The earth moved

Years ago, I fought the helm of a small boat in a coastal gale. With each new wave, the boat twisted, shuddered and rolled under us; the water pounded the windows of the pilot house, dribbling through cracks in the old wood frames. Rising to the crest of the next wave, the bow steadied for a second, and I caught my breath again, just in time for the next sideways skew and dive. The muscles in my arms ached. I wasn't sure we would make it into port; nor was my companion, the boat's owner, he told me later.

On that trip, I realized, not for the first time, the power of the ocean, and our utter frailty; we were no more than a leaf tossed in the wind; in spite of all our struggles, the wind and waves would make the decisions for us.

I get that same feeling now, reading the news. Yesterday, I watched entire buildings sailing down the stream, semi trucks rolled and up-ended, boats lifted onto roadways. Now, I just learned that yesterday's earthquake shifted the island of Japan 8 feet. A whole nation, Mount Fuji and all her colleagues, deltas and valleys and forests, huge cities; pushed aside, as by a careless hand. 8 whole feet!

But that's minor.

Reports from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy estimated the 8.9-magnitude quake shifted the planet on its axis by nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters).
(From CNN)

I can't get my head around this. How can this be? How, and we not notice it? What next?

And then, about an hour ago, the outer shell of one of the nuclear reactors affected by the quake, exploded. There is talk of leakage, "meltdown", rising radiation levels.

This, we partially did to ourselves. But the laws of physics have taken control. The Japanese can fight it, but it's really out of their hands.

This is frightening.

There's more in the offing. I still keep thinking of all those little island nations in the Pacific. Are they still there? Are there survivors? I haven't seen any mention of them. How about Indonesia, the Phillipines? Hawaii was spared; are there others?

And all we can do now is steer for harbour, hoping.

I don't know what are the best ways to help at the moment. Here are a few I found:

Red Cross: Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 from your phone. This will donate to the general Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, so if you want to ensure that it goes to Japan specifically, donate from their Web site.
Salvation Army: To contribute to earthquake relief, text 'JAPAN' or 'QUAKE' to 80888 to make a $10 donation or visit SalvationArmyUSA.org.
From Watching the ripples ...

And Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) is attempting to reach the worst hit areas of northeast Japan by helicopter, to bring medical aid. I will be sending my donation there.

Tsunami!

Tsunami! And an earthquake calculated at a magnitude of 8.9, one of the largest ever measured.

Just in case you haven't been following the news, no, that's not here. The earthquake was under the sea some 400 km. east of Japan, and the first wave of the tsunami hit Sendai, on Japan's eastern shore, with a 20 foot wall of water, sweeping houses, trucks, boats and debris far inland. An oil refinery was damaged and is burning out of control. Huge tracts of farmland in the delta were destroyed; salted, oiled, covered with debris, churned up, the greenhouses demolished; this will have severe repercussions on the population later on.

Japan is accustomed to earthquakes, and the buildings are built to resist them. Still, in the videos from the air, you can see entire houses being swept along on the wave, some of them burning as they go.

Now, as Sendai catches its breath, other earthquakes have struck. Smaller ones, but still dangerous around a magnitude of 6 or more. More are expected. And the tsunami moves on, heading south towards the rest of Japan, then,

A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR
 JAPAN / RUSSIA / MARCUS IS. / N. MARIANAS / GUAM / WAKE IS. /
 TAIWAN / YAP / PHILIPPINES / MARSHALL IS. / BELAU / MIDWAY IS. /
 POHNPEI / CHUUK / KOSRAE / INDONESIA / PAPUA NEW GUINEA /
 NAURU / JOHNSTON IS. / SOLOMON IS. / KIRIBATI / HOWLAND-BAKER /
 HAWAII / TUVALU / PALMYRA IS. / VANUATU / TOKELAU / JARVIS IS. /
 WALLIS-FUTUNA / SAMOA / AMERICAN SAMOA / COOK ISLANDS / NIUE /
 AUSTRALIA / FIJI / NEW CALEDONIA / TONGA / MEXICO /
 KERMADEC IS / FR. POLYNESIA / NEW ZEALAND / PITCAIRN /
 GUATEMALA / EL SALVADOR / COSTA RICA / NICARAGUA / ANTARCTICA /
 PANAMA / HONDURAS / CHILE / ECUADOR / COLOMBIA / PERU
(from here) 

From Twitter (GrrlScientist),

red cross says biggest worry now is tsunamis could be taller than some pacific islands

and I see the name, Kiribati, in the list of warnings. Remember Kiribati? NPR had a story on it recently; the sea has been swallowing the atoll nation. Average height above sea level: 6.5 feet. Even a tiny tsunami would be frightening there.

These small island nations, including Indonesia, are not as prepared for a tsunami as Japan is; some people may not even hear the warnings. This is worrisome.

Hawaii is evacuating low-lying shores. The tsunami will be smaller by the time it gets there, but still may be dangerous. They still have a few hours to batten things down and get out of range. What may be a factor in the height of the waves is that they suffered a small earthquake a couple of hours ago, too.

And then, on to the west coast of South America, hopefully weakened enough to simulate a high tide, and not much more. If and when it gets here, around 5:30 this morning, we may not even notice; 1 foot rise is predicted.

I've been watching the news unfold all night, on AlJazeera English, and BBC News, and on Twitter. The full impact, even limited to the first strike, will not be known, though, for weeks.

Update, also from GrrlScientist:

coolant H2O cannot be pumped into tokyo power company no1 nuclear reactor, now experiencing nuclear emergency situation @AJEnglish

Update #2: First wave at Midway was 8 feet high. About 1900 km northeast of Hawaii.

This is going to be a very difficult time for many people. I hope there will be some way for us to help.