This map is pretty interesting too!! If you scroll on the left side panel that lists the different quakes, you see that there were a bunch of little quakes (some not so little ones too), starting March 6th, leading up to the big one friday!!

::Japan Earthquake Map Viewer::

Thanks for that may go out to the brainiacs at Texas Tech in Lubbock!!

I didn't read through this thread, but have been following it in the news. Absolutely horrible what happened. Watching the video's of the tsunami hitting made my stomach churn.

But, to make matters worse, I saw a story where they're trying to blame the earthquake itself on global warming. WTF?!? Do the idiots have any idea just how hot it would have to get to actually affect the crust of the earth? If it was that hot, I guarantee that there wouldn't be anything ANYTHING alive on the planet to bring up the point.

Found a link to it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...2fGS_blog.html

Just google 'earthquake global warming', it brings up a bunch of muttering mumbo-jumbo BS.

It's true that IF there is global warming, with the ice melting, it will cause more coastal flooding. But, to actually affect the earths crust - hell no.

Our ships have now pulled back off the coast of Japan even further after detecting an increase in radiation over 100 miles off the coast. Another monster hydrogen explosion has occurred at the same plant, it was felt 25 miles away. As of right now they do not think it hurt the core but it was a larger blast than the first.

That was a different read for sure. The author pretty much said the same things that most of us say. That "global warming" is a bunch of whooie! Just in different words. He has a good take on things with this article too.
After Japan earthquake, should we abandon nuclear power? - PostPartisan - The Washington Post


He isn't ALL BAD....for a "newsie"!

Malaki86 said:
Actually, they aren't blaming THIS earthquake on global warming. THIS one is due to a subduction zone. They are making a link between global warming and possible future quakes and tsunamis.

Yes, they do. Just hot enough to melt large areas of permafrost or ice caps. BTW.... in the main source article embedded in the story you linked, scientists were discussing this in September of 2009. In referring to countries with large areas of high elevation and permafrost, they said the following:

Five months later..... the massive 8.8 quake in Chile! A month ago...... New Zealand! :eek2:

Apparently, hell yes.... according to the articles.

As ice melts, the weight distribution changes. That alters the amount of pressure in a given area. That could be responsible for more movement of the plates. But, how much would it take to have what kind of effect?

Changing the rotation is something I can understand. Rotation is maintained by the mass of the outer surface. Allow that mass to pull inward toward the core and the rotation speeds up. Pull in part of the outer surface mass and what has not moved has more effect. Could cause the earth to wobble on it's axis. But, the amount of change should not be enough to notice. They know about it through calculations. However, it could affect the weather. I heard once (on Paul Harvey) that during the ice age, the average temp of the earth was only 4 degrees cooler. Who knows what a slight shift in the axis might do to the weather. You folks in MN might be wearing T-shirts next winter, or we might be going skying down here in FL.

I think the biggest fallout of what has happened in Japan won't be nuclear, it's going to be economic.
The nuke story has all the great political and media drama, and "end times" worst case scenario's.
Why aren't our leaders and the media talking about the economic tsunami that is coming! http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...nd10/shrug.gif

Japan is dumping their US bonds (or just not buying more) and flooding their market with yen, to stabilize their market, and pay for the rescue and recovery.
They are the 2nd largest US bond holder in the world. We are the largest... we buy our own debt, and flood our market with paper funny money. :booze:
The feds have kept the interest too low... so now the worlds largest bond fund (Pimco) just dumped all our bonds. (others will follow)
They expect the value of the dollar to drop further, and inflation here to drastically rise.
We use to buy 10% of our debt, we now we own 70% of our debt, on borrowed money.

Everyone is bailing out of the US bond, and heading for higher ground, as the economic tsunami heads to our shore.
Japan won't be giving us any more credit, so............ http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...nd10/shrug.gif

Actually Roadie it's China who is the largest US bondholder by far which is why we aren't giving them too much of a hard time on North Korea's antics. They have us by the balls and they know it.

I did hear yesterday something about Japan's stock market starting to go downhill which isn't good if it crashes, it affects the entire world's markets.

Last time I heard, Japan beat out China for the top spot, when China pulled back on giving us more credit. http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2..._neutral-1.gif
(Timmy or one of those moron's did go to China with a cup in hand)
I guess we currently owe China 892 Billion, and Japan 884 Billion... (but who's counting?) http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...0/icon_lol.gif
Any way, Japan is shutting off the spigot, and our Treasury bonds are getting dumped like it's radioactive.

With Europe on the brink as well, things are going to get tough everywhere.
I would expect things to look allot different in a couple weeks... outside of Washington, D.C.

At least there...one can see only blue skies and a great time to go golfing. :thumbsup:

As of December 2010, China was #1 per the US Treasury with Japan a distant 2nd and the UK right on Japan's heels.