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Huge iceberg drifts close to Greenland village, causing fears of a tsunami

Credit: Ritzau Scanpix/Magnus Kristensen via Reuters

The photo lends a new meaning to the old cliché "tip of the iceberg." Via Thomson Reuters: Huge iceberg drifts close to Greenland village, causing fears of a tsunami.

An iceberg the size of a hill has drifted close to a tiny village on the western coast of Greenland, causing fear that it could swamp the settlement with a tsunami if it calves.  

The iceberg towers over houses on a promontory in the village of Innaarsuit but it is grounded and has not moved overnight, state broadcaster KNR reported.  

A danger zone close to the coast has been evacuated and people have been moved further up a steep slope where the settlement lies, a Greenland police spokesman told Reuters. 

"We can feel the concern among the residents. We are used to big icebergs, but we haven't seen such a big one before," Susanna Eliassen, a member of the village council in Innaarsuit, told KNR. 

The government and police are on high alert and have moved a search-and-rescue (SAR) helicopter closer to the remote village with about 170 inhabitants.

Earthquake, tsunami, dead schoolchildren: A lesson for BC

The Tyee has published my review of Richard Lloyd Parry's book Ghosts of the Tsunami: Earthquake, Tsunami, Dead Schoolchildren: A Lesson for BC. Excerpt:

Stress can often reveal an individual’s true character. By the same token, a natural disaster can reveal something of a country’s true character. In the case of the magnitude-9.5 Japanese earthquake of March 11, 2011, both individual and national character were stressed as they had not been since the end of the Second World War. As B.C. faces the prospect of a similar disaster, we may learn something from the Japanese experience.  

Richard Lloyd Parry was in a particularly good position to study the effects of that stress and write about it in Ghosts of the Tsunami. A longtime resident of Japan, Lloyd Parry is the Asia correspondent for The Times, and he speaks fluent Japanese. When the quake hit, as he describes it, he was at work in a Tokyo high-rise office building. It came through with only minor damage. It had been designed to; Japan’s building codes require the highest standards. 

Yet at the same time, Tokyo knows it will someday face a major quake right beneath it, and thousands will die despite those standards. How will the survivors respond?  

Lloyd Parry explores possible answers to that question by focusing on just one incident in the March 11 catastrophe: the deaths of 74 schoolchildren and most of their teachers, who ignored urgent warnings and then marched the children right into the oncoming tsunami.  

Out of almost 20,000 deaths, this handful seems negligible. But as Lloyd Parry observes, the safest place to be in a Japanese earthquake is a building, and the safest building to be in is a Japanese school. Okawa Elementary was just such a school, and its staff conducted regular drills. On March 9, a smaller quake led to the orderly evacuation of the school just as everyone had been trained to do.  

But they had not been trained to cope with a tsunami, and the school’s emergency planning said nothing about it. So on March 11, teachers and kids stood in the school playground on a cold, snowy afternoon, right at the foot of a hill they could have climbed to reach safety. A few parents arrived to pick up their own children, but the rest stood and waited — even when a car full of municipal officials drove by, urging them to get to high ground. 

Follow the plan 

This was part of the cultural response to disaster: follow the plan, obey orders, and expect everything will work out. But another part of the cultural response was based on the belief that tsunamis, in this part of northeast Japan, were strictly a problem for ports and shorelines. The school was well inland, so it couldn’t be in danger. 

When the teachers finally decided to move the students, it was to a nearby traffic island. To get there, they walked down a street just as the tsunami was coming up it. Only a few students and one teacher survived, having turned and run for the hill behind the school.

Fukushima's long road to recovery

On the seventh anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, a BBC News report: Fukushima's long road to recovery. Excerpt:

It was supposed to be a day of celebration. But Rio Watanabe's graduation ceremony became memorable for all the wrong reasons. 

Mr Watanabe, who was just 23 years old at the time, was in Tokyo when the ground started to shake. Japan is used to earthquakes. It experiences more than 100,000 of them every year, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.  

But the tremors on 11 March 2011 were so violent that Mr Watanabe thought Tokyo was at its epicentre. 

When he realised that they originated 200 miles north of the capital, his thoughts quickly turned to his family in Fukushima, and the Sansuiso Inn run by his father. 

The hot spring's location in the mountains meant it escaped the devastation wrought by the magnitude seven earthquake and tsunami which followed.  

However, a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant sparked fears of contamination, and the spa resort quickly emptied.

Mr Watanabe still remembers how suddenly things changed. "We suffered heavily after the nuclear blast, and all of our bookings were cancelled."  

Seven years on and the hotel's operating profits have not recovered to levels seen before the disaster struck. 

Mr Watanabe says: "Some guests still talk about the nuclear disaster. There is still a negative image about Fukushima, and it's been painful for all of us in this community." 

The tsunami killed almost 16,000 people and forced the country to rethink its energy policy. 

Seven years on and the scars of the 2011 disaster remain. Abandoned houses are obscured by unruly branches and overgrown hedges. Even the vending machines are ignored. But there are also tales of resilience. 

Mr Watanabe had always planned to return to the Sansuiso Inn in Fukushima to help run the hotel with his father. 

He says: "My future was suddenly destroyed and cut off, and I felt so disappointed. It was such as shock."  

But the disaster also brought the community together. Mr Watanabe joined forces with other hot spring owners in the area to form Genki Up Tsuchiyu. "Re-energizing Tsuchiyu" is designed to promote activities in the area and bring the community together.

Tsunami warning ends for BC after large earthquake strikes off Alaska

Via CBC News British Columbia: Tsunami warning ends for B.C. after large earthquake strikes off Alaska. Excerpt:

A tsunami warning for coastal British Columbia and parts of Alaska has ended after a powerful earthquake struck about 250 kilometres southeast of Chiniak, Alaska, early today. 

The quake struck at 1:31 a.m. PT Tuesday and prompted a tsunami warning for the entire B.C. coast and a tsunami watch for the entire U.S. West Coast.

In Tofino, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, warning sirens were activated on the two main beaches in town, and people began evacuating to the emergency reception centres at the community hall and elementary school. 

"Everything has proceeded in a really orderly fashion," said Tofino Mayor Josie Osborn. "This is why we train, this is why we do exercises and this is why spend time making emergency plans and then testing them."  

The provincial emergency systems worked the way it was supposed to, said B.C.'s public safety minister. 

"Whether it was in Esquimault where we saw firefighters and first responders going door to door, or... Queen Charlotte City which was fully evacuated, or the sirens in Tofino and Ucluelet, and people going to their local emergency centres, people responded admirably and I think the emergency services did a remarkable job," said Mike Farnworth.

Tsunami warning on BC coast after large earthquake southeast of Alaska

Credit: CBC

Via CBC News British Columbia: Tsunami warning on B.C. coast after large earthquake southeast of Alaska. Excerpt:

A tsunami warning is in effect for coastal British Columbia and parts of Alaska after a powerful earthquake struck, about 250 kilometres southeast of Chiniak, Alaska. 

The quake struck at 1:31 a.m. PT Tuesday and prompted a tsunami warning for the entire B.C. coast and a tsunami watch for the entire U.S. west coast, the U.S. Tsunami Warning System said.  

The U.S. Geological Survey initially reported the quake's strength at 8.2 early Tuesday and later revised that to 7.9 with a depth of 25 kilometres. At least three aftershocks have been reported. 

Environment Canada says the tsunami warning covers the Central Coast and Northeast Vancouver Island coast, including Kitimat Bella Coola and Port Hardy. 

The weather agency says people in coastal areas are at risk and should move to high ground now and heed further instruction from local authorities.  

Emergency Info BC, directed by the province's lead agency for disaster management, says there is also a tsunami warning in effect for the Juan de Fuca Strait coast, the outer west coast of Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii. The warning did not include Vancouver.  

The emergency agency for Tofino, B.C. on Vancouver Island tweeted a photo of people gathering in an evacuation centre. Tofino Emergency said the first wave was due to arrive at 3:40 a.m. PT. 

Tsunami sirens went off on two of the main beaches of the town, where most resorts are located and where many residents live, said Dan Banks, a public works employee in Tofino.

Mike Coston at Avian Flu Diary has a post on this event. All is well here in Vancouver, and we're not at risk of a tsunami. More to come.

Ash-spewing volcano in Papua New Guinea forces villagers to flee

Via Thomson Reuters: Ash-spewing volcano in Papua New Guinea forces villagers to flee. Excerpt:

A remote island volcano in Papua New Guinea has begun spewing ash into the air, forcing the evacuation of more than 500 residents, media and non-profit groups have said. 

Kadovar Island, a 365-metre (1,197-ft) -tall volcano on the north coast of PNG, was thought to be dormant until it began erupting on January 5. 

"It's just a continuous emission of volcanic ash at the moment," Cheyne O'Brien, a forecaster at the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, told Reuters by telephone on Sunday. 

The ash clouds have been thrown up steadily to a height of 2,133 meters (7,000 feet), forming a plume that is travelling west-northwest, he added. 

The plume does not yet pose a hazard to aviation, but a change in wind direction could hit operations at PNG's Wewak airport, O'Brien said. 

All residents of the island have been evacuated with no loss of life, U.S.-based charity Samaritan Aviation, which operates seaplanes to remote areas of PNG, said on Facebook.  

"We do not have any details yet as to where all of the families have gone and hope to have further information in the near future," the non-profit added.  

Reuters could not immediately reach authorities in Papua New Guinea by telephone for comment. 

The population of the island ranges from at least 500 to more than 600, media have estimated. 

The eruption may become explosive, bringing a risk of tsunamis and landslides, domestic online media Loop PNG quoted the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory as saying.

Indonesia: Tsunami warning after earthquake off southern Java

Via the Jakarta Globe: Tsunami Warning After Earthquake Off Southern Java.

Jakarta. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, or BMKG, issued a tsunami warning after an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck off the coast of West Java on Friday night (15/12). 

The warning is for the southern coast of Central Java and West Java. 

The epicenter was at the Indian Ocean's floor, at a depth of 105 kilometers, 43 kilometers southwest of Tasikmalaya and 48 kilometers southwest of Sukabumi — both in West Java.  

The quake was followed by another with a magnitude of 6.9. Each lasted about a minute.  

According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head Sutopo Nugroho, several houses collapsed in Tasikmalaya. The agency is now assessing the situation.  

BNPT Central Java head Sarwa told Kompas TV that seawater entered the streets in the districts of Kebumen and Cilacap in Central Java.  

Residents have been ordered to leave high-rise buildings until further notice.  

Strong tremors were recorded in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bandung and Depok (West Java), Karangkates, Ngawi, Madiun and Nganjuk (East Java), Badung (Bali) and Mataram (West Nusa Tenggara).

Six years after Fukushima, robots finally find reactors’ melted uranium fuel

Via The New York Times: Six Years After Fukushima, Robots Finally Find Reactors’ Melted Uranium Fuel. Click or tap through for the full report with photos and a video. Excerpt:

FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER PLANT, Japan — Four engineers hunched before a bank of monitors, one holding what looked like a game controller. They had spent a month training for what they were about to do: pilot a small robot into the contaminated heart of the ruined Fukushima nuclear plant.  

Earlier robots had failed, getting caught on debris or suffering circuit malfunctions from excess radiation. But the newer version, called the Mini-Manbo, or “little sunfish,” was made of radiation-hardened materials with a sensor to help it avoid dangerous hot spots in the plant’s flooded reactor buildings.  

The size of a shoe box, the Manbo used tiny propellers to hover and glide through water in a manner similar to an aerial drone. 

After three days of carefully navigating through a shattered reactor building, the Manbo finally reached the heavily damaged Unit 3 reactor. There, the robot beamed back video of a gaping hole at the bottom of the reactor and, on the floor beneath it, clumps of what looked like solidified lava: the first images ever taken of the plant’s melted uranium fuel.  

The discovery in July at Unit 3, and similar successes this year in locating the fuel of the plant’s other two ruined reactors, mark what Japanese officials hope will prove to be a turning point in the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl. 

The fate of the fuel had been one of the most enduring mysteries of the catastrophe, which occurred on March 11, 2011, when an earthquake and 50-foot tsunami knocked out vital cooling systems here at the plant.  

Left to overheat, three of the six reactors melted down. Their uranium fuel rods liquefied like candle wax, dripping to the bottom of the reactor vessels in a molten mass hot enough to burn through the steel walls and even penetrate the concrete floors below. 

No one knew for sure exactly how far those molten fuel cores had traveled before desperate plant workers — later celebrated as the “Fukushima Fifty” — were able to cool them again by pumping water into the reactor buildings. With radiation levels so high, the fate of the fuel remained unknown.

Massive earthquake hits Mexico, killing several, sparking tsunami warning

If I were writing a disaster thriller about three simultaneous hurricanes, throwing in an 8.1 earthquake would strain my readers' credulity. Reality knows no such constraints. Via The Globe and Mail, an Associated Press report: Massive earthquake hits Mexico, killing several, sparking tsunami warning. Excerpt and then a comment:

A massive 8.1-magnitude earthquake hit off Mexico's southern coast, toppling houses in Chiapas state, causing at least five deaths and causing tsunami waves, officials said Friday. 

The quake was so strong that it caused buildings to sway violently in Mexico's capital more than 1,000 kilometres (650 miles) away. Residents fled buildings, many in their pyjamas, and gathered in frightened groups in the street. Some neighbourhoods remained in darkness after electricity was knocked out.  

"The house moved like chewing gum and the light and internet went out momentarily," said Rodrigo Soberanes, who lives near San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, a poor, largely indigenous state popular with tourists.  

Chiapas Gov. Manuel Velasco said that three people were killed in San Cristobal, including two women who died in San Cristobal when a house and a wall collapsed. He called on people living near the coast to leave their houses as a protective measure. 

"There is damage to hospitals that have lost energy," he said. "Homes, schools and hospitals have been damaged." 

Tabasco Gov. Arturo Nunez said two children had died in his state. One of them was killed when a wall collapsed, and the other was a baby who died in a children's hospital that lost electricity, cutting off the infant's ventilator. 

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 11:49 p.m. Thursday local time and its epicenter was 165 kilometres (102 miles) west of Tapachula in Chiapas not far from Guatemala. It had a depth of 69.7 kilometres (43.31 miles).  

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says waves of one meter (3.3 feet) above the tide level were measured off Salina Cruz, Mexico. Smaller tsunami waves were observed on the coast or measured by ocean gauges in several other places. The centre's forecast said Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala could see waves of a meter or less. No threat was posed to Hawaii and the western and South Pacific.  

Earlier, the U.S. Tsunami Warning System said hazardous tsunami waves were possible on the Pacific coasts of several Central American countries, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras. 

Civil Defence in Chiapas said on its Twitter account that its personnel were in the streets aiding people and warned residents to prepare for aftershocks.

Credit: Mexico City Guide.com

Sixty years ago, on July 29, 1957, I lived through a big quake in Mexico City. The city suffered considerable damage as buildings collapsed, but the toppling of the golden Angel of Independence from its pillar on the Paseo de La Reforma was the damage most Mexicans took to heart.

Social capital and cognitive decline after the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami

Via The Lancet Planetary Health: Social capital and cognitive decline in the aftermath of a natural disaster: a natural experiment from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The summary:

Background 

No previous studies have examined that social capital mitigates impacts of natural disaster experiences on cognitive function. We aimed to examine prospectively whether social capital mitigates the adverse effects of natural disaster on cognitive decline.  

Methods 

In this natural experiment, the baseline for our study was established 7 months before the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in a survey of older community-dwelling adults who lived 80 km west of the epicentre (59·0% response rate). About 2 and a half years after the disaster, which occurred on March 11, 2011, the follow-up survey collected information about personal experiences of disaster as well as incidence of cognitive disability. Our primary outcome was cognitive disability (measured on an 8-level scale) assessed by in-home assessment. 

Findings 

We obtained 5058 respondents at the baseline survey (59·0% response rate) and re-contacted 3594 survivors in the follow-up survey (82·1% follow-up rate). The experience of housing damage was associated with risk of cognitive impairment (coefficient 0·05 [95% CI 0·03 to 0·07]). Factor analysis of our analytical sample (n=3566) established two subscales of social capital: a cognitive dimension (perceptions of community social cohesion) and a structural dimension (informal socialising and social participation). Fixed effects regression indicated that improved informal socialising and social participation mitigated the risk of cognitive decline due to housing damage (coefficient −0·10 [95% CI −0·14 to −0·05]) and deteriorating informal socialising and social participation aggravated the effect of housing damage on cognitive decline (coefficient 0·04 [0·01 to 0·07]).  

Interpretation 

Improved informal socialising and social participation reduce the risk of cognitive decline due to housing damage in the aftermath of natural disasters. Interventions to promote civic participation should be tried to promote cognitive resilience of older survivors.