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Century-old stone “tsunami stones” dot Japan's coastline (2015)

smithsonianmag.com

11–20 of 66 posts

Re: Century-old stone “tsunami stones” dot Japan's coastline (2015)

#12

I've always been fascinated by these because I love long term thinking. What current "tsunami stone" would you leave to future generations to prevent catastrophe?

https://www.reddit.com/r/georgism/comments/102jg2f/everybody...

Re: Century-old stone “tsunami stones” dot Japan's coastline (2015)

#13

This is a deeper dive on the stones and their locations. Please note that 317 stone tablets were built after the 2 tsunamis, 125 (40%) of them were washed away or destroyed by the 2011 tsunami. https://thefunambulist.net/magazine/cartography-power/incomp...

That suggests a possibly better strategy (though very long term): pepper the portion of the landscape believed to be safe with "it is safe to build here" monoliths, each as stable as a typical building, and over time only the ones that speak truly will remain.

Would work for volcanoes and earthquakes as well.

Re: Century-old stone “tsunami stones” dot Japan's coastline (2015)

#14

Fun facts, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was built beyond the warning limit of the tsunami stones. If those people that setup the tsunami stones are still alive during the incident they will have a kahuna of "I told you" moment.

Do you have a citation for this? The most Gemini could say is: "While research has not identified a specific tsunami stone located at the Fukushima Daiichi site that was directly violated, the spirit of these ancient warnings was undeniably ignored." (https://aistudio.google.com/app/prompts?state=%7B%22ids%22:%...)

Re: Century-old stone “tsunami stones” dot Japan's coastline (2015)

#15
post #6

1896 is pretty recent actually I thought they were like thousands of years old

Oldest known stones date back to the early 1400s but there must have been older stones. Already those stones are mostly unreadable because of erosion and they are dated by secondary sources.

Re: Century-old stone “tsunami stones” dot Japan's coastline (2015)

#16

Fun facts, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was built beyond the warning limit of the tsunami stones. If those people that setup the tsunami stones are still alive during the incident they will have a kahuna of "I told you" moment.

Do you have a citation for this? The most Gemini could say is: "While research has not identified a specific tsunami stone located at the Fukushima Daiichi site that was directly violated, the spirit of these ancient warnings was undeniably ignored." ( https://aistudio.google.com/app/prompts?state=%7B%22ids%22:%... )

I don't know if there are "Tsunami stones" in the area but the nuclear power plant is built at sea level [1] so would most probably be below them.

The issue is the height of the seawalls that was not sufficient (and perhaps historical warnings, if any, were ignored):

"The subsequent destructive tsunami with waves of up to 14 metres (46 ft) that over-topped the station, which had seawalls" [1]

Edit: Regarding historical warnings:

"The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake occurred in exactly the same area as the 869 earthquake, fulfilling the earlier prediction and causing major flooding in the Sendai area." [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Powe...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/869_J%C5%8Dgan_earthquake

Re: Century-old stone “tsunami stones” dot Japan's coastline (2015)

#17
post #13

This is a deeper dive on the stones and their locations. Please note that 317 stone tablets were built after the 2 tsunamis, 125 (40%) of them were washed away or destroyed by the 2011 tsunami. https://thefunambulist.net/magazine/cartography-power/incomp...

That suggests a possibly better strategy (though very long term): pepper the portion of the landscape believed to be safe with "it is safe to build here" monoliths, each as stable as a typical building, and over time only the ones that speak truly will remain. Would work for volcanoes and earthquakes as well.

They just do the same thing with regular homes :)

Re: Century-old stone “tsunami stones” dot Japan's coastline (2015)

#18
post #6

1896 is pretty recent actually I thought they were like thousands of years old

You can put warnings everytime there is a tsunami, which is "often" in Japan, but the issue is that a massive one like the 2011 earthquake and tsunami is a once in a millenium event so would indeed need to rely on very old warnings:

"The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake occurred in exactly the same area as the 869 earthquake, fulfilling the earlier prediction and causing major flooding in the Sendai area. [1]

Modern society is not good at this sort of very long term consideration and planning.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/869_J%C5%8Dgan_earthquake

Re: Century-old stone “tsunami stones” dot Japan's coastline (2015)

#20
post #17
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That suggests a possibly better strategy (though very long term): pepper the portion of the landscape believed to be safe with "it is safe to build here" monoliths, each as stable as a typical building, and over time only the ones that speak truly will remain. Would work for volcanoes and earthquakes as well.

They just do the same thing with regular homes :)

Sadly, that's at least partially true. But rebuilding on a sight where a home was destroyed eliminates the information value (that this site isn't safe from tsunami) and the coverage is far from uniform/regular (so you can't tell if there are no buildings in an area because it was previously undeveloped or is unsafe).
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