, CHIBA PREF. UCHIBO AREA, CHIBA PREF. IZU ISLANDS OGASAWARA ISLANDS SAGAMI BAY AND MIURA PENINSULA SHIZUOKA PREF. TOKUSHIMA PREF. SOUTHERN PART OF JAPAN SEA COAST OF HOKKAIDO MUTSU BAY TOKYO BAY PACIFIC COAST OF AICHI PREF. ISE BAY AND MIKAWA BAY SOUTHERN PART OF AWAJI ISLAND BUNGO STRAIT COAST OF EHIME PREF. WESTERN PART OF NAGASAKI PREF. AMAKUSA NADA COAST OF KUMAMOTO PREF. SETONAIKAI COAST OF OITA PREF. BUNGO STRAIT COAST OF OITA PREF. WESTERN PART OF KAGOSHIMA PREF. OKINAWA ISLANDS MIYAKOJIMA AND YAEYAMA AREA Canceled; Tsunami Warning ARIAKE SEA AND YATSUSHIRO SEA DAITOJIMA AREA Pay attention when fishing, swimming etc. at the above coasts as there may be still sea level changes for the time being. Tsunami Advisory AKITA PREF. YAMAGATA PREF. NIIGATA PREF.,EXCEPT SADOGASHIMA ISLAND SADOGASHIMA ISLAND TOYAMA PREF. NOTO AREA, ISHIKAWA PREF. KAGA AREA, ISHIKAWA PREF. FUKUI PREF. KYOTO PREF. NORTHERN PART OF HYOGO PREF. TOTTORI PREF. SHIMANE PREF.,EXCEPT OKI ISLANDS OKI ISLANDS OKAYAMA PREF. HIROSHIMA PREF. KAGAWA PREF. SETONAIKAI COAST OF EHIME PREF. JAPAN SEA COAST OF YAMAGUCHI PREF. SETONAIKAI COAST OF YAMAGUCHI PREF. SETONAIKAI COAST OF FUKUOKA PREF. JAPAN SEA COAST OF FUKUOKA PREF. NORTHERN PART OF SAGA PREF. IKI ISLAND AND TSUSHIMA ISLANDS Pay attention when fishing, swimming etc. at the above coasts as there may be still sea level changes for the time being. *******Tsunami forecast now in effect******** IWATE PREF. MIYAGI PREF. FUKUSHIMA PREF. PACIFIC COAST OF AOMORI PREF. CENTRAL PART OF PACIFIC COAST OF HOKKAIDO IBARAKI PREF. EASTERN PART OF PACIFIC COAST OF HOKKAIDO WESTERN PART OF PACIFIC COAST OF HOKKAIDO SOUTHERN PART OF MIE PREF. WAKAYAMA PREF. KOCHI PREF. MIYAZAKI PREF. TANEGASHIMA AND YAKUSHIMA AREA AMAMI ISLANDS AND TOKARA ISLANDS EASTERN PART OF KAGOSHIMA PREF. KUJUKURI AND SOTOBO AREA, CHIBA PREF. IZU ISLANDS JAPAN SEA COAST OF AOMORI PREF. UCHIBO AREA, CHIBA PREF. OGASAWARA ISLANDS SAGAMI BAY AND MIURA PENINSULA SHIZUOKA PREF. PACIFIC COAST OF AICHI PREF. TOKUSHIMA PREF. SOUTHERN PART OF JAPAN SEA COAST OF HOKKAIDO MUTSU BAY TOKYO BAY ISE BAY AND MIKAWA BAY SOUTHERN PART OF AWAJI ISLAND BUNGO STRAIT COAST OF EHIME PREF. SETONAIKAI COAST OF OITA PREF. BUNGO STRAIT COAST OF OITA PREF. WESTERN PART OF KAGOSHIMA PREF. OKINAWA ISLANDS MIYAKOJIMA AND YAEYAMA AREA OKHOTSK SEA COAST OF HOKKAIDO OSAKA PREF. SETONAIKAI COAST OF HYOGO PREF. WESTERN PART OF NAGASAKI PREF. AMAKUSA NADA COAST OF KUMAMOTO PREF. NORTHERN PART OF JAPAN SEA COAST OF HOKKAIDO ***********About Tsunami Forecast************ Tsunami height is expected to be up to 2 meters, Keep watch on tsunamis. Tsunami height is expected to be about 0.5 meters, Pay attention to tsunamis. |
Magnitude 8.9 - NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Earthquake Details
- This is a computer-generated message -- this event has not yet been reviewed by a seismologist.
| Magnitude | 8.9 |
|---|---|
| Date-Time |
|
| Location | 38.322°N, 142.369°E |
| Depth | 24.4 km (15.2 miles) set by location program |
| Region | NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN |
| Distances | 130 km (80 miles) E of Sendai, Honshu, Japan 178 km (110 miles) E of Yamagata, Honshu, Japan 178 km (110 miles) ENE of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan 373 km (231 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan |
| Location Uncertainty | horizontal +/- 13.5 km (8.4 miles); depth fixed by location program |
| Parameters | NST=350, Nph=351, Dmin=416.3 km, Rmss=1.46 sec, Gp= 29°, M-type="moment" magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=A |
| Source |
|
| Event ID | usc0001xgp |
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