Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake Strikes Off Shore of Northeastern Japan; Money Continues Washing Ashore After Deadly March Tsunami

Japan's Meteorological Agency is reporting a quake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 struck the northeast coast of Japan.



A tsunami warning was issued by the agency for the Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures on Friday morning, but the advisory was lifted about a half hour later.



Tokyo Electric Power Co reported that there were no abnormalities and that key equipment in the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant continued operating normally while key employees positioned outside were evacuated as a precaution.



Interestingly, nearly 6 months after the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami which is thought to have killed at least 20,000 people in Northeastern Japan, survivors and volunteers have turned over to the authorities the equivalent of nearly US$80 million in cash that has washed up on shore or in the ruins of homes and apartments.

In the five months since the disaster struck, people have turned in thousands of wallets found in the debris, containing $48 million in cash.



More than 5,700 safes that washed ashore along Japan's tsunami-ravaged coast have also been hauled to police centers by volunteers and search and rescue crews. Inside those safes officials found $30 million in cash. One safe alone, contained the equivalent of $1 million.



The National Police Agency says nearly all the valuables found in the three hardest hit prefectures, have been returned to their owners.



"In most cases, the keyholes on these safes were filled with mud," said Koetsu Saiki with the Miyagi Prefectural Police. "We had to start by cutting apart the metal doors with grinders and other tools."



Determining who the safes belonged to, proved to be the easy part. Saiki says most kept bankbooks or land rights documents inside the boxes, containing their names and address. Tracking the owners down, was much more challenging.

With some police stations running out of room in their lost property areas, police are attempting to cross reference names and phone numbers documents found in safes and lockboxes with survivors of the quake and hoping to track down what shelter they were staying in.



Keeping cash at hand is fairly common practice in Japan, as many Japanese prefer to keep their money at home. A police spokesman explained that the number of boxes and safes that have been recovered seems especially high because many fishing companies in northeastern Japan also prefer to do business and pay employees in cash.

August 14- Navajo Code Talkers Day

Navajo Code Talker Joe Morris Sr in 2007 photo

Twenty nine years ago yesterday, President Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation that August 14 be known as Navajo Code Talkers Day. This was among the first official acts of recognition since the program was declassified in 1968.

"Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate August 14, 1982, as National Navaho Code Talkers Day, a day dedicated to all members of the Navaho Nation and to all Native Americans who gave of their special talents and their lives so that others might live. I ask the American people to join me in this tribute, and I call upon Federal, State and local officials to commemorate this day with appropriate activities."

[Sorry I'm a day behind with this, by the way- NANESB!]



At the outbreak of WWII, it was believed that there were no more than 30 non-Navajo people in the world familiar with the language- none of them Japanese.



Sensing an opportunity to confound Japanese eavesdroppers, in 1942 Marine Corps brass began gathering and training Navajo recruits to create and communicate a code in their native Navajo tongue. Throughout the war, Imperial Japanese military cryptographers were never able to decipher the Navajo's code. However, after the war, the program remained secret and the departing Navajo recruits were sworn to secrecy until the Code Talker project was declassified in 1968.



The Code Talkers participated in nearly every Marine assault in the pacific theater between 1942 and 1945. To this day, the Navajo Code Talkers proved to be the most effective known means of encrypted communication in modern warfare.



On Sunday, July 17th Code Talker Joe Morris Sr passed away at age 85 from complications due to a stroke at the VA Medical Center in Loma Linda, CA.



Morris had just turned 17 and was working in an Arizona mine when he was drafted in 1943. He credited a Navajo medicine man that also worked in the mine with keeping him safe throughout the war, saying that the shaman prayed a day and a half for his safety. After the war, Morris married and settled in Dagget, CA where he had a civilian job with a Marine supply center until he retired in 1984.



Joe Morris Sr is survived by his wife of 61 years, two sons, a daughter, three brothers and three grandchildren.

Japan Update: Trouble Persists at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant; More Dramatic Video Surfaces; Death Toll Mounts as Rescuers Still Finding Survivors

Workers attempting to bring the damaged reactors at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant under control were evacuated temporarily on Monday after a plume of grey smoke rose from the plant's reactor #3.

The news came after TEPCO confirmed power cables had been connected to all six nuclear reactors at the stricken power plant

The last two reactors to be hooked up to power from the main grid today were reactors No. 3 and No. 4, the two most badly damaged units, company officials told a briefing.

The company, meanwhile, is checking for damage to the plant's reactor cooling systems and other plant machinery before attempting to power them up.

It is operating equipment using grid power at reactor No. 5 only, one of the least damaged reactors, the officials said.

The cooling systems - designed to protect the plant's six reactors from a potentially disastrous meltdown - were knocked out by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and engineers have been battling rising temperatures ever since.

Workers had been struggling all week to shut down the quake damaged reactors after the strongest quake in Japan's recorded history and subsequent tsunami damaged some of the backup power and cooling systems. While the surrounding 12 miles of the plant were evacuated, some 200 Volunteers have been working in shifts of 50 each to operate the equipment, monitor gauges and clear obstructions from the various pipes in the facility.

The JSDF had also been called in last week to use Chinook helicopters to dump seawater and a compound consisting of boron onto the overheating reactors. This step was considered a 'last resort' by many observers as the salt water would be highly corrosive, meaning that the reactors could never be used again. The JSDF had also brought in at least six fire trucks capable of continuously pumping seawater onto spent fuel rods and overheating reactor #3.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, the Japanese government had reported that higher than normal levels of radiation were found in spinach and milk at farms in the vicinity of Fukushima- some farms as far as 100km away. While positioned off of Japan's east coast, the USS Ronald Reagan had detected increased levels of radiation last week and 17 crew members had to undergo decontamination after returning to the carrier from search and rescue duties.

ELSEWHERE IN JAPAN: As the situation unfolds in Fukushima Daiichi, more eyewitness video is surfacing demonstrating the staggering impact of the quake (which the USGS has officially changed to 9.0) and subsequent tsunami. This video embedded below shows black, churning water cascading over a seawall at Miyako in the Iwate prefecture while boats and cars caught up in the wave getting tossed around like bathtub toys



Another videotape has surfaced that was filmed from inside a car driving right next to the coast when the tsunami hit.

Searchers and rescue workers have discovered survivors in the rubble or washed out to sea in the week following the quake, including a 4 month old baby girl in the town of Ishinomaki, an 80 year old woman and her 16 year old grandson were pulled from the rubble of their home in the same town nearly a week later and a 60 year old man was rescued after being stranded on the roof of his demolished home that was washed 10 miles out to sea.

Ring of Fire Update- Pacific Island Chain of Tonga Rocked by Magnitude 6.1 Quake; Explosion Reported at Japanese Nuclear Plant

The 'Ring of Fire'- the seismic and volcanically active reigon encirling the Pacific Ocean from New Zealand's South Island to Russia's Kamchatka peninsula to Chile's Tierra de Fuego- has been unusually active this month.

TONGA: Not even a day after the massive earthquake in Japan that triggered deadly tsunamis, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck the Pacific archipelego nation of Tonga early Saturday morning.

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit south east of Tonga at 1:19pm local time (2:19 NZT), the US Geological Survey has reported.

The quake was at a depth of 10.9 kilometres, 106 kilometres south east of Hihifo, Tonga, 2528km west of Auckland.

An aftershock of 5.7 magnitude followed two minutes later.

A meteorological officer on Niuatoputapu, one of the northern most islands of Tonga, said he had not felt the earthquake.

No shaking was felt further south by residents in the islands of Vava'u or on Tongatapu, the Matangi Tonga website reported.

The low-lying Tongan island island of Niuatoputapu was hit hard by a tsunami spawned by an undersea magnitude 8.1 earthquake in the Samoan islands back in 2009. That tsunami killed 10 people and destroyed 90% of the structures on the island, although no tsunami warning was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.


JAPAN: As I was updating the news out of Tonga, this story just broke out of Northeastern Japan.

An explosion was reported at the site of the Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Saturday.

An explosion at a nuclear power station tore down the walls of one building Saturday as smoke poured out and Japanese officials said they feared the reactor could melt down following the failure of its cooling system in a powerful earthquake and tsunami.

It was not clear if the damaged building housed the reactor. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Daiichi plant, said four workers were injured but details were not immediately available.

Earlier, Japanese government officials said that radiation levels at that facility were at 1000 times the normal level.

Japan has issued a state of emergency for four other nuclear facilities as well. Shortly after it was learned of the problems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Tokyo Electric Power co warned that it had lost cooling ability for another reactor at their nearby Fukushima Daini site, prompting the evacuation of nearly 14,000 nearby residents.

3/12 UPDATE: Although the official death toll from Friday's quake tsunami has been tallied at 574, officials expect that number to rise. More 9,500 residents in the remote fishing village of Minamisanriku- to the north of Sendau- are unaccounted for in the aftermath of the disaster according to the Japanese Kyodo news agency. As of 2004, the town's population was an estimated 19,000.

3/12 INDONESIA: The Jakarta Post is reporting that Indonesia's Mount Karengateng on the island of Sulawsei has erupted, spewing lava and sending searing gas clouds down the mountainside. There have been no immediate reports of casualties or property damage there, although four people were killed when the volcano erupted last August. Closer to Indonesia's capital, the Mt. Merapi volcano on the densely populated island of Java unleashed a series of eruptions in October 2010, reportedly killing 122 people. Around the same time, the western coast of the earthquake prone island of Sumatra was rocked by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake, triggering a tsunami. It was estimated that 430 people were killed in between the tsunami and actual quake, with a number of people still missing.

Eastern Japan Hit By Magnitude 8.9 Quake, Tsunamis- Warnings Issued Throughout Pacific

The most powerful earthquake in Japan's recorded history triggered tsunamis reportedly as high as 25 feet that swept up cars, boats, houses and bridges while surging inland shortly after it struck on Friday afternoon.



The magnitude 8.9 quake- even more powerful than last year's Chilean earthquake- struck at around 2:45 PM local time on Friday in Japan. According to the USGS, the epicenter was some 80 miles to the east off the coast of Sendai and 230 miles from Tokyo. Te prefecture of Sendai was hardest hit.



Japanese oficials say that the death toll from the quake and tsunami is at 32 and expected to rise. Although no derailments were reported, Shinkansen (high speed rail) lines across the country were shut down as a precautionary measure. The expressways in and around Tokyo were shut down Friday afternoon as well.

Several fires had also flared up in the aftermath of the earthqauke, including an inferno at the Cosmo oil [Nikkei: 5007] refinery in Chiba and another fire in the turbine building of the Tohoku Electric Power co's [Nikkei: 9506] nuclear plant outside of Onagawa.

Meanwhile, authorities in Hawaii have begun preparing across the islands for an impact with tsunamis generated by the Sendai earthquake.

A tsunami warning was issued at 9:30 p.m. for Hawaii as a result of a 8.9-magnitude earthquake near the east coast of Honshu, Japan. The earthquake and resulting tsunami killed at least 32 people in Japan.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami watch at 7:56 p.m. after the quake struck 231 miles northeast of Tokyo.

Chip McCreary, director of the warning center, said the latest forecast models show "wave amplitudes of up to 2 meters (6 feet) beyond normal sea levels in Hawaii.

"What these waves look like is an elevation of sea level, where the sea level will rise above its normal level and stay high for 10 or 15 minutes before they recede," McCreary said, explaining the difference between tsunami and regular waves.

Because of the long length of tsunami waves, "they wrap around our islands very efficiently" so there is no point of impact that may see higher waves than other areas.

The waves are expected to impact in Hawaii at 3 AM Hawaian time (8AM Easter).
A Tsunami warning has also been issued for Taiwan, Russia, the Philippines, southern Alaska, British Columbia, the entire West Coast of the USA, Mexico as well as Central and South America and New Zealand.

3/11 UPDATE: Police in Northern Japan have discovered 200-300 bodies in the vicinity of Sendai- the capital of Myagi prefecture and closest major city to the epicenter of the earthquake.

3/11 UPDATE #2: Japanese authorities have issued an official emergency for the Tokyo Electric Power Co's [Nikkei: 9501]Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the town of Okuma after problems were reported with the plant's cooing systems. The plant had automatically shut down after the earthquake and authorities have ordered the evacuation of more than 2000 in a 3km radius from the plant.

The tsunami impacted the California coast at 10 AM Pacific Time, sweeping at least one man out to sea and damaging boats and docks in coastal cities like Santa Cruz and Crescent City.

Stuck for Gift Ideas for That Person Who Has Everything? Try Getting 'Em Their Own Town!

Maybe that special somebody in your life has recently been dropping subtle little hints like 'Wouldn't it be nice to find somewhere to get away from it all?' or 'Hey- just get me a remote and sparsely populated municipality for Christmas this year'.

Well you're in luck, friends. There just happens to be a few such towns out there for sale on the open market. Naturally, I wouldn't even bother mentioning them unless there were some sort of railways involved.

Railpictures.net photo- Darryl Bond

The first such locale is down in the mountainous West Coast region on New Zealand's South Island and is called Otira. Otira has a population of roughly 44 and features a pub, fire station, 18 homes (14 of them occupied by tenants), a school and of course, a railway depot. Otira started out on a stop on the trans-Alpine stagecoach route in the 1860s, but served as railhead to the west coast until the Otira tunnel was completed in 1923.

The town is situated along KiwiRail's busy Midland line between Christchurch and Greymouth, which crests New Zealand's Southern Alps. Aside from the daily TranzAlpine Express, the line sees regular freight in the form of coal, dairy products and lumber from the West Coast to the rest of New Zealand or the port of Lyttleton for export. The western end of the 5 mile Otira Tunnel is just outside of Otira proper as well.
Otira is also located along NZ Highway 73 and flanked by Arthur's Pass National Park on three sides. This stretch of Highway 73 also boasts the 1999-built 440 meter Otira Viaduct (above), which replaced a winding, treacherous and landslide-prone stretch of highway.

But as of June 2010 it's all up for sale with the asking price of NZ$1.5 million ($1.1 million US). The current owners have put the town on the market after purchasing it for NZ$80,000 in the late 1990s. By comparison, NZ$1.5 million could get you a good-sized upscale home in suburban Auckland.

Assuming that Otira goes for anywhere near its asking price while factoring in a kiwi property boom and increase in value of the New Zealand dollar to the equation and the couple- Bill and Christine Hennah- will have gotten quite the return on their initial investment.

Although Bill and Christine had invested alot of TLC into the town over the last decade or so, Bill's sore shoulder and Christine's arthritis are slowing them down, leading them to put it on the market. The couple purchased the schoolhouse to move into once they 'retire' from owning Otira and a buyer for the town is found. The couple says they've been entertaining offers from as far afield as Canada, Malaysia, the UK and Norway.

For those of you in North America who want a town of your own but without the lengthy trans-Pacific flight, the northeastern Nevada town of Currie could be just what you're looking for.
Currie is located along US Highway 93 and the dormant Nevada Northern Railroad right of way in southern Elko county, NV. The unincorporated town got its name from the nearby ranch of Joseph Currie, who settled in the area in the 1880s. Currie started out as a stagecoach and freight stop, but with the discovery of copper in nearby Ely, NV the Nevada Northern Railroad was constructed between Ely and the Southern Pacific Junction at Cobre, NV (some 140 miles). The railway was completed in 1906 and a railway station and telegraph office opened up in Currie that same year.

Passenger service along the Nevada Northern halted in 1941 (by which point the NN had become a subsidiary of Kennecott Copper) and freight service continued until the closure of the mines in the Ely area in 1983. The line was then acquired by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in 1987 in anticipation of servicing a coal-fired power plant that was never built. However, the line saw a revival in the late 1990s when Australian mining company BHP leased the line to ship copper ore concentrate from Rieptown, NV to the Union Pacific interchange at Shafter. The line was abandoned in 1999 and although copper mining resumed around 2004, the ore was hauled by truck and the line through Currie remained dormant.

In 2007, the LA Department of Water and Power sold the line to the City of Ely and White Pine County to the south despite efforts of some salvage outfits to seize the line, rip up the rails and sell them for scrap. Although it was hoped that the revived mine traffic could make its way to rails along with coal, more recent plans to construct a coal burning power plant outside of Ely were thwarted last year.


So while there may not be the rumble of freight trains rolling past the Currie depot (above), there's still the matter of a lonely stretch of US 93 making its way north from Las Vegas to Idaho and points north.

According to this site, the town includes an RV park, the Goshute Mercantile (below), a schoolhouse, the old Currie hotel and the Nevada Northern depot. There's also a Nevada Highway Department Maintenance yard in town, but that's not included in the sale.

Although classified as a ghost town, Currie is thought to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 residents. The Currie school only taught up through grade 8 before shutting down in 2001, and the nearest bus stop was 35 miles away. Any children remaining in Currie would have to be homeschooled or boarded in Ely.

The town has apparently been on the market for a decade, although a cursory search indicates there has been no mention of a buyer since notice went up of Currie being for sale.

But with that in mind, good NANESB! reader, think of how that special somebody's eyes will light up when they see one of these remote and sparsely populated (but scenic!) towns under the Christmas tree this year.

Food for thought.

L.A. News Helicopter Films Mystery Contrail off California Coast.

A cameraman on board a helicopter for KCBS in Los Angeles filmed what appears to be a missile off the coast of Los Angeles on Monday night.

Almost immediately, this fuelled all sorts of online speculation regarding any possible explanation for the mystery missile and its distinct contrail. Vandenberg Air Force Base, located along the Central California coast, confirmed that they had launched a Delta II Rocket on Friday, but there were no launches on Monday.

Other theories include:

*'Accidental' launch of a ballistic missile by the US military (not very plausible given the number of failsafe mechanisms in place
* A foreign ICBM-capable submarine (Russia, China) probing our coastal surveillance
* Iran or one of their proxies using a disguised freighter re-fitted with a ballistic missile launcher and registered through a third party flag of convenience (Panama, Liberia, Marshall Islands) to get close to the American coast.
* An anti-missile test undertaken by Boeing Co that originated from nearby San Nicolas Island

The Pentagon initially said that they couldn't identify the object filmed, but then said that the 'missile' was the contrail a commercial flight from Honolulu to Phoenix, AZ some 48 hours later.

In the video, the Pentagon explains that what appears to be flame coming from the object is actually the setting sun reflecting off of the metal body of US Airways Flight 808.

I'm not completely sold on the 'just an airliner' theory, although those far more knowledgeable than myself say that the flightplan and timing is consistent with the Pentagon's findings.

The other possibilities would be that a foreign entity did get close enough to the West Coast to launch a ballistic missile over a major metropolitan area, some sort of military SNAFU, the Pentagon genuinely not knowing what the object was Monday night or the Pentagon knowing, but providing the public with the story about the US Air flight as some sort of smokescreen because they felt the public couldn't handle whatever they determined took place. Any one of those is pretty disconcerting in and of itself.

You gotta admit, that IS a weird looking contrail.