Tag archive: earthquake

It may not be the kind of thing you want to watch just before going to bed—especially if you live on a major fault line—but these stunning videos really bring home just how volatile and violent things are below the Earth’s surface. YouTube user StoryMonoroch has created two stunning visualization maps—one for Japan and one for the world—showing all of the quakes which took place throughout 2011 registering between magnitude 3 and 9 on the… Read More

Back in July, Google announced its intention to digitally archive the devastation caused by March’s tsunami in north-eastern Japan, which claimed the lives of nearly 20,000 people. “This [Street View] imagery will help people in Japan and across the world remember and observe the tragedy of March 11, 2011,” the Mountain View company said. In a post on the official Google blog on Tuesday, it said that after driving more than 27,000 miles (44,000… Read More

According to Sony’s PlayStation director of hardware marketing in a recent interview, approximately 63 percent of PlayStation 3 owners said they would purchase the Vita once released next year. In addition, 60 percent of PlayStation Portable owners plan on purchasing the Vita before August 2013. However, no clarification was offered on how these figures were obtained. It's possible that respondents were derived from registered users on an… Read More

Every time a major event happens in the world these days, it’s only a matter of seconds before Twitter starts fizzing as people jump online to start spreading the news and sharing experiences. It happened just yesterday when Steve Jobs announced he was stepping down as CEO of Apple. And it happened again on Tuesday when a 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck Mineral, Va., about 100 miles southwest of Washington, DC. It may not have been the strongest… Read More

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocked much of the East Coast today, according to the US Geological Survey. The epicenter of the quake was located in Mineral, Virginia, which is in the middle of the state, about 45 miles Northwest of Richmond, VA. Tremors of the quake were felt more than 300 miles away, in New York City, and towns in northern New York state and elsewhere. (Your reporter lives about two hours north of New York City, and I felt it… Read More

If you thought the most useful part of Apple's upcoming iOS 5 mobile operating system was iMessage, then you might want to reconsider: According to 9to5Mac, Apple is incorporating early earthquake warning notifications directly into iOS 5. The notification system will be directly connected to Japan's highly-complex national earthquake early-alert system, which gained international attention for its sophistication after the… Read More

It can be hard to remember, while staring at a computer screen all day, that we landlubbers make up only 29% of the Earth's surface. Now you can join the life aquatic, exploring the mysterious depths of the ocean while affecting a French accent, thanks to a new Google Earth update. The new Ocean feature contains data from more than two decades of research and 500 ocean cruises thanks mainly to the curating work of the Columbia University… Read More

The situation in Japan seems to be getting a lot worse before it gets better. Though the earthquake and tsunami are long over, radiation leaks and problems continue at the Fukushima Nuclear plant. According to SocialIntensity.org, there have been more than 500 million tweets about the incident in the last month. The moving graphic below shows the intensity of tweets in each country around the world in the days since March 11, 2011, when the… Read More

Here's a deal you can't pass up: Donate $5 to the American Red Cross’s Japan Earthquake & Pacific Tsunami fund through daily deals service LivingSocial, and the company will match it with their own $5 donation. The only catch: You must act fast. As of this writing (at 8:30am EST), there is only 4 hours and 30 minutes left before the deal expires (at 1pm EST). So far, LivingSocial has raised more than $1.3 million for the disaster… Read More

The global electronics supply chain could soon be disrupted by the ongoing disasters in Japan caused by recent earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear catastrophes. That includes access to parts that make up PCs, as well as components of Apple products, like the iPad 2 and the upcoming iPhone 5, experts say. News of such disruptions comes first via Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin, who says that, while the PC industry's supply chain will remain… Read More

Gilbert Gottfriend will no longer be annoying you as the voice of the Aflac duck after the comedian published a series of insensitive jokes on his Twitter feed mocking the ongoing disasters in Japan, the Associated Press reports. The tweets have since been taken down. But they included such gems as: “”I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, 'There'll be another one floating by any minute… Read More

Last week, Japan endured one of the worst earthquakes and tsunamis on record. We posted some information and videos on Friday, but today NASA has given us a look at the entire coastline before and after the waves hit. The image on the right shows the coastline after the tsunami east of the city of Sendai. As you can see, the entire coast is eroded and far less defined with areas of water extending far into the mainland. These pictures were… Read More

A state of emergency has been declared at six nuclear reactors in Japan — one of which is in the midst of a partial meltdown — following last week's tsunami, according to the Associated Press. More than 170,000 people were evacuated over fears of the radioactive contamination that would follow a full meltdown at those locations. Radiation levels briefly tipped past legal limits in the area around the Fukushima Dai-ichi power… Read More

As Japan continues to suffer from ongoing damage, devastation and heartache for lost and departed loved ones caused by Friday's monstrous 8.9-magnitude earthqauke and the resulting tsunami, one thing remains constant: an Internet connection.. According to All Things Digital, “only a small fraction” of Japan's Internet connections were affected by the horrific wrath wrought upon the island nation by Mother Nature. Because… Read More

We've been unable to focus on anything but the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan just a few hours ago. In our earlier post, we linked to some live blogs and Webstreams discussing the quake, but here are some eye-witness clips from the devastating natural disaster, which registered in as an 8.8 magnitude quake. At least 60 Japanese citizens are reported dead so far. Highway becomes a river, cars float away Oil… Read More