and since when its our fault that the world and their plate turns, so earthquakes are a usual thingy over there ? media always making such a big thing out of it. gosh, there may been many people injured or even dead, but well, they live with the earthquakes over there since many years and got used to it, so i dont understand why everybody is like "OMGOSH, THIS IS SO BAD!"

Over 300 dead already *Cries*

What can I say? I wish that, under these circumstances, the damage is as small as possible.

I've seen the pictures on tv, I know "small" isn't like small, but not getting too big...

I hope there won't be many more that died, and most are safe now.

Quote from reason0809 :

and since when its our fault that the world and their plate turns, so earthquakes are a usual thingy over there ? media always making such a big thing out of it. gosh, there may been many people injured or even dead, but well, they live with the earthquakes over there since many years and got used to it, so i dont understand why everybody is like "OMGOSH, THIS IS SO BAD!"

so we are not allowed to have sympathy? you are one twisted person.

sure you are, as i wrote above i'm getting sick of the MEDIA making such a huge thing out of it. if the really care about dead or injured people, they should broadcast from africa day by day, but they dont, because they got used to the fact, that many people die there because of hunger. but if somewhere is an earthquake (which is normal progress when earth turns) they cant have enough broadcasts and tv channels in the epicenter

Quote from reason0809 :

and since when its our fault that the world and their plate turns, so earthquakes are a usual thingy over there ? media always making such a big thing out of it. gosh, there may been many people injured or even dead, but well, they live with the earthquakes over there since many years and got used to it, so i dont understand why everybody is like "OMGOSH, THIS IS SO BAD!"

that's the way media works, everyone wants to have their part of somewhat big news. no one cares about dying africans in the news because its so old news already and nothing new to know about.

Quote from Tomba(FIN) :

because its so old news already and nothing new to know about.

thats the point i was going to mention, since earthquakes or tsunamis arent that new anymore in this region aswell

This is the biggest Earthquake ever recorded for Japan, and 8.9 is absolutely massive. The Richter scale is misleading, 8.9 is a very very big deal, if that had been somewhere where they don't usually get big earthquakes, like Europe, that quake would easily have ripped down almost every building.

Quote from reason0809 :

sure you are, as i wrote above i'm getting sick of the MEDIA making such a huge thing out of it. if the really care about dead or injured people, they should broadcast from africa day by day, but they dont, because they got used to the fact, that many people die there because of hunger. but if somewhere is an earthquake (which is normal progress when earth turns) they cant have enough broadcasts and tv channels in the epicenter

well if theres a earthquake there everyday it won't be hitting the news very long, a single incident will of course get more attention over prolonged situations, news are for reporting recent incidents, if you want to care about the situation in Africa you should watch documentaries - another type of media that focuses on lengthy studying and analysis.

simply put, you are reading a small part of the media as the whole.

Quote from reason0809 :

thats the point i was going to mention, since earthquakes or tsunamis arent that new anymore in this region aswell

err no every quake is different, because it affects people differently, people are eager to know about the degree devastation and impact. The event of earthquake itself is nothing new, but what we are trying to understand isn't a geographic routine, but a social phenomen.

and there's nothing entirely new in news, that's not the point, as long as it is recent and have an impact, it should get attention. by your logic we should cut all news about civil wars, murder, robbery, kidnapping and oh starvation too.....cause starvation is really old.

if a quake of equal measure happens in the middle of nowhere and killed two buffaloes, nobody will give a shit.

Oh my god, the video of the wave sweeping inland is crazy..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709850

Quote from AtomAnt :

DUSTIN..don't be silly and think this won't affect BC...the early warning bouys have lit up.

I'm on the east coast of Vancouver Island. I am safe as I have an entire island shielding me.. plus some large ass mountains in the way too.

Quote from Crashgate3 :

Oh my god, the video of the wave sweeping inland is crazy..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709850

so much force in that body of water. everything is swept away like toys.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

plus some large ass mountains in the way too.

Mmmm... ass mountains...

Quote from DeKo :

This is the biggest Earthquake ever recorded for Japan, and 8.9 is absolutely massive. The Richter scale is misleading, 8.9 is a very very big deal, if that had been somewhere where they don't usually get big earthquakes, like Europe, that quake would easily have ripped down almost every building.

Also the 5th biggest Earthquake ever recorded on Earth so far, some source say.

And indeed, Richter scale is quite misleading.

Quote :

It is a base-10 logarithmic scale obtained by calculating the logarithm of the combined horizontal amplitude (shaking amplitude) of the largest displacement from zero on a particular type of seismometer (Wood–Anderson torsion). So, for example, an earthquake that measures 5.0 on the Richter scale has a shaking amplitude 10 times larger than one that measures 4.0. The effective upper limit of measurement for local magnitude ML is just below 9 for local magnitudes and just below 10 for moment magnitude when applied to large earthquakes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale

http://www.youtube.com/citizentube?feature=ticker


Some eyewitness footage.

My Dad is in Yokohama at the moment. Apparently it was a very large one, even there. People running out of factories and buildings. Even in his hotel (around 200 miles from the epicentre) there are hundreds of refugees camping in the foyer. It's awful, really is.

The pain is still fresh and deep...

1999 Izmit / Turkey Earthquake
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/geology/turkey/index.php

Update from the BBC:

1818: Some reports from local US media of the tsunami's arrival on the US West Coast: Joe Vazquez from CBS5 tweets: "Second tsunami surge now hitting Santa Cruz. CBS5 reporting a dozen or so sunken boats. County spokesman says at least $2m damage." KGO Radio tweets: "Crescent City OES: All docks are gone after first surge, 35 boats crushed, water starting to fill harbor parking lot."

This is so wrong, but I still lol'd.

All i can say is at least it was a side to side earthquake and not a up and down earthquake.

Quote from mutt107 :

All i can say is at least it was a side to side earthquake and not a up and down earthquake.

In some places a mere hundreds of kilometres away from the epicentre there was up and down movement registered.
Some of it was inland.

Quote from JPeace :

Zomg its the beginning of the end of the world!!!111oneoneelleven!!!112

i lol'd

I just rang my Japanese friend to make sure he was okay after the Tsunami and all he did was go on about his social life.

He just kept going on and on about a huge rave

Tell him its actually a "wave".