I was planning to post on the death of Kepler--no, not Johannes, who passed away in 1630, but that NASA telescope in space discovering earth-like extrasolar planets. However, I'll do that tomorrow.
Instead, I will report on Japan earthquakes because I was stunned by a documentary I watched this morning on the matter of geological faults in the country. There is reason to believe now that nuclear power will never make a comeback. Here is the story.
Just a week before I left on My Ultimate Global Adventure, the Japanese government released a report estimating that $2.3 million of damage would be expected if a 9 moment magnitude earthquake occurred in the 559 miles long Nankai Trough located southwest on Tokyo. In 1923 the Great Kanto Earthquake killed more than 100,000 around Tokyo.
Bear with me as I explain these terms:
- lithosphere: the outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle (about 62 miles thick)
- tectonic plates: sections of this lithosphere, which move like a continent--there are maybe eight major plates, and numerous minor ones
- subduction zone: intersection of these plates when one is forced under--putting these plates under stress, where earthquakes occur during slippage (interestingly enough, these only occur in the ocean, for there is no submergence in that continent-to-continent collision in the Himalayas--in fact, the land was pushed up forming the highest point, Mount Everest at 5.5 miles)
- trough: location of these subduction zones, such as the Nankai Trough above threatening Tokyo
- trough: location of these subduction zones, such as the Nankai Trough above threatening Tokyo
- trench: same as trough and deep, as in Mariani Trench, the deepest spot in the ocean, 6.8 miles, where there is an amazing amount of life
The Pacific Ring of Fire is just one long continuous series of trenches where 90% of all the earthquakes occur.
Now that you know all this geophysical information, let me come to geological faults, which are cracks formed by subduction zone stresses, which can form hundreds of miles away from these troughs. The San Andreas Fault in California, for example, runs 810 miles from the Salton Sea area near the Mexican border all the way up to Sea Ranch and Mendocino, where I stayed for my final few days of My Ultimate Global Adventure.
If you search Google, you will not find this bit of information Megaquake revealed on NHK TV today. Should you receive this English channel, the times are: May 18, Saturday--0:10/ 4:10/ 8:10/ 12:10/ 16:10/ 20:10 (UTC). The answer to how many earthquake faults bedeviling Japan is not four...but more than 2000, and possibly many more, for most of these faults cannot be seen at the surface.
Thus, while only two of the 50 nuclear reactors in Japan are now operating, it is possible that not many more will be re-started because of these geological faults. Further, all of these nuclear systems are at the coastline, where tsunamis pose a problem. If there is to be any kind of nuclear future for the country, it will be fusion, which I don't think will be commercialized until mid century, if ever. However, a fusion testing facility (right) is being assembled 89 miles south of Fukushima in Ibaraki, and, at the coastline.
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