Japan's Nuclear Plant

I'm just going to say that calling this Japan's Chernobyl has to be overblown. The USSR's nuke plants were nowhere near as safe as plants in Japan (and in many other countries) today.

But, that said, this guy knows a bit more about it than I do:

“The electrical grid is down. The emergency diesel generators have been damaged. The multi-reactor Fukushima atomic power plant is now relying on battery power, which will only last around eight hours. The danger is, the very thermally hot reactor cores at the plant must be continuously cooled for 24 to 48 hours. Without any electricity, the pumps won’t be able to pump water through the hot reactor cores to cool them. Once electricity is lost, the irradiated nuclear fuel could begin to melt down. If the containment systems fail, a catastrophic radioactivity release to the environment could occur.”

Are we supposed to believe that they can't pretty easily get replacement generators in there? Why?

Yellowstone Earthquake Coming to Solve World's Problems

Yellowstone National Park is home to what is probably the largest caldera in the world, and it has an active ocean of restless magma underneath it. It's a supervolcano. And it's acting super funny:

Scientists are questioning whether a historic volcano in Yellowstone National Park is preparing to erupt after a swarm of earthquakes shook the area.

Yellowstone National Park rarely experiences earthquakes of any "real" magnitude, but starting on December 26, the area has been hit several times by earthquakes up to 3.9 in magnitude.
Scientists and researchers are stumped as to why the earthquakes are stronger than usual and aren't sure if it's indicative of a problem.

The latest from the USGS.

Earthquakes off Vancouver Island

Several since Monday, largest a 6.1 today (USGS calls it a 5.8, so does CNN).

Time given is Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC. You can convert to your time here.

These maps are cool. That's a big blue box.

Earthquakes [Updtd]

Reno's just five hours away and it seems like there are little quakes happening everywhere . Here's another one.

The Big One's coming. I know it...

Update, 4/28: 4.8 off Vancouver Island. Draw a line from Reno to that quake...straight through my kitchen, swear to God.

The Big One...

Earthquakes Off Oregon

Man, there have been a a lot of earthquakes off the coast recently, and not just the 600 or so in the last 10 days reported in this story. More here and here at the USGS.

[Image via USGS]