Archives for March 17, 2011

An impressive geospatial data viewer from the Japan Sendai Earthquake Data Portal. In response to the 8.9 magnitude earthquake, which struck offshore Sendai, Japan on Mar 11th 2011, the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University has launched the Japan Sendai Earthquake Data Portal (http://cegrp.cga.harvard.edu/japan/) to support the exchange of geospatial datasets for relief and reconstruction efforts. The portal works best with a
Firefox browser.

From the team… If you have geospatial data about the earthquake impacted regions (such as satellite images, aerial photos, GIS data sets, or other data files that bear locational references) before or after the March 11th earthquake, please consider sharing them through this portal.

Source: Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University

An interesting update from the “Lookout” comes via way of Amerisurv Mag describes how Last week’s devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan has actually moved the island closer to the United States and shifted the planet’s axis.  The quake caused a rift 15 miles below the sea floor that stretched 186 miles long and 93 miles wide, according to the AP. The areas closest to the epicenter of the quake jumped a full 13 feet closer to the United States, geophysicist Ross Stein at the United States Geological Survey told The New York Times.

The 9.0 magnitude quake (the fourth-largest recorded since 1900) was caused when the Pacific tectonic plate dove under the North American plate, which shifted Eastern Japan towards North America by about 13 feet.

See more details in this feature

Some details from NOAA

The Honshu tsunami was generated by a Mw 9.0 earthquake (38.322°N, 142.369°E ), at 05:46 UTC, 130 km (80 miles) E of Sendai, Honshu, Japan (according to the USGS). In approximately 25 minutes, the tsunami was first recorded at DART® buoy 21418. Source: NOAA Tsunami event page

See also this Narrated animation of March 11, 2011 Honshu tsunami propagation