Photo source (MSNBC).
With the terrible news of an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan this morning, my thoughts are with the victims and their families. Is this more evidence of "Global Weirding?
TOKYO -- A magnitude 8.9 earthquake slammed Japan's northeastern coast Friday, unleashing a 13-foot tsunami that swept boats, cars, buildings and tons of debris miles inland and prompting a "nuclear emergency."At least 40 people were killed and there were reports of several injuries in Tokyo, hundreds of miles away, where buildings shook violently through the main quake and the series of massive aftershocks that followed.
Consider this article, from NOAA scientists, "Do the 2010 Haiti and Chile earthquakes and tsunamis indicate increasing trends?"
Recent analysis of historical data shows that four of the top ten most deadly earthquakes and tsunamis since 1701 occurred in the last decade, including the 2004 Indian Ocean (Sumatra) and 2010 Haiti events. The magnitude 8.8 2010 Chile earthquake was the fifth largest earthquake ever recorded. These events generate questions about the frequency and severity of geologic natural hazards worldwide. The National Geophysical Data Center and co-located World Data Center for Geophysics and Marine Geology maintain a global historical event database of tsunamis, significant earthquakes, and significant volcanic eruptions (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazards/). Analysis of the database revealed that while the total number of magnitude 7.5 earthquakes per decade since 1901 has remained consistent, the last decade has experienced some of the most devastating geologic events in history. Until 2010, the most deadly event in the Caribbean was the 1902 eruption of Pelee that caused 28 000 deaths. While devastating, this event is dwarfed by the 230 000 deaths that resulted from the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The 2010 Chile earthquake is among the top ten most deadly earthquakes and tsunamis in the entire history of Chile. While the database does not provide answers as to why these recent events are so deadly, the analysis reinforces the need for increasing our understanding of earthquakes and tsunamis in all regions of the world. As the global population continues to increase, placing more people at risk, it is important to dedicate resources to mitigate against the effects of such natural hazards.
Figure 14. Count of all tsunamis for 10-year periods from 1701 to the present. (Source: National Geophysical Data Center/World Data Center.)
Figure 15. Total number of deaths from tsunamis for 10-year periods from 1701 to the present. (Source: National Geophysical Data Center/World Data Center.)
What do you think?
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What is this "global weirding" phenomenon you speak of? Sorry, but it smacks a bit of random associative supersticious thought...
Regarding the apparent increase in tsunamis I think this, also from the study (italics mine):
and this:
'Global weirding' is a phrase invented by Thomas Friedman, in the NYT, to describe the effects of 'anthropogenic climate change'.
As if earthquakes are caused by CO2. Do you also think that gay people caused 9/11 and Katrina?
1. Could it be that tsunamis are simply more noticed as such, now?
2. Could it be that earthquakes and tsunamis are more deadly simply because of the size and nature of cities, and increased population densities? (especially on the coasts!)
3. Could the damage from earthquakes be affected by hydrological issues such as the extraction of groundwater under many cities (leading to the recorded problem of shrinking aquifers and subsidence in areas) exacerbating any fault instabilities, or rendering cities more vulnerable to ground collapse in a quake?
I have other thoughts, but these were some of the first.
WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!!
Really now. Do you think our tsunami reported systems might have improved? Numbers of deaths are dominated by a single event, so they also don't tell us much.
I doubt globally averaged earthquakes/volcanoes are showing measureable effects from global warming. There probably are local effects caused by rapid deglaciation changing stress patterns, but this effect should be confined to a few localized areas (Iceland being the quintessentail example).
WHO CARES ABOUT SYSTEMS PATTERNS NUMBERS AND CRAP. WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!!
Very informative and factual write up, much appreictaed, especially so quickly after the event. Just to provide a contrast DCP provides another perspective on the matter,entiely artistic as opposed to scientific,click through to link and enjoy...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgQDnbnugdQ
John stop being so immature! We are not going to die you dimwit!! Simple evacuation and Earthquake warning will save a few more. The earth is just a planet remember it doesn't care if anything on it survives. Earth was created for a reason! And that reason was not to hold humans. Humans are just monkeys that have evolved were not here on purpose! Its no ones fault they occur naturally! So i guess we will have to deal with these horrible catastrophes.
John stop being so immature! We are not going to die you dimwit!! Simple evacuation and Earthquake warning will save a few more. The earth is just a planet remember it doesn't care if anything on it survives. Earth was created for a reason! And that reason was not to hold humans. Humans are just monkeys that have evolved were not here on purpose! Its no ones fault they occur naturally! So i guess we will have to deal with these horrible catastrophes.
Nature is great human beings are nothing before the greatness of nature - let us be a good friend to nature - let us not violate nature's laws - let us keep clean our environment. More trres more greeneries will make the nature a good friend of us.
A clean and pure mind inside the man and a green and lure earth will make sure a friendly nature .Sin is a human construct to impose "moral" law on sheeple while allowing the elites to manipulate & exploit the ignorant / self-righteous.
Watch tsunami hit Japan Watch eyewitness footage http://tsunami2011videos.blogspot.com/
Regards
Salman Mansoor Pakistan
Very good informative blog. I only pray that God spares us his wrath. We live in some very weird times.
Montgomery triangle is awesome!
may GOD BLESS JAPAN and help them to overcome such horror.
'For nation will rise against nation (Libya, Egypt etc) ...and
earthquakes in various places (Haiti, New Zealand, Japan) All these are the beginnings of sorrows' (Matthew 24:7-8)
stop being immature people you know this is all our fault for not believing in god and being so selfish ! i hope that god helps japan !
Has anyone else noticed that the number of Tsunami events counted and the number of tsunami related deaths, also seem to co-relate with the INCREASE in population as well as area of land populated?
How many tsunamis were not recorded in places that were not populated in the 1700's?
How many records going back to 1700's have been lost?
How many potential deaths would there be in the 1700's had Japan been populated like they are today? Another case of lies, lies and statistics?
global weirding...it s d summation from which humans hunger of satisfaction s d denominator of all things happen n this world.human s d main reason!a simple creation of GOD being modified by men into a false image...
global weirding...it s d summation from which humans hunger of satisfaction s d denominator of all things happen n this world.human s d main reason!a simple creation of GOD being modified by men into a false image...please do acknOwledge n loving our nature.
It is neither global weirding or global warming but part of nature's cycle. However you have to look at nature through nature's framework to understand what is happening.
I am an actuary, former president of the International Association of Consulting Actuaries and am concerned for the reputation for my profession as we get heavily involved in predicting nature's risks. I have an article on gravity in the current UK Actuary magazine.http://www.the-actuary.org.uk/875376 and a followup article ready for
a future edition. The first article will also be published in Australia this month and the second probably next month.
I have looked at data for major volcanic eruptions (in terms of Km3 of mass ejected) and major earthquakes (8 or more Richter scale) and found strong correlation between minimal sunspot activity, particularly major solar minimums and grand minimums and the incidence rate. I have also read a number of well credentialled scientific reports on the physics behind this linkage. (Including a fascinating Japanese paper written by geo-physicists and atomic physicists).
Currently the sun is in an extreme solar minimum (as NASA puts it) or a solar grand minimum (as solar physicists call it). So it is unsurprising that these events are occurring.
The weird weather is that typical of a solar grand minimum. The last one occurred between about 1785 and 1830. American history records how even the Hudson river froze over on more than one occasion during that period. Once in the dreadful northern winter of 1814/15 taverns were erected on the river to provide warmth and refreshments to pedestrians between Staten Island and Manhatten.
Incidentally I also downloaded all ENSO data from NOAA and superimposed that on solar cycle sunspot data. Very interesting patterns were revealed. It seems the world will be seeing a lot more weird weather and major earthquake and volcanic activity for a few decades yet.
Thank you for your very important perspective, Dr. Walker. You raise some very important points which I would like to address in articles coming soon, as accurate reporting to the public is of paramount importance. In the meantime, let us give our thoughts to the victims and families of this natural disaster.
Please contact me via email if you would like to co-author any of these articles.
Caution, Mr Walker seems to be a bit of a crank:
http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/awful-arithmetic-global-w…
Everything bad seems to be caused by periods of low sunspot activity.
Oops, climatespectator doesn't allow you to read the articles without registering. You can access the article with a little clever googling, however.
just wanna know , is there a way to minimalize the destruction effect of Tsunami? is there a way to detect that there will be an earthquake or Tsunami? i'm scare , seriously!
Its really very sad and heart breaking news yesterday for me.Cant digest how much feet it went high and i can pray for those who are really in trouble as well as pray for the ones who are dead.. A great console to those families.We mothers forum really feel sad for japan families..
fuckk
we have to take care of our environment.
God help those people who are diseased due to Japan Tsunami 2011.
Tsunami is the major reason of death toll, as people are drowned by it. the collapse of building is not seen. how to save lives of people during Tsunami is challenge ahead the mankind and it possible to save the life with proper life jackets.
thank you.
Bidgar S T
Civil Engineer and Earthquake student.
RT USA lost many lives on 9-11-01 and now Japan has lost more lives on 3-10-11. add the 2 dates together and you get 12-21-12. OMG
It is with deep sorrows that I could notice a huge loss of human lives and that of material things in Japan.
Additionally, I will keep on praying on behalf of the respectively bereft families.
To conclude, I simply require that Japanese know the real Savior of this world: Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
God keep Japan.
Rev Samuel
more vigilant measures should be taken and people should be trained to act properly in the case of a natural disaster, Tsunami is no exception and special measures should be taken which will surely prove life saving.
cnn says the earths axis moved. Is this true or possible. Why didnt we feel it?
chris @30: The earth is a 25000 miles / 40000 kilometers waist size. Adjusting tilt by four inches is very very little.
This is my first time at this particular blog. I had no idea there were so many religious people on ScienceBlogs ;) It's embarrassing.
why are we standing on a flat ground when the earth is round? :?
To person who has live a bit over 40 years in this earth, I have to admit that I felt there could be a terrifying trend happening in the new millenium, I often wonder if it is because of our human activities or the change of the earth position, such as a very small angle, alerting the unseen forces upon our earth atmosphere and internal mechanism.
I find the idea of âglobal weirdingâ quite interesting, and yet I donât exactly know what to think of it. I have a difficult time thinking that what is happening to the ground beneath us has anything directly to do with âthe demise of the worldâ as some say it. However, I canât help but notice the pattern. As was stated, âFour of the top ten most deadly earthquakes and tsunamis since 1701 occurred in the last decadeâ. Could this be because there are more concentrated amounts of people in the areas surrounding the natural disasters? Or even that the areas have not been as prepared for the disasters as some in previous history? What struck me the most out of this post what figure 15. The figure shows the total amount of deaths from tsunamis in ten year increments since 1701. The number of deaths between 2001 and 2010, 229,326 is drastically larger than that of any previous decade. In fact, in the decades of the twentieth century, deaths did not exceed 6,000. As to address the most recent natural disaster, the Japan earthquake and tsunami, it seems to fit into the pattern I mentioned. The event is still unfolding, so at this point the death toll, and total damage has not been able to be fully surveyed. All we can do is let time pass in order to see what happens in the future to either support or disprove the idea of âglobal weirdingâ.
These things are supposed to happen, right? I mean Japan is an earthquake-prone country. The reason why more people are dying is because we have an increase of population. And the reason why it seems we have more earthquakes is because we have more developed seismographs and we have global communication.
just the earth being itself get real people.
The power of these disasters is unbelievable and the idea that they may be increasing in frequency and size is a scary thought but I think that the increase in deaths have to do with an increased population and the difficulty we have in giving aid the places like Haiti.
OMG the poor japans i feel so sorry and were doing language and learning japanese =[ good luck rebuilding =]
Poor japanese pplz i feel so sorry for dem im learning japanese at school and its horendous
if i knew the japanese national anthen i would sing
Reason for the increase is technology dipshits. no technology in the early 1900s.....but God bless Japan.
the world mite end 2012 and i am only 12 :(
i hope some onme could tell god face to face
we all wont the world to stay
we all from Guise Public School
wish the best for Japan.
..this is another challenge, not just for japanese people, but for the whole mankind, when natural calamity strikes, there is no assurance for safety even for the most high-tech gadgets that a man could possibly invent to detect or stop this disaster..yes, i mean it and im scared watching videos and viewing photos of horrible happenings of tsunami, for anytime at any place this could happen to us even we dont expect it, the world is changing and so humans adopt, but the question is, are we ready to face what lies ahead our future considering this changes??life has no warnings..we all gonna die and we all know that, the only thing we dont know is when will that happen and in what form of death it may be,im not threatening anyone, but i guess this is true,.. God Bless Us All..have faith guys,
Certainly some concerned people out there. Our lives will all end one day, for most of us we do not know the when or the how. It is sad that many in Japan have perished, lets hope that the goodness that resides within each of us rises to the surface and we all help without the usual total regard to self. Another opportunity for peoples the world over to assist unconditionally.
Yes I did feel the earth move on Friday, but "she who must be obeyed" said she didn't feel a thing !!
Japanese are good people. They are not aggressors or plunderers like westerners. I wonder why the God is testing them. Probably God wants to strengthen them. I wish them all the strength from God. Even we in India are facing problems from anti nationals in the form of terrorism. Anti social elements in Hyderabad of Andhra Pradesh are as bad as tsunami.
m.a.sastry
The more chanllenges come to the people who're most strong.. May god give more strength to japanese to come out of this sad moment and lets all put our hands together to show our humanity..
God please help Japan, They need you know more then ever! All we need is to pray, and it gets better for them.
we should have a massive day where everyone in the world dresses up as something to do with japan and put in a donation for them all.
nooooo.
we arn't gonna die. it's a myth. duhh!!!!!!
some people don't have brains. how stupid are they!!!
LOL!!!!
AND u "JOHN" if u don't have anthing sensible to say SHUTUP and u may not die [if ur lucky but ur stupid not lucky].
GET LOST JOHN
MALAYSIA GOVERNMENT! Pls learn the lesson, don be stupid and put Malaysians into trouble....
May ALL the Nations in the World will learn from this painful lessons. The price of having nuclear power plants is too expensive because it's going to sacrifice our life and future generation............PLS STOP HAVING THIS STUPID IDEA!
I felt so sad and sorry for th senior citizenz and the kids. MAY God's loving hand takes care of them!
chinga tu madre we are gonna die so vote for jay lo to be president and screw the world...
with love chiniqua (:
i love japanese people and i hope they are doing fine ): it brings tears to my eyes. SAVE ME SOME RICE!!!!!!!!!!!
and bring me some chicken
love you all ^.^
ZAMMMMMM ZEDDDDYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY THEY WENT HAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Bible might talk about earthquakes and waves, but it never says that Japan will be struck in 2011 or anything remotely specific like that. Besides, the worst event of the last thousand years was the Bubonic Plague, and that was 700 years ago.
http://www.wellnessstarts.com/lean-muscle-x-review.html
i am pray to japan inshaallah
Japan is asking for help, since it's been badly damaged and lots of people lost their homes. Japan was hit by 3 earthqakes , tsunami and a volcanic eruption was reported. They obviously need help! So currently people are trying to help Japan more than Africa.
i love japanese people and i hope they are doing fine ): it brings tears to my eyes. SAVE ME SOME RICE!!!!!!!!!!!
and bring me some chicken
hahahahaha global warming is stupid!
This is a very horrible tragedy. This could affect the global economy. I am at age 15 and i can see that this is a tragic thing. Half of the comments that I see is very horrible. The Japanese people are facing a crisis. This will affect the U.S. almost as much as Japan. Think, if a nuclear power plant exploded then do you think the radiation will just disappear. No it will radiate to the U.S. We need to think on how to avoid this. This tragedy will affect the life on this planet dramatically. Donât loose hope for improvement though.
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