Nova- Japan’s Killer Quake Movie Summary PDF

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Nova: Japan’s Killer Quake Movie SummaryMarch.11, 2011 2:46pm Japanese time:  Sixty miles of the east coast a massive earthquake starts.  Seismic waves travel towards the shore -The fastest waves called p waves travel at 4 miles a second -Fifteen seconds later they hit land.  Japans systems pick them up and warnings are sent out.  Sendia is 80 miles from the epicenter, for them there is barely a warning.  Next s waves hit the town, these shake the ground from side to side, these are the waves that make earthquakes so damaging. Seismic waves travel on:  93 miles southwest of the epicenter they slam into Fukushima Daichi, home to a nuclear power station housing 6 reactors.  Sensors at the plant shut down the reactors.  Reactors are on. Lockdown when s waves hit.  Reactor core was still hot, deiseal generators cool down the core.  The plant survives intact. Pacific tsunami warning center:  Scientist receive emergency alerts.  The earthquake passes 7 and keeps increasing.  Japan has never had an earthquake larger than 8.4. The source of the disaster:  62 miles off the coast of japan and 4 miles below the surface the earth is distorting, caught in a slow-motion collision.  The pacific plate is sliding under the Eurasian plate.  Over centuries stress builds up until the plates snap causing an earthquake. S waves reach Tokyo:  100 seconds since the fault slips the destructive s waves reach Tokyo, the city had 60 seconds warning.  The earthquake lasts five mins, scientists were surprised, usually they last seconds up to 1 min.  A tourist took a video of the ground cracking and liquid mud coming up.  Japan’s warning system works, scientist upgrade the quake to a magnitude 9. A tsunami is born:  The Eurasian plate is dragged down by the pacific plate grinding under it.  The upward motion of the Eurasian plate thrusts a 4-mile-deep mass of water upwards.  Wave race out across the ocean; one side takes off towards the pacific and the other heads towards the coast of japan.  Traveling over 500mph, taking just minutes to reach the coast.  The best warning system was the fact that there was an earthquake shortly before. Miyoko:  Miyoko had what they thought were good defenses against tsunamis

They had 30 ft walls, the tsunami hits and goes right over the walls, the tsunami was 30 ft high.  The shoreline had subsided, the earthquake caused the whole coastline to drop 3 feet lowering the walls and making the tsunami worse. The power plant is exposed:  The power plant had an 18 ft wall, but since the coastline dropped the waves smashed over the wall and flooded the diesel generators that were cooling the core. The water pulls back out to sea:  A suction is created pulling debris and unfortunately people out to sea. Fires rage out during the night:  Oil and broken gas lines set hundreds of square miles of debris on fire  In Tokyo the train system is paralyzed.  Millions sleep in offices until morning. Hawaii:  Detection centers are on alert.  Deep wave sensor readings suggest the wave is 3 feet high.  Hawaii issues an evacuation alert.  The 3-foot wave hits Hawaii.  There are millions of dollars in damage.  The wave pulls cars and houses out to sea  No one dies because of the warning. California:  Ten hours later and over 5,000 miles from the quake, now smaller and weaker the wave hits California.  The warning caused helped a lot there was little damage.  One person lost their life because they went to the beach to get photos of the wave. Back to Japan:  Cities off the coast the coast are affected not just the coastline.  Some towns were wiped off the map, populations were missing.  A mountain community was flooded, a new sea Salt Lake was formed. Reports from the field:  It’s not only water in the wave, its everything. it picks up along the way.  Rescue teams hunt for survivors and discover the dead, they also collect personal items. After shock hits Tokyo:  Within the week that followed the main quake there are more than 500 aftershocks.  Cracks open everywhere.  Magnitudes are recorded at 5,6, and 7. Millions are affected:  Death tolls are put at over 20 thousand.  Another threat could happen, the Philippian plate could slip, Tokyo could have a major event, which is very populate and would be very devastating. ...