I heard a radio report, but I didn’t understand. NPR on Monday.
Last night’s earthquake in Japan did something to a bullet train; the word was not “derailled”, but I can’t say the right word. Report said no one was injured (but the quake killed 8).
I’ll listen to this board, where lots of well-informed folks hang out.
John
Heres a New york times ariticle that I hope will help:
The morning earthquake also sparked a fire at a nuclear power plant, which later leaked a small amount of water containing radioactive materials into the sea. The company operating the plant said the radioactivity level posed no danger to the environment.
The first earthquake, whose strength was estimated at 6.8 on the Richter scale, was centered off the cost of Niigata, a prefecture that was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2004. Skyscrapers in Tokyo, about 130 miles southeast of Niigata, swayed for almost a minute from the tremor.
The earthquake, which occurred at 10:13 a.m. on a day that is a national holiday in Japan, caused minor tsunamis and buckled roads and bridges in the region. It toppled one local train off its rails, and caused the shutdown of service on a high-speed intercity “bullet train” line for several hours. Power and water supplies were cut off to tens of thousands of homes.
Nuclear reactors at power plants were shut down automatically, but the quake caused a small fire at an electrical transformer at a nuclear plant in Kashiwazaki, a coastal town close to the quake’s epicenter. Japanese television stations showed flames and black smoke billowing from the facility, which is operated by Tokyo Electric and is the world’s largest nuclear plant.
Tokyo Electric initially said that there was no radiation leak at the plant. But later in the evening, it said in a statement that 1.5 liters (a bit less than three pints) of water containing low levels of radioactive material leaked into the Sea of Japan from two locations at its No. 6 reactor.
The leaks occurred at about 12:50 p.m., but the company was not certain five and a half hours later that the water was radioactive, the statement said.
More than 7,000 people in the quake-affected region have left their homes for evacuation centers, according to NHK, the public broadcaster.
Aftershocks c
I saw a brief clip on the TV news which looked like the locomotive of a passenger train had come off the rails and tilted about 45 degrees while sitting in a station.
I remember seeing a documentary a few months ago that explained what happens to bullet trains during an earthquake. Apparently, the moment a seismograph detects the beginning of an earthquake, a radio signal is automatically sent to each train’s computer to immediately apply the emergency brakes.
Second that last thought, that’s what happens!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Descarrilamento_de_shinkansen_chuetsu_23-10-2004.JPG
In this case of high speed derailment no one was seriously hurt.
After my opening question, I too saw the tv snapshot. Looks to me like the ground moved horizontally and the platform knocked the locomotive sideways. In the history photo the other poster offered, that tip-over could equally well be explained by crosswise ground motion.
My memory comes with no guarantee, but I think that Japan’s 6.8 quake is about the size to make surface motions of a foot or two amplitude.
“Toppled” seems like a pretty good word for what happened.
John