7.0 quiake hits Japan
 

(CNN) -- A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Japan's Ryukyu Islands early Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

Soon after the 5:31 a.m. (3:31 p.m. Friday ET) quake, Japan's Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory, recommending that people on the Okinawa Islands evacuate from the seashore. The advisory also affected the Amami Islands and Tokara Islands.

The agency said the expected tsunami height was about 0.5 meters, or 20 inches.

The quake was centered about 6 miles (10 km) deep, about 53 miles (85 km) from Okinawa.

The quake was felt on Okinawa, with shaking that lasted about 15 seconds, said Lt. Col. Daniel King of the U.S. Pacific Command.

He told CNN that commanders in Japan and Hawaii were trying to get damage and casualty reports from U.S. military stations on Okinawa but had heard nothing in the immediate aftermath.

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I have 2 family members stationed there...please pray for them

scary! i hope that there won't be another huge disaster.

The first thing I thought was "Oh crap, not again!" But there doesn't seem to be any major damage, thank God. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100226/..._quake_japan_3

i lived on Okinawa for a year. unlike Haiti, the buildings are all pretty sturdy and the Japanese are better prepared for earthquakes.

they're probably more worried about US-Japanese relations concerning military presence on the island.

I am mad that this thread has ads in Japanese

No damage? Darn, there went my idea to go to Japan and steal orphans in the name of Jesus.

LOL.

And no song remakes...

"We are the World" was done in Spanish. It can also be done in Japanese. :eek:

Anime version:

There comes a time when we heed a certain call

When the world must come together as one.
There are spirits flying
The earth shakes the sky and land
To life - we heed the fire gods call

We can't go on pretending day by day
The path she walks will make us change
We are all a part of God's great big famine

And the truth
You know
Love is all we need.

We are the world
We are the children

We are the ones who make a brighter day

So let's start giving.
There's a voice up high we’re giving
We're creating our own eyes
It's true
We'll make a better day
Just you and me.

I just heard about this, and I hope everything is okay. My brother has been stationed in Okinawa twice, and I believe he has requested to return.

My aunt has tried continuously to call and so far lines are jammed.

To be expected I guess.

And people wonder why I spend so much time here? y'all crack me up!

Everyone is ok!! A little frightened and some damage but nobody hurt!

These disasters are starting to happen too close to one another. I hope "2012" isn't something that might actually happen.:(

Yeaaa! :D I'm so happy for your family, DS!

But keep in mind earthquakes aren't disasters- unless the construction is poor. The Japanese earthquake is in stark contrast to the Haiti earthquake. Both had similar magnitudes, however early reports are saying 2 people have been injured in Japan compared to the devestation in Haiti. Don't get me wrong- Haiti was certainly a disaster, but it was the result of poverty and poor construction that it was a disaster. Not because the earth moved under them.

Japan has basically moved on to being concerend about the possible Tsunami as a result of an 8.8 earthquake in Chilie. When I just searched for an update on the Japan earthquake, all results pretty much pointed to the Chilie quake.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usquakec...phcGFud2FybnNv

I think they're disasters, because it's not just the buildings they effect. The ground moves, and can sometimes come apart, taking things and people with it. And even if the buildings are built to withstand an earthquake, eventually it will destroy those buildings too.

The ground cannot come apart. There can be landslides or spreads, maybe even the occasional sinkhole, but the ground isn't just going to open up. Landslides are typically caused because buildings, landscaping, farming, etc have destabilized the slope. Landslides can also take buildings with it, yes. But once again, no building=nothing destroyed. I'm sure you have the occasional person who is killed/injured by a falling tree during an earthquake but generally, it is the buildings or infrastructure failing that causes loss of life or injury. If you are standing in the middle of an open field, and there is an earthquake, the ground will move, you might fall down, but it is extremely unlikely you will die.

But hey if you would like to add earthquakes as a reason for your disaster/2012 belief, have fun.

I'm positive that 2012 is going to happen, unless we decide to skip the year and go straight to 2013 like how some buildings don't have a 13th floor. I'm more freaked out over 2011; the year I turn 30 (OMFG!).

When I said "come apart" I meant just that, meaning "not together" not stable, and taking things with it. I didn't say or mean "open up" as in crack open and everything falls in. Also, I was speaking realistically. We don't live in a world without buildings. I'm sure if you got a book of natural disasters, earthquakes would be listed. So, I still believe an earthquake is a disaster. If it last long enough, no matter how strong the stucture, it's going to fall.

I don't have a "disaster 2012 belief". I honestly don't know when the world will end. However, when it does, I don't believe it will be by our own planet.

lol
And why did you have to add 2013? That's the year I turn 30.:eek::(

The only way 2012 could happen would be if all countries/religions were on the same calendar. They are not.

I get what you're saying but its not quite the way it works. The Mayan calender was translated by a western european, so of course thats the calendar he used. The time "it's" going to happen is on Dec 21 2012 at 10:12 am GMT.

i don't see how any predictions about 2012 are very relevant.

if it's the end of us, we'll all be dead anyway. and if it's just another year, some other year will become the next big thing.

the only use to believing in a predetermined end is to live like you're gonna die. which should be happening anyway. if you're focused on the destination you're gonna miss the whole point.

"the journey is the thing." - homer

Was it translated by the Old Style or the New Style?

Do we get that day off of work? We should have a GC Countdown party, like New Year's. If we all live, we'll have champagne and cider toasts.


In case it wasn't obvious, I believe 2012 is about as credible as Y2K.

Don't know, don't care. FWIW, one man was responsible for coming up with that date based on his study of the Mayan calender. There was another researcher who using the same Mayan calender came out with a end date in 1939. So the end of the Mayan calender may have already come and gone over 70 years ago. I'm sorry, but just because they knew math and charted stars doesn't mean they could predict the "end times". I mean really, these guys were sacrificing children to snake gods, couldn't predict their own demise, yet people choose to believe that the end of their calender cycle will bring about the apocalypse. Has anyone thought that maybe the Mayan who was in charge of plotting out the calender was just laid off or decided that 2000 years into the future was good and anything more would just be overkill?

That was an embarassing debacle for the most part. I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. Maybe the world would've fallen apart if not for (God's grace and) the people who kept it from falling apart. :p

eeeeeee! I hadn't heard about the one in Japan! That's so crazy.

That's scary that there are so many of these happening and so closely together