Friday, March 11, 2011

津波

Eastern Japan earthquake-triggered tsunami washing ashore near Sendai (before the water became black with churned up soil, thick with debris of shredded houses and bobbing cars); seeing the speed of it - much faster than a person could run - we have a visual, too, belatedly, for the Indian Ocean tsunami. As new threats from tsunami to fires to failure at a nuclear plant occupy attention, I imagine we haven't begun to see the damage from the earthquake itself - and this in the land probably better prepared than any other for such calamity, from long experience with earthquakes. Mercifully the shock of a 20 foot drop across a 500 mile stretch of sea floor dispersed with less damage across the Pacific.(Source NOAA; check out this this eerily beautiful animation too.)