Dramatic before-and-after images of the Japan tsunami devastation

March 14, 2011 by  
Filed under Patrick's Blog

This morning, I came across these astonishing before-and-after images of the desolation left in the wake of the Friday’s annihilating tsunami in Japan. Trust me. You’ll want to see these.

In the days since the mega-quake struck, the world has in horrified fascination watched the videos of the 9.0 catastrophe. What the earthquake did not destroy, the resulting tsunami certainly did. And what’s left that the tsunami did not destroy, the melting-down Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor very well could, should things continue to deteriorate there.

Let’s not forget that what happened in Japan could, may God forbid it, easily happen along America’s West Coast, or in the New Madrid quake zone, or for that matter, anywhere along any coastline here. The tsunami destroyed a relatively rural and comparatively sparsely populated area of Japan (compared, say, to population centers such as Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, or Hiroshima). Just imagine what that same tsunami would do if it hit with the same force, say, Long Beach or Santa Monica, California. The problem is, if a tsunami ever does hit the California coast, it won’t take out isolated areas. It would devastate hundreds of miles of coastal cities, from San Diego to San Francisco.

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3 Responses to “Dramatic before-and-after images of the Japan tsunami devastation”
  1. Just about all I will mention is the fact that this is really a awful occurrence that can surely have globally side effects.

  2. April H. says:

    Thanks for posting the link to those photos. Does anyone know how much time elapsed between the earthquake and when the tsumani hit? Did they have any warning?

  3. Yes, God forbid.
    But remember, risk is universal.

    Some of the largest earthquakes ever to hit North America were in the upper Midwest in the early 19th Century.

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/earthquakes-midwest.html

    When (not if) those plates rupture again, none of the river or plains cities there have been developed with a long-view to seismic safety.

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