200-300 Bodies Recovered near Sendai, Japan

The now bent tip of Tokyo Tower (source)

Police in Miyagi Prefecture have reported to the press that between 200 and 300 bodies of people who appeared to have drowned have been recovered near Sendai.

Several hundred people (NHK is saying 500) are now reported as missing.

I am also now getting estimates for the height of the Sendai tsunami: between 7.5 and 10 meters in height (24 to 33 feet)

Tsunami Reaches Hawaii; Not as strong as Expected

(Source: abcnews)

The first waves associated with the tsunami generated by the 8.9 magnitude earthquake off of Japan to reach Hawaii are far weaker than expected.  Local news in Hawaii reports that waves are only about a foot higher than usual.

Kauai was the first island hit early by the wave, and it quickly swept passed the other islands in the chain.  However, bigger waves are still expected to follow.

8 sets of tsunami waves expected along the coast. The first set of tsunami waves began reaching Oregon's coast between 7:00 and 8:00 AM local time (roughly within the time-frame of this post), and currently the twitter-sphere is reporting no damage.   KATUNews is reporting that water at Cannon Beach is pulling back, indicating that the tsunami is coming in there.  Waves up to 6 feet in height are still being projected. The tsunami is expected to hit Los Angeles around 8:30 a.m. local time, but a larger follow-up wave is expected two hours later when the tide is higher.

8.9 Earthquake Largest in Japan's History

Fires rage in the town of Yamada in northeastern Japan after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake.

( Yomiuri, Reuters / March 11, 2011 )

The largest recorded earthquake in Japan's recorded history struck on 11 March 2011 at 05:46:24 UTC/ 14:46 local time (March 10 2011 21:46:24 PST/). The quake struck about 130 kilometers off the coastal city of Sendai, generating a massive tsunami wave that tore into the surrounding coastal region.   A series of strong fore and aftershocks have also been hitting the region with numerous 5.0 and 6.0 earthquakes occuring since the main quake (see: USGS 7 day record).

At the time of this post I am getting information that around 100 people are believed dead and scores are missing. Given the magnitude of this event it is likely these numbers will rise. A tsunami warning was posted for much of the pacific basin, including the entire Pacific coast of North and South America from Chili up to Alaska. In the eastern Pacific those warnings have now been lifted for some areas such as Taiwan, and Australia.

Earthquakes are common in Japan due to its position near a series of highly active tectonic plate boundaries.


Tsunami tearing into Sendai


Whirlpool forms near a port in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture


Fire and explosions rock the Cosmo oil and gas refinery north of Tokyo.


Vídeo taken by a Japanese family in Sendai as the earthquake hits.  Just as a note: DON'T RUN OUTSIDE WHEN THERE IS AN EARTHQUAKE.  Find a table, a doorway, a bathtub, etc. and hunker down.  This goes against our basic survival instincts, but running outside, especially in an urban environment can expose you to falling glass or other debris.


Excellent video covereage by Tokyo Broadcasting System Live News Feed.  (Japanese Language)

[Video] Arctic Warming leads to Mid-Latitude Chill

One of those questions climate change denialist like to bring up is "if the climate is getting warmer why is it so cold this winter?" In this video, meteorologist Dave Eichorn explains in a very clear fashion how increases in average annual temperatures in the Arctic have resulted in colder temperatures and snowy weather in the mid-latitudes.

Who will Replace the Guardian of Merapi?

Mbah Maridjan

Volcanic activity on Mount Merampi has settled down in recent days and the alert level for the volcano has been lowered from a four to level three, but the possibility for more eruptions in the near future have not been ruled out.

353 people have been confirmed dead since the volcano first erupted on October 26.  Among those who died was Mbah Maridjan, who was the spiritual gatekeeper of Mount Merapi.  Eighty-six percent of Indonesia's population may be Muslims, but mysticism and spiritualist beliefs -- that may seem contradictory to more orthodox interpretations of Islam -- run deep in Indonesia, especially in the countryside.

Maridjan was highly respected spiritualist who lived near the summit of Mount Merapi, and his ties to the mountain were believed to be so strong that many villagers in the region thought that the volcano would warn him if an eruption were truly eminent.  Somewhat foreshadowing his death in 2010, a mandatory evacuation order had been imposed in May 2006 when warnings of an imminent eruption were announced, but Meridjan refused to leave. Instead he and fifty other men went to the village mosque just as the volcano began to erupt.  Bolstered by his unflinching faith that the volcano would not harm them hundred other families also refused to evacuate from the region.  While he was badly burned by a volcanic blast and hospitalized for 5 months, Maridjan became something of a national hero because of his refusal to abandon his duties as guardian of the people who lived around the volcano.  In a 2006 interview, he said, "Everybody has their duty. Reporter, soldier, police, they have their duty. I also have a duty to stand here."

When the mandatory calls for evacuation came again in October of this year Maridjan again refused to flee.  This time the volcano killed him in his home along with thirteen others who had been trying to get him to evacuate.  His body was found in a praying position, the fabric of his robes fused to him by the 1000° C pyroclastic flow of ash and gas that swept through his village.



Who will replace Maridjan is not yet known.  Queen Consort Hemas, wife of King Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, monarch of the province of Yogyakarta, has started the candidate search, and has asked at least one canidate, Ponimin, to become the new caretaker.  Ponimin, another spiritual leader who lived less than 1 km away from Maridjan, was also in the path of the pyroclastic flow.  His house was destroyed, but Ponimin, his wife and children survived with Ponimin and one of his children suffering burns.  During his interview with the Queen, Ponimin said that a supernatural being told him about the eruption and that it would hit Maridjan's house.  However, Ponimin demurred, perhaps temporarily, at the Queen's request to become the next guardian, so it is not certain if the Queen will wait for Ponimin to make up his mind or ask someone else to become caretaker.  Regardless of who is chosen, the rituals required to install a new caretaker take some time to perform so Merapi will be without an official guardian for a few months to come.

An interesting addition to this whole affair is that King Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, stated that he regretted the fact that both Mbah Marijan and Ponimin, had ignored all scientific data and refused to evacuate. He said that their actions were pure hubris and had resulted in the refusal of the villagers to be evacuated as well, saying what they had done was “absolute arrogance.” However, I don't know how much the general public blames the spiritualists for any of the deaths. If you watch the video posted above near the end there's a scene at an evacuation center where refugees have hung pictures of Marijan on the walls. Obviously, he is still venerated quite highly, and it is perhaps because Indonesians, culturally, do not perceive the "irony" that the Western reporter in the video, Miles O'Brien, attached to their situation. Life, death and the volcano are just the way things are for them so they would likely see no irony in their relationship to it.

[Catching up] Even on good days things can go bad

The Wasatch Mountains as seen from Salt Lake City International Airport

The 10-day trip started on October 29.

It was a nice day. I'll have you make note of that fact. It was a very nice day. So obviously everything was bound to get fouled up somehow.

On this day I was traveling with a character you haven't been introduced to before. I'll call her Stephie the Pharmacist. (I am introducing her because she'll likely appear in a few photos I'll be posting from this trip and I don't want you wondering who she is.) Anyway, Stephie and I head to the airport bright and early to catch our 6:35AM CST flight. We were to be flying out of Central Wisconsin Airport heading to the city of Grand Junction in Colorado. Our trip was to be a multi-leg affair, with stops to grab different flights in Minneapolis, MN, and Salt lake City, UT.

CWA is a tiny regional airport in the town of Mosinee, WI, and I don't mind flying out of there. Lines are short and security is generally not much of a hassle to get through. However, because it is such a small airport if there are mechanical problems with a plane there's generally no quick alternative options to get onto a different flight. Such was the case this morning. When we checked in at CWA they re-booked our flights for the day, in case we missed our flight in Minneapolis, so instead of arriving in Grand Junction at 12:40 PM MST we'd now be arriving at 6:35PM MST. Of course, there was the possibility the plane would get fixed quickly and we'd be on our way earlier than they expected, but no, the plane we were supposed to catch that morning was 2-hours late arriving, and because we were tightly booked we didn't have much wiggle room between our flights.

Let's get this whole thing going again

After my little trip I thought I'd have a lot of motivation to get back to the blogging business. However, I discovered that I was instead filled with a lot of blegh about the prospect of sitting down and doing write-ups about 10 days worth of  “everythings.” And as each day crept along the everythings I could be blogging on built up and . . . well, you get the picture.

It was my own fault, of course, I had planned on keeping a running diary while I was on the road down into New Mexico and southern Colorado, but I left my trusty laptop sitting in a guest bedroom in Grand Junction, CO. If I was a real writer/blogger I'd have made due with collecting some paper notes as I traveled, but I didn't do that. I am not called the Lazy Geographer for nothing, folks.

So what did it take to get me blogging again? Bribery. Yes, I was bribed to get this blog back into order. Amazing, isn't it.

So how do I get things back on track? I abandoned all of you just as Indonesia was still suffering from the dual disasters of the eruption of Mount Merapi and a tsunami off the coast of Sumatra. I wrote briefly on those, but I won't be returning to them for the time being. Instead, I'll be covering the trip I took earlier this month.

I hate going back to the beginning, that was near the end of October, after all, but sometimes the beginning is the best place to start.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig? Maybe in a Bit

I was so amused by the balanced pebbles that I totally forgot
to take a picture of the actual balanced rock.

I am currently poaching some wi-fi that I found so I'll give a fast update here.  I'll be heading home two days from now.  Hopefully, things go smoother than the flights out here (it took 17 hours).  Toured four states: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and a small sliver of Arizona.  Saw a lot of desert, visited a lot of fun places and took a lot of photos, so look forward to some original content regarding all of that in the coming days.  Tomorrow I'll be out exploring a small part of the Black Ridge Canyon Wilderness, so I'm not done with my travels just yet.  however, if I can get some internet tomorrow I might be able to get a solid start on blog updates then.

See you all on the flip-side,

The Lazy Geographer