TRUTH OR FAKE 2012

2012 explained: The scientific facts

Leading scientists around the world have rubbished the 2012 myths. But the deluded new-age types and crazed conspiracy theorists still insist we're either heeding towards Armageddon or there will be something 'major' happen. Funny none of them know what that something is!

Perhaps you've been worried. Perhaps you're fearful. But you've come to the right place. Take a deep breath... the world will carry on is normal in 2012. In fact, we're already a couple of months into 2012 and nothing has happened.

These are the five scientific facts that prove the conspiracy that the world will end in 2012 is not true.

The Nibiru theory

2012 myth: A planet called 'Nibiru' will collide with the earth in December 2012.

Fact: The planet Nibiru does not exist. It has never been seen by any astronomers. The claim was first made by an obscure sci-fi author and was latched onto by conspiracy theorists.

They claim that the planet is ''invisible'' but this is impossible. It would also be impossible for the government to conceal a new planet as it would be tracked by academics and amateur astronomers worldwide.

The planet Nibiru does not exist, according to scientists

Mayan calendar

2010 myth: The world will end at the same time as the Mayan calendar in December 2012.

Fact: There have been thousands of calendars in use over the years.

Calendars, whether contemporary or ancient, cannot predict the future of our planet or warn of things to happen on a specific date such as 2012.

Digital clocks reset at 23.59 each night to 00.00 but the world continues. Calendars go from December 31 to January 1 each year but the world continues.

Nostradamus

2012 myth: The end of the world in 2012 coincides with a prediction by sixteenth century philospher and visioanry Nostradamus.

Many 2012 belivers have taken as truth Nostradamus' interpretation that something will happen in 2012.

Fact: There's no evidence that Nostradamus has correctly predicted anything. His vague writings are based on imagery and metaphor and can be interpreted in many different ways.

Earth's rotation

2012 myth: An alignment of planets in our galaxy, the Milky Way, could revers the Earth's rotational or disrupt the Earth's gravitational field.

Fact: A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. It has never happened and never will. It would be like a basketball that is spinning on somebody's finger suddenly stopping and going the other way.

With regard to the Earth's gravitational field, the magnetic polarity of Earth does take place around every 400,000 years but scientists don't believe it will take place for another few millennia and there is no evidence it would do any harm.

2012 film

2012 myth: The film '2012' is a warning sign or prediction that the world is due to end shortly.

Fact: The film uses a sophisticated PR campaign which incorporates elements of 'viral' marketing. The trailer for the film plays on conspiracy theorists' fears that the truth is being somehow hidden by directing viewers to a 'faux scientific' website. Did the events in Jurassic park, Jumanji, or Men in Black ever happen? Quite simply, Hollywood bossed have used fears, rumours and scaremongering to make money at the box-office.

I wander what cause wave

The ocean surface is in continual motion. Waves are the result of disturbance of the water surface; waves themselves represent a restoring force to calm the surface. The standard example is the rock-in-the-pond scenario. The rock provides the disturbing force, and generates waves that radiate outward, eventually losing their momentum and dissipating their energy so that the pond returns to calm.

Characteristics of Waves

Wave characteristics include a crest at the top and a trough at the bottom. The difference in elevation between the crests and trough is the wave height. The distance between the crest or the troughs of waves is termed the wavelength. The ratio of wave height to wavelength is the wave's steepness.

A cohesive force, termed capillarity, holds the water molecules of the ocean surface together, allowing insects and debris to be supported. Capillarity is the initial restoring force for any body of water. The major disturbing force in the open ocean is wind. As winds begin to blow across the surface, they create pressure and stress. Small, rounded waves, called capillary waves, begin to form. These "ripples" have very short wavelengths, less than 1.74 centimeters (0.7 inch). For these small waves, capillarity is the restoring force that smoothes the surface.

As winds increase, capillary wave development increases and the sea surface becomes rough. This presents perfect conditions for the wind to catch more surface area of the wave, transferring increased energy to the water. As the young wave grows in height, gravity replaces capillarity as the restoring force, and the wave becomes a gravity wave with wavelengths exceeding 1.74 centimeters. These waves now exhibit the standard profile of a progressive wave.

Waves at the surface of the ocean and lakes are orbital progressive waves. This type of wave forms at the boundary of two liquids of different density, in this case air and water. The wave form moves forward with a steady velocity, so it is called "progressive." The water itself moves very little: Like the crowd in a football stadium doing "the wave," individual particles of water move up and then down, but do not follow the moving wave form. The complete motion of the water particles is a circle, so that a small object floating on top of the wave actually describes a circle as the wave goes underneath it.

Wave period is the length of time it takes for a wave to pass a fixed point (crest to crest). The speed of a wave is equal to the wavelength divided by the wave period. Wave steepness is defined as the ratio of the wave

Waves with constant wavelength Waves touch bottom

height to the wave length. When the wave builds and reaches a steepness greater than a ratio of 1:7, the wave breaks and spills forward. The wave has actually become too steep to support itself and gravity takes over. Breakers are normally associated with shorelines, where they are known as surf, but can occur anywhere in the ocean.

The passage of a wave only affects the water down to the wave base, which is half the wave length. Below that depth there is negligible water movement. This is the part of the water column that submarines use for "clear sailing." Waves in water deeper than half their wavelengths are known as deep water waves. Their speed in meters per second can be approximated by the equation Speed = gT/2π, where T is the wave period and g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.8 meters per second squared).

Shallow water waves are those moving in water less than one-twentieth the depth of their wavelength. Waves approaching shallow water at a shoreline are in this category. In these waves, the orbits of water particles are flat ellipses rather than circles. Shallow water wave movements can be felt at the bottom, and their interaction with the bottom affects both wave and sea floor. Shallow water waves include both seismic sea waves (tsunamis) generated by earthquakes at sea, and tide waves generated by the attraction of the Moon and the Sun on the ocean. Both of these wave types have such long wavelengths that average ocean depths are easily less than one-twentieth that value. The speed of shallow water waves decreases as the water depth decreases; it is equal to 3.1 times the square root of depth. Transitional waves have wave lengths between 2 and 20 times the water depth; their speed is controlled in part by water depth and in part by wave period.

Breaking Waves.

As waves approach landmasses, the wave base begins to contact the sea floor and the wave's profile begins to change. This friction slows the circular orbital motion of the wave's base, but the top continues at its original speed. In effect, the wave begins leaning forward on its approach to shore. When the wave's steepness ratio reaches 1:7, the wave's structure collapses on top of itself, forming a breaker.

A spilling breaker is the classic rolling wave coming up a gradually sloping sandy beach. The long incline drains the energy of the wave over a large area.

A plunging breaker approaches a steeper beachfront and forms a curling crest that moves over a pocket of air. The curling water is traveling faster

The classic curl of a breaking wave is associated worldwide with surfing. As a wave approaches shore, friction slows the bottom of the wave while allowing the top to continue moving, which causes the top to lean forward in this manner.

than the slowing wave base, and the water outruns itself with nothing beneath for support.

Along oceanfronts with steep inclines or cliffs, a wave's energy is expelled in a very short distance, often with great force. These surging breakers develop and break right at the shoreline, proving dangerous and sometimes fatal to unsuspecting beachgoers. The tremendous energy dissipated at the ocean-level interface results in enormous erosion and deposition.

Wave Refraction, Reflection, and Diffraction

Seldom do wave fronts approach the shore parallel to the beach. Rather, their direction of approach varies according to the prevailing winds and the contour of the oceanfront. As a wave approaches a straight shoreline at an angle, one part of the wave base may begin to feel the bottom first and begins to slow before the rest of the wave. This causes the wave crest to bend towards the shore, termed refraction, allowing waves to break more closely parallel to the beachfront than was their original direction. Along irregular shorelines, waves also refract, but tend to converge on headlands, causing erosion of sediments; they disperse in bays, causing deposition.

As waves contact the oceanfront, not all their energy is expelled. The wave will tend to reflect back to sea at an angle equal to its approach. The reflected waves may form wave interference patterns with the original incoming wave fronts.

Wave diffraction is the creation of a wave around an obstacle and depends on the interruption of the obstacle to provide a new point of departure for the wave. As waves approach a chain of islands, some of the approaching wave's energy is directed through the spaces between the islands. These spaces serve as a starting point for new waves that spread across the ocean surface beyond the island chain.

Waves refract (bend) as they approach shallow water. Waves also can diffract (bend) around an obstacle, or reflect (bounce back) when encountering a vertical barrier. Wave refraction patterns are visible in the shallow water to the left of this point, which is Point Udall in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

Formation of Waves at Sea

Most waves are formed by wind, usually by storm systems. Unlike storm systems that are observed over land, ocean storm systems can be quite large, some exceeding 805 kilometers (500 miles) in diameter. These systems break up as they approach land, but over the ocean there is little to affect them. The wind transfers its energy to the water through wave-building directly under the storm system in an area of mixed wave types simply termed "sea." Factors that affect the amount of energy transferred to the waves depend on wind speed, the duration of time the wind blows in one direction, and the "fetch," the distance over which the wind blows in one direction.

Sea-wave heights determine the amount of energy transferred. Normal sea-wave heights average less than 2 meters (6.6 feet) but have been observed reaching 10 meters (33 feet.) Once the wave steepness reaches the critical 1:7 ratio of wave height to wavelength, the wave breaks and openocean breakers are formed, termed whitecaps.

At a given wind speed, there is a maximum wind duration and fetch which allow the waves to be fully developed. This "fully developed sea" is in equilibrium and is defined as the maximum size to which waves can grow under given conditions of wind speed, duration, and fetch. At this point, the waves of a fully developed sea will gain as much energy from the wind as they lose to gravity as breaking whitecaps.

Storm-Generated Waves: Swell

The most intense wave generating activity is where the winds are strongest, directly under the storm system. As waves radiate out from the center, the

Evidence of wave action is seen in these giant sandwaves as viewed from a helicopter during a Lidar survey off Florida's coast. Lidar is an acronym for light detection and ranging.

winds decrease near the margins of the storm system. The waves soon begin to outpace the wind speeds; waves with the longest wave lengths travel fastest; these large waves traveling away from a storm are called swell.

Swell waves are long-crested, uniformly symmetrical waves that have traveled outside the area of their origin. Swell waves expel little energy and travel vast areas of the ocean, fanning out from approaching storm systems. Wave dispersion begins to take effect and the swell waves becomes grouped by their wavelength. Waves with longer wavelengths travel faster and soon outrun the slower waves with shorter wavelengths. The long-wavelength waves do not have steep wave heights but move out of the generating area first, with wave groups of progressively shorter wavelengths following. This procession is termed a "swell wave train" and can travel long distances, breaking on distant shores.

As storm systems approach shore from far at sea, swell will begin to break, forming long, low rolling surf. Medium size swell follows with taller, curling breakers. As the storm system nears shore, the swell comes in high and fast with plunging breakers and crashing surf.

Interference.

As swell wave trains fan out across the Earth's oceans, waves from different storm systems will eventually meet and collide, causing interference and interesting wave behavior. When swell wave trains collide they can produce several types of interference.

Constructive interference occurs when two swell wave trains have the same wavelength and they combine in-phase. There is no affect on wavelength, but wave height increases

Destructive interference occurs when the wave crest of one swell combines with the wave trough of another. The energy from these swells cancels each other out and the surface becomes calmer.

Commonly, however, swell wave trains combine in mixed interference, producing unpredictable and complex wave patterns and heights. This type of interference may produce rogue waves, extremely large unpredictable waves that can be very dangerous to ships.

On rare occurrences in the open ocean, an unusually large wave may develop. These rogue waves are massive, single waves that can reach extreme heights of 15 to 30 meters (50 to 100 feet) or more. It is believed that one cause for rogue waves is overlap of multiple waves that produce an extremely large wave; they tend to occur most frequently downwind of islands and shoals. If storm winds push waves against a strong ocean current, rogue waves can develop. In the Agulhas Current off the southeastern coast of Africa, Antarctic storms push waves northeast into the oncoming current. Rogue waves have destroyed many ships in this region, capsizing them, smashing bow or stern, or lifting them amidships to snap the keel.

Internal Waves

Internal waves are disturbances that occur at the boundary between two water masses of different density. The wave heights can be quite large, sometimes exceeding 100 meters (330 feet) and may be formed by tidal movement, turbidity currents, wind stress, or passing ships. The surface expression of the waves is minimal, but if the crests approach the surface they affect the reflection of light from the water. Excellent photographs of internal waves have been taken from the space shuttle. As internal waves approach a landmass, they build up and expend their energy as turbulent currents.

Kelvin Waves.

Kelvin waves in the western Pacific Ocean are internal waves that form near Indonesia and travel east toward the Americas whenever the west-to-east trade winds diminish. A typical Kelvin wave is 10 centimeters high, hundreds of kilometers wide, and a few degrees warmer than surrounding waters. Scientists pay careful attention to these Kelvin waves because they may be precursors of the next El Niño.

Tsunamis (Seismic Sea Waves).

Seismic waves are formed when a severe shock such as an earthquake affects the ocean. The largest seismic sea wake known from geologic history is the one created by the impact of the K-T meteor 65 million years ago. The 10-mile-wide asteroid hit Earth at 72,000 kilometers (45,000 miles) per hour and created a wave estimated to be 914 meters (3,000 feet) high that traveled throughout Earth's oceans. Seismic waves are also referred to as tsunamis, their Japanese name. Sometimes they are incorrectly called tidal waves; they are not associated with the tides.

Tsunamis typically have wave lengths of 200km, which makes them shallow water waves even in the ocean. They travel extremely fast in open water, 700 km/h (435 m/h). These waves have insignificant wave heights at sea, but in shallow coastal waters they can exceed 30m (100 ft). They may travel thousands of kilometers across the ocean nearly unnoticed until they reach land. Earthquakes in the Aleutian Trench regularly send large seismic waves across the Pacific Ocean, affecting Hawaii and the coastlines of the North Pacific Ocean.

Seiche Waves.

The seiche phenomenon relates to the rocking of water in a confined space at a resonant frequency. When disturbed, water in a pan, bathtub, lake, harbor, or ocean basin will slosh back and forth at a particular resonant frequency. The frequency will alter with changes in the amount of water and the size and shape of the confined space. This is one type of standing wave rather than a moving progressive wave. Seiche wave periods can last for a few minutes to more than a day and have extremely long wavelengths. Even so, damage from seiche waves is rare because wave height in the open ocean generally is only a few inches.

Large waves generated by hurricanes and other natural events can wreak havoc along the coast and cause flooding far from shore. Despite the sometimes spectacular damage caused along the coast, inland flooding causes approximately half of the hurricane-related deaths in the United States. These boats in a marina were tossed about by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, whose storm surge inundated areas from the northwestern Bahamas, through the southern Florida peninsula, up to the coast of Louisiana.

Storm Surge.

Another phenomenon, storm surge, is associated with weather and is very dangerous. The air pressure over a section of the ocean affects the sea level. Sea level under a strong high-pressure system is pushed downward to a level several centimeters below normal sea level. Conversely, under an area of extreme low pressure, such as a hurricane or tropical storm, a mound of water develops and is pushed along by the storm front. As the storm system approaches land, the mound of seawater becomes a mass of wind-driven, elevated water, usually associated with large storm waves.

Storm surges are most dangerous when they coincide with high tides. They are responsible for the majority of flooding and destruction associated with hurricanes. Ninety percent of people killed by hurricanes are killed by storm surge. Severe hurricanes can produce storm surge to 12 meters (40 feet) in height.

An 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan early Friday, triggering tsunamis that sent a wave filled with boats and houses toward land. Are you in an affected area? Send an iReport. Read the full report on how the quake hit Japan and generated a Pacific-wide tsunami.

[10:30 p.m. ET, 12:30 p.m. Tokyo] The 15-member Chinese rescue team is bound for the quake-hit region in Japan. The team's main task was to search for survivors, Yin Guanghui, deputy director of the China Earthquake Administration, said. The members of the Chinese International Search and Rescue are bringing four tons of materials and equipments for search and rescue as well as power supply and telecommunication services, Yin said.

[10:20 p.m. ET, 12:20 p.m. Tokyo] The death toll has climbed to 763. There are 639 missing and 1419 injured, according to Japan's national police agency.

[9:54 p.m. ET, 11:54 a.m. Tokyo] A meltdown may have occurred at at least one nuclear power reactor in Japan, the country's chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, said Sunday.

He also said that authorities are concerned over the possibility of another meltdown at a second reactor.

"We do believe that there is a possibility that meltdown has occurred. It is inside the reactor. We can't see. However, we are assuming that a meltdown has occurred," he said of the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility. "And with reactor No. 3, we are also assuming that the possibility of a meltdown as we carry out measures."

Edano's comments confirm an earlier report from an official with Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, who said, "we see the possibility of a meltdown."

A meltdown is a catastrophic failure of the reactor core, with a potential for widespread radiation release. However, Toshihiro Bannai, director of the agency's international affairs office, expressed confidence that efforts to control the crisis would be successful.

[9:35 p.m. ET, 11:35 a.m. Tokyo] A woman trapped in a secure building in downtown Sendai made a tearful plea to the world for help.

"Somehow, we can hang in there, I hope. We don't have any electric, water, gas... but please, help the people who lost their homes and the people on top of the buildings asking for help," Yasue Schumaker told CNN.

"We need foreign countries' help," she said, choking back tears. "We're in an emergency, please help us."

At least 49 countries and the European Union have offered relief to Japan, and supplies and personnel are on the way.

Schumaker, a resident of Hawaii originally from Sendai, had been visiting her hometown to care for her ailing mother.

Schumaker said people were too afraid to leave the building and no one knew when to expect help. Outside, she said she saw people sleeping in cars, perhaps reluctant to leave the safety of their vehicles for the cold weather.

[9:10 p.m. ET, 11:10 a.m. Tokyo] The U.S. State Department will on send a consular support team into the Sendai area near the earthquake's epicenter on Sunday, while adding personnel to the U.S. Tokyo embassy in an effort to aid American citizens. Ten U.S. Naval ships are bound for Japan carrying humanitarian aid and emergency crews in effort to aid in disaster relief, Anthony Falvo, a U.S. Navy Public Affairs Officer, said.

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, along with a guided-missile cruiser and destroyer ship, arrived off Japan's coast Sunday morning to support Japanese forces in disaster relief operations, the U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement.

[8:47 p.m. ET, 10:47 a.m. Tokyo] A state of emergency has been declared for three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Roughly 180,000 people who live within 10 to 20 kilometers of the Daiichi plant are being evacuated.

[7:40 p.m. ET, 9:40 a.m. Tokyo] Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday that another reactor of its Fukushima nuclear power plants had lost its cooling functions, Kyodo News reports. The utility supplier notified the government Sunday morning that the No. 3 reactor at the No. 1 Fukushima plant had lost the ability to cool the reactor core. The reactor is now in the process of releasing radioactive steam, top government spokesman Yukio Edano said, according to Kyodo News.

It was the sixth reactor overall at the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants to undergo cooling failure since the massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami struck Japan on Friday.

[6:45 p.m. ET, 8:45 a.m. Tokyo] 15 more people in the vicinity of Fukushima Daiichi's nuclear power plants have been exposed to radioactivity, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency has confirmed, according to Kyodo News.

[6:34 p.m. ET, 8:34 a.m. Tokyo] An aftershock was just felt in Sendai, CNN staff in Japan reports, the latest in a series of aftershocks to rock the quake zone since Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami.

"People here in Japan are quite used to earthquakes," CNN's Anna Coren said. "The concern is more quakes, more aftershocks could cause more tsunamis. That's what people are worried about."

Since the initial earthquake, there have been 250 aftershocks above 5.0 and almost 50 above 6.0, CNN's Chad Meyers said.

[6:30 p.m. ET, 8:30 a.m. Tokyo] There is currently no evidence of a nuclear meltdown at one of Fukushima Daiichi's nuclear power reactors in northern Japan, Japan's ambassador to the United States said.

"There was a concern about this reactor. We have confirmed that there was a blowup but it was not a blowup of reactor nor container. It was a blowup of the outer building so there was no leakage of the radioactive material," Ichiro Fujisaki told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

"We are now trying to cope with the situation by putting salt water into the reactor," he said. "There are some other issues with other reactors as well, which need also injection of water or taking out vapor because of increasing pressure into the container and we are now working on it."

When asked if there may be a nuclear meltdown, Fujisaki said, "we do not see any evidence of that at this time."

Engineers have been unable to get close enough to the core to know what's going on, an official with Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency told CNN Sunday. He based his conclusion on the fact that they measured radioactive cesium and radioactive iodine in the air Saturday night.

[5:48 p.m. ET, 7:48 a.m. Tokyo] A meltdown may be under way at one of Fukushima Daiichi's nuclear power reactors, an official with Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency told CNN Sunday.

A meltdown is a catastrophic failure of the reactor core, with a potential for widespread radiation release. However, Toshiro Bannai, director of the agency's international affairs office, expressed confidence that efforts to control the crisis would prove successful.

Meanwhile, a second reactor at the same facility failed shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said, according to TV Asahi. The power company said it was having difficulty cooling the reactor and may need to release radioactive steam in order to relieve pressure.

[5:10 p.m. ET, 7:10 a.m. Tokyo] Six canine disaster search teams trained have been deployed to Japan as part of Los Angeles County Task Force 2, Search Dog Foundation said Saturday. The 72-member team was mobilized by USAID and is being sent into the disaster zone along with Virginia Task Force 2. Per USAID, some 75 tons of rescue supplies and equipment for each Task Force are being delivered to the devastated region via military transport. Once on the ground, the job of SDF’s teams will be to comb the wreckage in search of live victims.

[4:57 p.m. ET, 6:57 a.m. Tokyo] Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea were closed on Saturday to carry out emergency safety checks, Kyodo News reports. The operator said the closure will probably last about 10 days. In Tokyo's Akihabara district, the operator of AKB Theater, a concert hall for exclusive use by all-girl pop idol group AKB48, said the same day the facility will be closed until Tuesday for a similar reason.

[4:48 p.m. ET, 6:48 a.m. Tokyo] The lights were turned off Saturday night at some of the best known landmarks in major Japanese cities after trouble at a Fukushima nuclear plant caused by Friday's massive earthquake prompted calls for electricity savings, Kyodo News reported.

The operator of Tokyo Tower said the move also reflects an intention to express condolences for the victims of the earthquake. Similar decisions were taken with regard to the Tsutenkaku Tower in Osaka, Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo and Bay Bridge in Yokohama, all of which are usually lit up at night, Kyodo reported.

[3:37 p.m. ET, 5:37 a.m. Tokyo] Japanese authorities have informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that the explosion at Unit 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant occurred outside the primary containment vessel, not inside, the agency said Saturday. The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), has confirmed that the integrity of the primary containment vessel remains intact.

As a countermeasure to limit damage to the reactor core, TEPCO proposed that sea water mixed with boron be injected into the primary containment vessel. This measure was approved by Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the injection procedure began at 8:20 p.m. local Japan time, the agency said. Japan has reported that four workers at Fukushima Daiichi were injured by the explosion, the IAEA said.

[3:17 p.m. ET, 5:17 a.m. Tokyo] The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sent two officials with expertise in boiling water nuclear reactors to Japan as part of USAID team.

[2:56 p.m. ET, 4:46 a.m. Tokyo] – There have been no reports of U.S. citizens killed or injured in Japan in the wake of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, according to the U.S. State Department statement. The U.S. State Department will send a consular support team on Sunday into the Sendai area near the earthquake's epicenter, while adding personnel to the U.S. Tokyo embassy in an effort to aid American citizens.

The National Weather Service on Saturday cancelled tsunami advisories for the immediate coastal areas of central and southern California, while warning residents of continued tidal surges in harbors across the region.

[1:20 p.m. ET, 3:20 a.m. Tokyo] Authorities have begun radiation exposure testing around Fukushima prefecture where three people - randomly selected out of a group of 90 - have tested positive for radiation poisoning, according to Japan's government broadcaster, NHK.

[1:14 p.m. ET, 3:14 a.m. Tokyo] Long lines persisted at food stores and at the pump as concern grew in Tokyo that food and fuel shortages may arise in the aftermath of the earthquake.

[1:10 p.m. ET, 3:10 a.m. Tokyo] Gas sales in Tokyo were being limited to 20 liters (5.3 gallons) per car.

[1:04 p.m. ET, 3:04 a.m. Tokyo] Missionaries in Japan serving the U.S.-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have all been accounted for and are considered safe, the church said Saturday.

[12:27 p.m. ET, 2:27 a.m. Tokyo] Two hundred-fifteen Chinese tour groups visiting Japan have been confirmed as safe, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the country's National Tourism Administration. More than 4,500 Chinese tourists were in Japan at the time of the quake and tsunami, the agency reported.

[11:49 a.m. ET, 1:49 a.m. Tokyo] Japan public broadcaster NHK reported the country's Defense Ministry had sent a unit that specializes in dealing with radioactive contamination to a command post near the stricken plant.

[11:48 a.m. ET, 1:48 a.m. Tokyo] The British government will dispatch a team of 59 fire service search and rescue specialists, two rescue dogs and a medical support team to join the international relief effort in Japan. They will take up to 11 tons of specialist rescue equipment, including heavy lifting and cutting equipment to save the lives of people who are trapped in the debris.

[10:51 a.m. ET, 12:51 a.m. Tokyo] About 50,000 Japan Self-Defense Force personnel were being deployed Saturday in quake and tsunami relief efforts, according to a Kyodo report in The Japan Times. Japan's Defense Ministry said 190 aircraft and 25 ships were involved in the effort, according to the report.

[10:23 a.m. ET, 12:23 a.m. Tokyo] In Shiroishi, a town near the area hardest hit by the quake, two SH-60 helicopters from U.S. Naval Air Facility Atsugi delivered 1,500 pounds of rice and bread donated by people in Ebina, southeast of Tokyo, the U.S. 7th Fleet, said in a statement Saturday.

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