Hope everything is alright...
Posted on 06/13/2008 4:58:12 PM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
We just had a very strong earthquake which fiercely rocked and rolled the main Island of Honshu in Japan.
TV broke with news on all channels IN ADVANCE OF EARTHQUAKE, warning people to "get ready". 8:43 a.m. local time Saturday (just about 10 minutes ago). 7:43 p.m. Friday Eastern Time.
Then, sure enough, the long, rolling shaking began, and increased in intensity. I estimate the shaking to have gone on for at least 45 seconds. It hit here at 8:45 a.m. It literally gave us 2 minutes to prepare. I have never experienced an advance earthquake warning.
The epicenter is considerably far from Tokyo, way up in northwest Japan. So I am sure there is little or no damage in Tokyo, but I can imagine damage and/or loss of life near the epicenter. It may well have been a 7.5. We will see.
Knowing it is coming perhaps makes the feelings more intense, with the sentiment of anticipation setting in.
Hope you and yours are OK AIT..
Glad you're o.k.
do you know where in NW Japan? My daughter lived for 2 years in Tajima in Fukushima Prefecture, and has several friends who are still there.
They have been testing this system in California... basically because the sensors can alert a network faster than the waves move through the earth.... I am glad to see it work in Japan......In CA it will probably never work, due to different entities involved.
Wow. Stay frosty for any aftershocks.
Hope everything is alright...
6.9
WOW!!!! Glad you are ok!!!!
USGS website indicates it was a 6.9..
Now reporting 6.9
Magnitude SEVEN plus
6.9
Date-Time Friday, June 13, 2008 at 23:43:46 UTC
Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 08:43:46 AM at epicenter
Location 39.106°N, 140.608°E
Depth 10.3 km (6.4 miles) (poorly constrained)
Region EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances 82 km (51 miles) SW (214°) from Morioka, Honshu, Japan
83 km (52 miles) SSE (147°) from Akita, Honshu, Japan
98 km (61 miles) NNW (346°) from Sendai, Honshu, Japan
390 km (242 miles) N (11°) from TOKYO, Japan
Hope you and yours are all okay.
Felt it here, about 30 mi SW of Tokyo. Didn’t pay it much mind - figured it was one of the usual 5.0 +/- just off the coast. Yikes.
Earthquake Ping List. If you would like to have your name
added to this list or removed from it, please FReepmail me.
How much advance?
2 min predicted prior to Japan just happened now.....
EARTHQUAKE PING!
It literally gave us 2 minutes to prepare.
Got it.
Geographically, this area in Northwest Honshu to Tokyo would be like Seattle to San Francisco, in distance.
My only concern is if any nuke plants around in that area. I dont know of any though.
Now the aftershocks are starting up there.
| Magnitude | 6.9 |
|---|---|
| Date-Time |
|
| Location | 39.106°N, 140.608°E |
| Depth | 10.3 km (6.4 miles) (poorly constrained) |
| Region | EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN |
| Distances | 80 km (50 miles) SW of Morioka, Honshu, Japan 85 km (50 miles) SSE of Akita, Honshu, Japan 100 km (60 miles) NNW of Sendai, Honshu, Japan 390 km (240 miles) N of TOKYO, Japan |
| Location Uncertainty | horizontal +/- 10.3 km (6.4 miles); depth +/- 42.2 km (26.2 miles) |
| Parameters | NST= 63, Nph= 63, Dmin=354.5 km, Rmss=1.19 sec, Gp= 47°, M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7 |
| Source |
|
| Event ID | us2008tfdp |
They predicted the quake?
Just Wow!
Thanks for the ping.
Prayers going up for Japan and all those effected by the earthquake in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanks for the info. I will pass the info along to my daughter, who’s traveling and doesn’t pay attention to news when she’s on the road. Unlike a certain former presidential candidate, she spent Christmas in Cambodia in ‘04 and didn’t hear about the tsunami for a day or two!
Glad you’re ok ... the thought of a quake hitting Tokyo is too difficult to think about.
Give us an idea what you did in those two minutes. Fascinating...
Watch out for a second one.
Be well.
Wow!
Did the warning and the instant posting on FR scoop the American media?
I wouldn’t be surprised.
You sure it wasnt 48.5 seconds?
of course it did
AmericanInTokyo, thank you for your first person report. Please be sure to visit the USGS site and log your reactions, what you felt, your estimated time for the shaking, anything moved, etc.
51 miles SW of Morioka, Honshu, Japan
JUN 13 2008 23:43:46 GMT
Did you feel it? Report it here
Congrats on your EWS! Hope the damage is minimal.
damage reports now coming in. people trapped under homes. and now it starts. sad.
From what I understand they didn't predict it. They detected it in the north and sent the warning south. From http://nemo.sciencecourseware.org/VirtualEarthquake/VQuakeExecute.html: The speed of an earthquake wave is not constant but varies with many factors. Speed changes mostly with depth and rock type. P waves travel between 6 and 13 km/sec. S waves are slower and travel between 3.5 and 7.5 km/sec.
So 120 seconds warning for an earthquake 720 to 1560 km away. Maybe a shorter distance/longer time if the S waves are the stronger ones.
It's jsut a trick with time zones. ;)
Prayers extended for all in this earthquake.
Not the best way to start out your Saturday morning aye.
Just puts ya on edge all day anticipating aftershocks.
Be safe.
From the other side of the Ring of Fire. Global
Even without prediction a lot could be done. The “Ash Wednesday” earthquake here probably took a minute or more to reach us. With a net of sensors and some means to immediately notify the populace around the region, lives could be saved.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298755,00.html
TOKYO — Scientifically, it’s almost a sure thing — Tokyo is awaiting a catastrophic earthquake. In fact, it’s long overdue.
And when it does hit, officials say, there is one other thing that is a near certainty — hundreds of thousands of people will be in need of shelter that the government will not be able to provide. Studies show as many as 3 million will be homeless, some 600,000 more than shelters can now handle.
But with little space for new facilities, the city is hoping to cut down those numbers — and the number of deaths and injuries — by providing residents with the world’s first wide-scale earthquake alert system, which became operational on Monday.
The city is hoping that, with its extremely high population density and little space available to build new shelters, giving residents more information and even a slight heads up will cut down on confusion, mitigate the secondary damage caused by fires and encourage them to plan ahead for how to cope and where to go.
The new warning system uses data provided by the Meteorological Agency, which maintains an intricate network of sensors deep underground nationwide that estimate the intensity of a quake as soon as the ground ruptures.
The system works by detecting primary waves, which spread from the epicenter of a quake and travel faster than the destructive shear waves.
When primary waves of a certain intensity are detected, the alarms are set off as much as 30 seconds ahead of the shear waves.
Public broadcaster NHK will relay the warning almost instantaneously to its television and radio audience.
The alert system was launched at 9 a.m. Monday at the Japan Meteorological Agency, said Akiko Takahashi, an agency spokeswoman. Transport Ministers Tetsuzo Fuyushiba attended a ceremony at the agency, where he turned on the switch to launch the system.
The alert will be broadcast on NHK’s television and radio, as well as major network TV stations in Tokyo, she said. So far there have been no troubles reported, Takahashi said.
Pretty neat, AIT.
FoxNews will be signing you up shortly.
(Forget the earthquake warnings....Your political commentary would make it worth their money. :>)
Glad you’re OK AIT! How to scoop the media!
Lot's of negotiating, I'm sure! Stay safe, AIT, I love your comments.
Godzilla on a Pogo Stick?
Glad you are OK. Prayers for anyone who may be needing them at this time...
Pretty amazing that you all had advance warning - even if it was just 2 minutes!
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