Quake toppled cemetery in Otawara, Tochigi-ken, Japan.
Daibutsu, Kamakura
Daibutsu in Kamakura, June 2010. There were thousands of school kids visiting that day. It was still great fun.
Showing posts with label Earthquake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Earthquake. Show all posts
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Monday, January 02, 2012
A Fine Looking Alley
I found this fine looking alley during one of my walks around the Otawara, Tochigi-ken neighborhood. What really caught my eye was the beautiful looking stone sidewalk or walkway. On one side was a fine looking wall that contained peoples yards or entryways.
Notice the interesting texture of the walkway with the white stone with red flecks and spots. Very pretty. On the left of the bottom photo is what is left of an older stone wall that collapsed during the March 2011 earthquake. The wall contains a cemetery.
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
How Japan's Oldest Wooden Building Survives Giant Earthquakes
Below is an interesting article on how Japan's ancient pagoda's survive earthquakes and weather.
How Japan's Oldest Wooden Building Survives Giant Earthquakes
BY ANDREW TARANTOLA OCT 5, 2011 11:30 AM
How Japan’s Oldest Wooden Building Survives Giant Earthquakes
Japan has been struck by magnitude 7.0 or greater earthquakes a staggering 46 times since the pagoda at the Horyu-Ji Temple was built in 607AD. So, how did the 122 foot tall structure stay upright through all that shaking?
Multi-story pagoda technology arrived in Japan during the sixth century alongside Buddhism from China. On the mainland, pagodas were traditionally built of stone. However given Japan's seismic instability and higher annual rainfall, that design was simply untenable. But, after much experimentation, Japanese builders figured out how to adapt them to the shaky conditions through three design changes: the use of wide and heavy eaves, disconnected floors, and a shock-absorbing shinbashira.
Japan is a wet country with roughly double China's annual precipitation. So, to keep rainwater from running off building and onto the soil surrounding the foundation, potentially causing the pagoda to sink, builders extended the eaves far away from the walls—constituting up to 50 percent or more of the building's total width. Builders employed a series of cantilevered beams to prop up the massive overhangs. Then, to combat the buildings' severe flammability, the eaves were then laden with heavy earthenware to prevent tinders from igniting the wooden structure underneath.
Side note: Boy are pagodas flammable. The Toji pagoda, Japan's tallest wooden structure, has burned to the ground after being struck by lightning three times since its first building in 824. Fire-by-lightning-strike is actually the primary way that pagodas are destroyed, hence the inclusion of the large metal spire on the roof that acts as a lightning rod. In fact, only two Japanese pagodas in the last 1400 years, the pair at Todai-ji temple, are known to have actually collapsed from shaking alone.
The wide and heavy eaves aren't only good for fire protection, they also act as enormous stabilizers with a huge amount of inertia that must be overcome for the building to begin swaying. And even with the strongest of jolts, the eaves will cause the building to gently sway rather than shake.
The Horyu-ji pagoda doesn't have any central load-bearing beams like you'd see in modern construction. Since the building tapers as it rises, no single load-bearing vertical beam connects to the one below it. The individual floors themselves aren't solidly connected to their neighbors either, just piled atop one another with loose-fitting brackets. This is actually a big advantage in earthquake country. During a shake, the floors will sway in a slithering fashion, with each floor moving in the opposite direction of the ones immediately above and below. This allows the building to more fluidly ride the seismic wave than a more solid building would.
To keep the floors from flexing too far, builders came up with an ingenious solution—the shinbashira. It looks like a large load-bearing column, but it doesn't actually support any of the building's weight (that weight is supported by a network of 12 outer and four inner columns). Built from a large pine trunk, the shinbashira is strung from the underside of the roof and hangs down a shaft in the center of the structure. Sometimes it's buried into the earth, sometimes it rests lightly atop the ground, and occasionally it doesn't even touch the ground—it just freely hangs. The shinbashira acts as a massive tuned mass damper, helping to mitigate the earthquake's vibrations. It also prevents the floors from swaying to the point of collapse and absorbs some of the momentum of the floors as they strike against it. Basically, it's a giant stationary pendulum with enough mass to prevent the lighter floors from freely swinging around.
This same damping technology is still in use today. The The Taipei 101 employs a massive 4-story, 730-ton steel pendulum hung from the 92nd floor to prevent the building from swaying in high winds. The Citicorp Center in New York, uses a 400 ton concrete block to prevent movement during hurricanes.
[Wikipedia 1, 2, 3 - Economist - Asia Times - National Information Service for Earthquake Engineering- Top image courtesy of (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/) ]
Monster Machines is all about the most exceptional machines in the world, from massive gadgets of destruction to tiny machines of precision, and everything in between.
How Japan's Oldest Wooden Building Survives Giant Earthquakes
BY ANDREW TARANTOLA OCT 5, 2011 11:30 AM
How Japan’s Oldest Wooden Building Survives Giant Earthquakes
Japan has been struck by magnitude 7.0 or greater earthquakes a staggering 46 times since the pagoda at the Horyu-Ji Temple was built in 607AD. So, how did the 122 foot tall structure stay upright through all that shaking?
Multi-story pagoda technology arrived in Japan during the sixth century alongside Buddhism from China. On the mainland, pagodas were traditionally built of stone. However given Japan's seismic instability and higher annual rainfall, that design was simply untenable. But, after much experimentation, Japanese builders figured out how to adapt them to the shaky conditions through three design changes: the use of wide and heavy eaves, disconnected floors, and a shock-absorbing shinbashira.
Japan is a wet country with roughly double China's annual precipitation. So, to keep rainwater from running off building and onto the soil surrounding the foundation, potentially causing the pagoda to sink, builders extended the eaves far away from the walls—constituting up to 50 percent or more of the building's total width. Builders employed a series of cantilevered beams to prop up the massive overhangs. Then, to combat the buildings' severe flammability, the eaves were then laden with heavy earthenware to prevent tinders from igniting the wooden structure underneath.
Side note: Boy are pagodas flammable. The Toji pagoda, Japan's tallest wooden structure, has burned to the ground after being struck by lightning three times since its first building in 824. Fire-by-lightning-strike is actually the primary way that pagodas are destroyed, hence the inclusion of the large metal spire on the roof that acts as a lightning rod. In fact, only two Japanese pagodas in the last 1400 years, the pair at Todai-ji temple, are known to have actually collapsed from shaking alone.
The wide and heavy eaves aren't only good for fire protection, they also act as enormous stabilizers with a huge amount of inertia that must be overcome for the building to begin swaying. And even with the strongest of jolts, the eaves will cause the building to gently sway rather than shake.
The Horyu-ji pagoda doesn't have any central load-bearing beams like you'd see in modern construction. Since the building tapers as it rises, no single load-bearing vertical beam connects to the one below it. The individual floors themselves aren't solidly connected to their neighbors either, just piled atop one another with loose-fitting brackets. This is actually a big advantage in earthquake country. During a shake, the floors will sway in a slithering fashion, with each floor moving in the opposite direction of the ones immediately above and below. This allows the building to more fluidly ride the seismic wave than a more solid building would.
To keep the floors from flexing too far, builders came up with an ingenious solution—the shinbashira. It looks like a large load-bearing column, but it doesn't actually support any of the building's weight (that weight is supported by a network of 12 outer and four inner columns). Built from a large pine trunk, the shinbashira is strung from the underside of the roof and hangs down a shaft in the center of the structure. Sometimes it's buried into the earth, sometimes it rests lightly atop the ground, and occasionally it doesn't even touch the ground—it just freely hangs. The shinbashira acts as a massive tuned mass damper, helping to mitigate the earthquake's vibrations. It also prevents the floors from swaying to the point of collapse and absorbs some of the momentum of the floors as they strike against it. Basically, it's a giant stationary pendulum with enough mass to prevent the lighter floors from freely swinging around.
This same damping technology is still in use today. The The Taipei 101 employs a massive 4-story, 730-ton steel pendulum hung from the 92nd floor to prevent the building from swaying in high winds. The Citicorp Center in New York, uses a 400 ton concrete block to prevent movement during hurricanes.
[Wikipedia 1, 2, 3 - Economist - Asia Times - National Information Service for Earthquake Engineering- Top image courtesy of (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/) ]
Monster Machines is all about the most exceptional machines in the world, from massive gadgets of destruction to tiny machines of precision, and everything in between.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Quake Damaged Cemetery
On my recent visit to Otawara in Tochigi Prefecture, I noticed a fair amount of earthquake damage from the March 11 disaster, especially to the local cemeteries. I was a bit surprised as I would have thought this type of damage would have been repaired by now but I guess many of the residents just have not had a chance to repair the cemeteries yet. Of course this damage pales in comparison to the damage closer to the quake zone along the coast.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Fallen Torii Gate
At the Otawara, Tochigi-ken Shinto shrine, this torii gate was destroyed by the March earthquake.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Witness. Disaster in Japan (2011)
WOW. Just wow. Amazing, shocking and sad documentary produced by National Geographic. Forty-five minutes of unbelievable earthquake and tsunami footage.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Quakebook - Relief for Japan
Quakebook - A Twitter-sourced charity book about how the Japanese Earthquake at 2:46 on March 11, 2011 affected us all. All proceeds from the QuakeBook Book go to the Japan Red Cross.
The 2:46 Quakebook project started with a tweet and is on the verge of something great, a way that we can help all those hit by the the March 11th, 2011 earthquake and its aftermath.
Led by OurManInAbiko, a call went out across Twitter for contributors to create a book to raise funds for Red Cross Japan. The idea was to share the stories and experiences of people actually on the ground during the earthquake, whilst raising funds for the Red Cross.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by this event; from those directly in the earthquake zone, the path of the tsunami, in the evacuation area around the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, to those in many other areas of Japan, whose lives have been disrupted by rolling power blackouts, poor road conditions, food and water supply difficulties, and more.
The contributions have come from a wide variety of sources, and include photographs, personal accounts, drawings; each telling their own tale.
Every penny from sales of the book goes directly to Red Cross, Japan. We urge you to buy the book, buy a copy as a gift, promote it, share it, tweet about it, review it, blog about it, link to it, etc.
The tale of the evolution of QuakeBook can be found under the hashtag #quakebook on Twitter.
The 2:46 Quakebook project started with a tweet and is on the verge of something great, a way that we can help all those hit by the the March 11th, 2011 earthquake and its aftermath.
Led by OurManInAbiko, a call went out across Twitter for contributors to create a book to raise funds for Red Cross Japan. The idea was to share the stories and experiences of people actually on the ground during the earthquake, whilst raising funds for the Red Cross.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by this event; from those directly in the earthquake zone, the path of the tsunami, in the evacuation area around the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, to those in many other areas of Japan, whose lives have been disrupted by rolling power blackouts, poor road conditions, food and water supply difficulties, and more.
The contributions have come from a wide variety of sources, and include photographs, personal accounts, drawings; each telling their own tale.
Every penny from sales of the book goes directly to Red Cross, Japan. We urge you to buy the book, buy a copy as a gift, promote it, share it, tweet about it, review it, blog about it, link to it, etc.
The tale of the evolution of QuakeBook can be found under the hashtag #quakebook on Twitter.
Click here to purchase Quakebook.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Video of Tsunami In Kesennuma Japan
Video of Tsunami destroying the city of Kesennuma. Amazing composure of the person filming the tsunami. You can see people on the roof of the tall building across the way and at first I'm sure they felt safe on such a large building. But as the water becomes more powerful and other smaller buildings slam into the bigger one, you can see the people running around. Probably they were questioning whether their building would actually remain standing. It must have been horrifying.
Friday, March 25, 2011
2011 Tsunami Footage
Amateur footage courtesy of TBS shows boats being overturned in the fishing port of Miyako, Japan and cars being carried away in Kamaishi city.
Video out of Japan shows ships being tossed about and pushed inland on a wave of water powered by the tsunami that was triggered by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake.
An 9.0 magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that rolled into the Japanese port of Sendai, engulfing farmlands and carrying vehicles and buildings.
Video released shows the moment when the tsunami hit the small Japanese port town of Miyako.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Japan Earthquake Photos - Operation Tomodachi
Photo from US Military Japan relief operation called Operation Tomodachi. Notice the large ferry on top of the building.
WAKUYA, Japan (March 15, 2011) An aerial view of damage to Wakuya, Japan after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated the area in northern Japan. Ships and aircraft from the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group are conducting search and rescue operations and re-supply missions as directed in support of Operation Tomodachi throughout northern Japan. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Alexander Tidd/Released)
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Japan Earthquake Photos - Operation Tomodachi
Photos from the US Navy's Japan earthquake relief operation - Code name Operation Tomodachi
PACIFIC OCEAN (March 13, 2011) A Japanese home is seen adrift in the Pacific Ocean. Ships and aircraft from the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group are searching for survivors in the coastal waters near Sendai, Japan. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Dylan McCord/Released)
Monday, March 21, 2011
What chance of a 'big one' in Tokyo?
BBC News reports that some seismologists who study Japan believe that the recent 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Eastern Japan may have slightly increased the chances for a large earthquake in the Tokyo area. I pray it does not happen in our lifetime but unfortunately it will happen. People and governments should be aware of that. The map below shows the plate boundaries around Japan. As you can see, Tokyo is right at the juncture of three plates, the Pacific Plate, the Eurasian Plate, and the Philippine Plate. You could say that Tokyo is in the middle of a gigantic crunch zone.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Japan Tsunami photo - WOW
This photo is from the excellent Japan blog Tokyo Five. Just WOW. This photo is from one of the video I posted a couple of days ago. So shocking and sad.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Maybe most shocking tsunami video yet
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
More shocking tsunami video
Here is more shocking video from the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Monday, March 14, 2011
Shocking video of 2011 Japan tsunami
This is some very shocking and horrifying video of the tsunami that hit northern Japan following the massive 9.0 earthquake. You can see people driving on the nearby road not realizing there is a wall of water coming. Terrible.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
2011 Tsunami Footage
Amateur footage demonstrates the frightening speed with which Friday's tsunami destroyed the city of Kesennuma, Japan.
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