Disasters

A timeline of past megaquakes and tsunamis generated by the Cascadia fault leaves one clear message for the coastal Pacific Northwest: Prepare.

"MIDDLETON, Mass. -- An explosion and four-alarm blaze at a local manufacturing plant last night rocked homes for miles around, sent four workers to the hospital, and left local environmental officials concerned about chemical contamination to the nearby Ipswich River."

"So many people surged to the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center website that it slowed to a crawl early Friday, unable to provide critical information to the public about the coastal impact in the U.S. of a massive earthquake in Japan."

"The official announcement that two reactors at an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant could be suffering meltdowns underscores the Japanese nuclear industry’s troubled history, and years of grass-roots objections from a people uniquely sensitive to the ravages of nuclear destruction."

"A second explosion rocked a troubled nuclear power plant Monday, blowing the roof off a containment building but not harming the reactor, Japanese nuclear officials announced on public television. The explosion underscores the difficulties Japanese authorities are having in bringing several stricken reactors under control three days after a massive earthquake and a tsunami hit Japan’s northeast coast and shut down the electricity that runs the crucial cooling systems for reactors.

"A new study about the way oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon accident evaporated into the air confirms that cleanup workers were exposed to high levels of airborne pollution, and that the fumes also may have made their way onshore in Louisiana."

An 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, shutting down major systems, killing at least 40, and causing a tsunami. Nuclear plants were shut down on an emergency basis after the cooling system at one plant failed. Tsunami warnings were issued through much of the Pacific, including Hawaii and parts of the U.S. West Coast and South America. Potential impact of tsunami on Hawaii within minutes of 8 am EST as hotels evacuate vertically.

"The Interior Department will study the potential impacts of a 'very large oil spill' in the Arctic Ocean as part of a court-ordered supplemental review of oil and gas leasing off Alaska's northwest coast, the agency said."

As a kids' plaything, it's called oobleck -- a cornstarch suspension that flows at slow speeds but freezes into a solid when you try to move it fast. Washington University scientist Jonathan Katz has just published an article saying it might have succeeded in a "top kill" of the Deepwater Horizon Gulf well where ordinary drilling mud failed.