Talk:2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

Introduction

I think the introduction should go on like this:

The 2011 Sendai earthquake was a catastrophic undersea earthquake that occurred at 05:46:23 UTC on Friday, March 11, 2011, with an epicentre ff the east coast of Tohoku, Japan at a depth of 32 km (20 miles). It was an 8.9 magnitude earthquake, and was measured 8.4 on the JMA seismic intensity scale. Originally a 7.9, it was upgraded to an 8.8, then again to an 8.9 by the United States Geological Survey. The earthquake is the 7th strongest earthquake in recorded history.

Please add wikilinks and other citations to the above. The introduction has been taken from the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake article. Rishabh Tatiraju (talk) 08:06, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Magnitude?

Someone deleted everything! Rthmn3021 (talk) 08:01, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Yes, looks like someone is trying to vandalize. Administrator is requested to semi-protect the page. Rishabh Tatiraju (talk) 08:07, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Why does the "Deaths and Casualties" section keep changing! Somebody keeps changing it back to "1 confirmed death" but there is no citation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rthmn3021 (talk • contribs) 07:55, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

What happened to the nice map!?! Why is the USGS one back? I think both should be there for extra information.... (- rthmn3021) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rthmn3021 (talk • contribs) 07:50, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

What's the source for the downgrade to magnitude 8.4? The page linked to as a citation still says 8.9. Dylan Thurston (talk) 07:08, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Watching CNN and News ticker says "Yen has dropped sharply" -Anonymous

8.4 is the last report from the Japan Meterological Service, 7.9, 8.8 and now 8.9 were USGS reports. --joe decker^{talk to me} 07:15, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Actually, 8.4 seems to be the main one with two more around 7.4. At least one is aftershock but the other one seems to be caused by the main one.--Revth (talk) 07:17, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

The USGS is now reporting it to be 7.1 (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0001xig.php)

Rishabh Tatiraju (talk) 07:24, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

The 7.1 was an aftershock the main quake is 8.9 [1] 174.3.219.127 (talk) 07:30, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

It appears that the Japan Meteorological Service uses a different scale from the USGS, hence the 8.4 JMS rating and 8.9 USGS rating. Both are linked in the lead, so I think that's appropriate. rdfox 76 (talk) 07:36, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Japan_Meteorological_Agency official named 東北地方太平洋沖地 in japan.--素手@Sudepedia (talk) 07:38, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

The current scale is M 8.9 according to USGS. The event ID of the earthquake is usc0001xgp. That only reason i was created the article with the event ID here. Reason is, if a big earthquake is occured, later possible to so many aftershocks on the location. We are working for Integrated Tsunami Watcher Service since 2004 Indian ocean earthquake. That only reson my most contributions are based earthquake and tsunami. Gnuismail (talk) 07:39, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

JMA announced that the estimate is now M8.8. This makes it the largest earthquake ever recorded in Japan by JMA. --Revth (talk) 08:39, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Title

Do we need the "and tsunami", I mean is obvious many earthquakes have tsunamies and we do not list them in their titles. Tbhotch* ^{۩ ۞} 07:20, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

I'd imagine that "and tsunami" would be necessary if a considerable amount of damage created by this event was also by a tsunami, rather than the earthquake alone. As in, tsunamis are always part of an earthquake, but I'm sure most damage from those events was from the earthquake alone, and thus is known by the earthquake itself. As opposed to, say, the 2004 Indonesia Earthquake/Tsunami, where the damage was caused by both the earthquake and tsunami. --- 66.92.0.62 (talk) 07:28, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Preliminary reports, from live tv so can't cite, are indicating that just as much, if not more, damage was from tsunamis. If that turns out to be false, it can be changed back later. Remember also that tsunamis can occur hours after the initial quake. Ravendrop 07:31, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Now, I've redirected the Sendai tsunami here, basically, it still a stub which does not deserve its own article (now). Tbhotch* ^{۩ ۞} 08:09, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Agree. Good redirect. Ravendrop 08:15, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

113 casualties wrong, that was the NZ quake--read the source

Probably a good-faith edit, but the 113 number comes from this report, with an inset about a quake in New Zealand [2] --joe decker^{talk to me} 08:02, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

West Coast update

Just heard on the tv news that there is a tsunami watch for Alaska, Washington & Oregon coasts -- & I assume for the Canadian Pacific coasts too. Reported ETA for the first tsunami waves to reach Seaside, Oregon is 7:24am PST. -- llywrch (talk) 08:07, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

As a note, at this point, the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center has no actual advisory, watch, or warning issued yet. Expect them soon, possibly with warning sirens fired, but nothing official yet. rdfox 76 (talk) 08:12, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm watching France24's english language broadcast, and it seems that they are assuming the west coast of the US is included because the PTWC includes South & Central America. But the area from Alaska to California is not covered by the PTWC but rather by the WC&ATWC and as Rdfox notes there is not currently any warning, but that is likely to change as more data gets analysed. Gecko G (talk) 08:22, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

a few mins ago i read that the est. death toll was 30 million. where did they get this number? it has since been removed.

Now there is. [[3]]. Advisory for parts of Alaska, Watch (not warning) for rest of Alaska, and all of BC, WA, OR, & CA. Gecko G (talk) 08:34, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Earthquake Image

The image currently posted needs to be changed to reflect the universal earthquake map for notable quakes on Wikipedia. --Ajcadoo (talk) 08:11, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

Yeah! this one looks better Rishabh Tatiraju (talk) 08:27, 11 March 2011 (UTC)