Cornelius Smith
Cornelius Smith
The tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 created waves that hit an ice shelf in Antarctica a little over 8,000 miles away, breaking large parts of it into huge icebergs, the European Space Agency said on Tuesday.The ESA's Envisat Earth-monitoring satellite spotted icebergs that had broken from the Sulzberger ice shelf, and on March 16, it observed the pieces floating into the Ross Sea.
The largest iceberg was nearly six by four miles, making it slightly bigger in surface area than Manhattan, and it likely had a depth of about 260 feet.
Japanese estimates published a week after the event noted that the tsunami was about 76 feet high, generated by an underwater earthquake with a 9.0 magnitude.
Despite the fact that the waves probably only reached about 18 inches in height by the time they had crossed 8,100 miles of ocean to impact with the ice shelf, the rhythmic up-and-down movement was enough to stress the shelf's structure and cause chunks of it to break off, the ESA said in a press release.
Ice shelves are floating beds of ice attached to the coastline. Huge, thick masses, ice shelves are created by glaciers whose ice is discharged to the sea.
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Tsunami in Japan Caused Damage to Ice Shelves in Antarctica | ThirdAge
Japan agrees to end cell phone SIM lock: report
TOKYO — Japan on Friday agreed to end restrictions on mobile telephone users switching operators or using an overseas network by changing the SIM memory card, a report said.
The communications ministry and the nation's four major mobile phone networks reached the agreement and will set up new guidelines for the plan, Jiji Press reported.
The accord came after the government was reviewing the SIM-lock system used by Japanese carriers to prevent people from using a handset from one operator on a rival network by replacing the SIM card.
A SIM card is a portable memory chip that fits into a mobile telephone and allows the user to access the service provider's network, as well as storing personal data.
Japan's major mobile service carriers currently sell handsets that accept only their respective SIM cards.
This means Japanese people travelling overseas cannot fit SIM cards of local carriers in their Japanese handsets and must instead use the international services of their Japanese carriers, or buy a new phone.
Immediate confirmation of the report was not available.
Original article can be found here.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.
