Prayers for all our Japanese friends

[Dermott of LS]

...

Gotcha. I was hearing it on the radio the day of the quake, so yeah they may have been misinformed by that point. Still, the geological effects of the quake are simply insane to try and understand.

 

[Vlaude]

I've been lucky to visit Japan a couple times and everyone I met was wonderful. This has been a tragedy and I mourn with those who have lost loved ones. May they rest in peace.

 

[Yalp]

It also changed the spinning rotation of the earth, I think we gained some minuscule amount of time, but STILL!

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Nope, we lost 1.8 microseconds (the earth is spinning just a wee bit faster).

 

[Zosimus]

* Geophysicist Richard Gross of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, has estimated that the Japanese earthquake shortened the Earth's day by 1.8 microseconds. Gross also said that the axis of the Earth probably shifted about 6.5 inches, which affects how it rotates, but not its position or movement in space


* The shift of the Earth's axis and loss of time is similar to that experienced after the Chilean earthquake last year, which sped up the Earth's rotation and resulted in the loss of 1.26 microseconds.


* The loss of 1.8 microseconds as a result of the shift in the Earth's axis is unlikely to cause more than minute changes, but among those changes will actually be differences in the passing of the seasons. This will only be observable using satellite navigation systems with very precise monitoring equipment

 

[athos_uo]

I pray you are all safe.

I'd like to write a little about my personal things.

My mother, my brother and his family live in Tokyo. His wife's parents and her sister's family live in Ishinomaki.

I couldn't get contact with my mother and brother on the first day of the disaster. It was reported that they had a blackout in the wide area in Tokyo too. I could get contact with my mother on the next day at last and could hear that she was safe and OK and had no blackout in her place. I could take a half load off my mind at this time.

Ishinomaki is the very area where the disaster hit right, and was wiped out through the Tsunami. My brother's wife couldn't get any contact with her mother and sister in Ishinomaki and can't yet. This is a load of care on my mind.

I couldn't tear myself away from the television. The news looked like a movie, but they are a real disaster.

Accidents of Fukushima nuclear power plants take the spot now. These are themselves of great consequence, but I'm worried that rescue operations of sufferers might be put off until later.

I hope that people left behind on roofs or on the heights will be rescued as soon as possible, and will be kept from harm.

Thanks again, my friends, your thoughts and prayers reach us.

 

[kelmo]

Athos, my friend. Almost every long time player has connections or knows players from Japan. Many of us are riveted to the news as you are.

This is not just a Japanese catastrophe. This effects the entire world, and even our little part of it here in game.

Yes. This is UO topical. It involves real people with real feelings. If the fortunes were reversed, I am certain that UO Asia would be reaching out to us.

The loss of life, homes, and all else may seem overwhelming... If Stratics can bring any sense of comfort, familiarity or normalcy. We are here.

 

[Flutter]

I pray you are all safe.

I'd like to write a little about my personal things.

My mother, my brother and his family live in Tokyo. His wife's parents and her sister's family live in Ishinomaki.

I couldn't get contact with my mother and brother on the first day of the disaster. It was reported that they had a blackout in the wide area in Tokyo too. I could get contact with my mother on the next day at last and could hear that she was safe and OK and had no blackout in her place. I could take a half load off my mind at this time.

Ishinomaki is the very area where the disaster hit right, and was wiped out through the Tsunami. My brother's wife couldn't get any contact with her mother and sister in Ishinomaki and can't yet. This is a load of care on my mind.

I couldn't tear myself away from the television. The news looked like a movie, but they are a real disaster.

Accidents of Fukushima nuclear power plants take the spot now. These are themselves of great consequence, but I'm worried that rescue operations of sufferers might be put off until later.

I hope that people left behind on roofs or on the heights will be rescued as soon as possible, and will be kept from harm.

Thanks again, my friends, your thoughts and prayers reach us.

Much love Athos. I continue to pray.

 

[Basara]

...

Gotcha. I was hearing it on the radio the day of the quake, so yeah they may have been misinformed by that point. Still, the geological effects of the quake are simply insane to try and understand.

Actually, I did find out where the "50 miles" reference came from. That's the width of the actual seafloor area where the Pacific Plate and the Asian Plate overlap, creating the fault system. The actual rip in the surface of the seafloor measured in the meters in width, but you ended up with a lot of elevation changes within that 50 miles, due to some areas being forced higher, and others downward. The source for the radio managed to confuse the two similar-sounding references.

In fact, the deformation of the plates is such that some of the scientists think that parts of Japan had been bowed up (like a card being arched) by the stress, and leveled back out after the quake, returning thousands of acres of farm and city coastal land to below sea level. So, some of the flooded areas WON'T drain, without construction of dikes and pumps. Similar land shifts in South America occurred from the Chilean quake of 50 years ago, that was about the same size as this one (comparison isn't exact, as the Magnitude Scale was altered somewhat from Richter's original concept in the 90s, in order to take into account modern science).

One prominent geophysicist got so flustered on TV (I believe it was on the Weather Channel, which has also covered Earthquake reports about since it first came on the air) that when trying to show the effects, he called the "Asian Plate" the "North American Plate" several times, as he'd primarily been studying the chance of a quake just like this one occurring on the Cascadia Subduction Zone. I saw similar (though not as obvious - this guy was stading in front of a greenscreen of the Asian/Pacific diagram) gaffes on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, so it wasn't a single network finding dubious sources, but instead the magnitude (pardon the pun) of this event startling the geophysical community in general.

 

[old gypsy]

I've been following the news on this, and it's truly heartbreaking. So many lives lost!

 

[Siteswap]

I dont hold too much sway in prayer, but wish the people of Japan a speedy recovery and my condolences at their loss...