“Resolve to survive in 2024.”
That was my exhortation to readers on New Year’s Eve. “A plague, two wars, runaway inflation and a riot at the US Capitol,” I wrote, recapping recent events in the last Daily of 2023. “This century’s Roaring Twenties hasn’t been an especially auspicious decade so far.”
A few hours later, 2024 got off to a decidedly inauspicious start when a magnitude 7.6 (on Japan’s scale, 7.5 on the US Geological Survey) earthquake rocked the Noto peninsula, burying at least half a dozen people under caved-in buildings and prompting evacuation orders ahead of feared tsunamis.
Earthquakes are, of course, common in Japan. Sometimes they’re bad. Really bad. Like that time a magnitude 9 tremor (the fourth most powerful in the short history of modern seismography) triggered a tsunami with waves as high as 130 feet, ultimately leading to one of history’s only two INES Level-7 nuclear accidents.
Fortunately, there were no signs that any such catastrophe was in the offing on Monday. At first, Japanese authorities put out a major tsunami notice, warning of 16-foot waves. Later, they suggested the highest waves would probably be no larger than 10 feet. Kim Jong-Un issued a tsunami warning for a section of coastline along his hermit kingdom.
No “important facilities” were damaged in Japan, government personnel said. The Shika nuclear power plant (shown by the red marker on the map below) was fine, although a nuclear official indicated that some water splashed out of a fuel rod pool, and said cooling pumps briefly lost power. There was also a fire in a transformer.
Both reactors at the facility were offline prior to the incident, according to officials.
Existential catastrophe Monday’s quake most assuredly wasn’t, but it was a harrowing episode nevertheless. 33,000 households lost power. Japan’s Meteorological Agency said aftershocks and tsunamis may persist for a week. Locals should be vigilant, authorities counseled.
NHK said doctors were unable to reach the Suzu City hospital to treat the injured because roads were damaged. Power to the hospital was cut, and it was operating on a generator. At another hospital in Wajima City, doctors and nurses were “treating patients in a parking area.”
I’d gently note that this is the sort of incident which underscores my long-standing contention that countries without enormous contiguous landmasses are a perilous proposition, and will become even more so as the deleterious effects of climate change catch up to humankind.
I’m not suggesting any link between climate change and earthquakes (although apparently there are links), I’m just stating the obvious: Japan, New Zealand, Britain and so on are small places. They could be here today and gone tomorrow.
“Here today and gone tomorrow”
Is that a quote from Blue Velvet?
Japan is a country with almost unspeakable natural beauty. For many Japanese people who practice the principles of Shinto spiritually, living close to nature makes a life worth living- even if it can result in an early death from the very nature that gives meaning to life.
Having said that, no one wants to die early, at the hand of nature or another human, and I hope that this natural disaster is not an ominous sign for 2024.
Fantastic film
Derek- my prior comment was intended as a stand alone comment, not as a reply to your comment.
I did recognize “Here Today and Gone Tomorrow” from my Spotify “funk” playlist- a 1960’s song recorded by The Ohio Players.
As opposed to the others listed, Australia is hardly a small place. The country continent’s land mass is 1.2% larger than the contiguous 48 of the US.
I’ve removed Australia from that list because you’re right: It’s not “small” in the context of nations. What I was driving at, though, was the idea that in a world where natural disasters are getting worse and worse, anything that’s not “attached,” so to speak, feels somehow dicey. Notwithstanding the Yellowstone tail risk, I think it’s fair to suggest that the ultra-paranoid among us would generally feel safer or more insulated in North Dakota or South Dakota or Minnesota than somewhere in the middle of Australia. Obviously, bad things can happen anywhere, and there’s a sense in which it’s “all an island,” so to speak. Plus, every Hollywood doomsday blockbuster for some reason has all the rich people going to New Zealand, but if I were building a bunker, it wouldn’t be on any island — even if that island is technically a continent.
Some ambitious Hollywood producer should make a disaster movie using the New Madrid fault as a basis for a “split” in North America. Could set up an interesting post quake East/West rivalry.
Initial thoughts on possible extent of property damage (link below)
https://www.artemis.bm/news/japan-hit-by-magnitude-7-6-earthquake-structural-damage-and-tsunami-reported/
If, like me, you’ve some exposure to Japanese insurers, this could be pertinent.
H,
Happy New Year to you and the intelligent folks who take the time to comment here. Your title to the January ‘23 monthly was a year early.
As earthquakes have no season, here’s to hoping the rest of the year is much quieter from a geological perspective. Probably too much to hope the seismic activity from our geopolitical environment moves to a calmer place.