7.0 Earthquake in Japan

usgs ^

[dennis1x]

Tsuanmi warning issued.

[Strategerist]

Given the depth and the distance offshore, likely not any sort of massive disaster and I'd doubt there'd be a serious tsunami.

[bonfire]

ping

[nwctwx]

NHK reporting Tsunami warning for Tokyo based on news reports.

[CindyDawg]

I just talked to my son and he didn't say anything. He's south of Toyko though.

[M. Espinola]

Last Updated: Tuesday, 16 August 2005, 03:11 GMT 04:11 UK

Earthquake rocks northern Japan

A powerful earthquake registering a magnitude of 6.8 has been felt in the Japanese capital Tokyo.

A tsunami alert has been issued for the country's Pacific coastal region, the meteorological agency has said.

Initial reports say there have been some casualties in the prefecture of Sendai, Kyoto News is quoted as saying.

Eyewitnesses have spoken of buildings swaying in the heart of Tokyo following the tremor, which struck around 1146 (02:46 GMT).

[plushaye]

From AP:

The quake was centered nearly 13 miles beneath the ocean off the coast of Miyagi prefecture in northeastern Japan, NHK said, citing the nation's Meteorological Agency. The quake hit around 11:46 a.m. local time.

A 20-inch tsunami was expected to reach Japanese shore about 15 minutes after the quake struck, NHK reported.

[wallcrawlr]

sumo match?

[nwctwx]

A 20-inch tsunami was expected to reach Japanese shore about 15 minutes after the quake struck, NHK reported.

That doesnt sound too bad.

[tortoise]

A 20-inch tsunami was expected to reach Japanese shore about 15 minutes after the quake struck, NHK reported.

I once made a tsunami that big in the bathtub. Chaos and utter destruction ensues.

[SevenofNine]

NOW THat not FUNNY NOT COOL LOL!

[Chena]

I'm sure the MSM will be all over this Japan earthquake; unlike the incredible 7.9 we experienced in Alaska on November 3, 2002. Guess it's based on the difference between LOTS of people, and only a few. :)

[M. Espinola]

This is a very good link for updates:

(Kyodo News) Powerful quake strikes northeastern Japan, tsunami warning issued

[plushaye]

A less-than-two-feet tsunami doesn't sound too bad, if that's accurate.

In the same article, it mentions the earthquake that triggered the Boxing Day Tsunami was a 9.1 to 9.3. I didn't realize it is now set for so high on the Richter Scale. I can't remember hearing about earthquakes in the 9.x range before.

[Billthedrill]

Many thanks. That's much better. 6.8 in Tokyo is still rockin' and rollin' pretty good.

[nwctwx]

That region of Japan near the epicenter appears to be relatively sparsely populated. The closest big city is nearly 30 miles away. Hopefully the damage/injuries/etc. will be minimal.

[plushaye]

The tsunami came in already:

AP:
A 4-inch tsunami reached the Japanese shore about 15 minutes after the quake struck, NHK said, with no major damage immediately reported. While a tsunami can rise to great heights when it arrives at the shore, such waves are often barely noticeable in the ocean.

[sourcery]

Event time in selected world time zones:

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:46:30 +1200 (NZST: Pacific/Auckland)
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 12:46:30 +1000 (EST: Australia/Sydney)
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:46:30 +0900 (JST: Asia/Tokyo)
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 10:46:30 +0800 (WST: Australia/Perth)
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 10:46:30 +0800 (HKT: Asia/Hong_Kong)
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 08:16:30 +0530 (IST: Asia/Calcutta)
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 06:46:30 +0400 (MSD: Europe/Moscow)
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 05:46:30 +0300 (IDT: Asia/Jerusalem)
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 04:46:30 +0200 (CEST: Europe/Amsterdam)
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 03:46:30 +0100 (BST: Europe/London)
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 02:46:30 +0000 (UT: Universal Time)
Mon, 15 Aug 2005 23:46:30 -0300 (BRT: America/Sao_Paulo)
Mon, 15 Aug 2005 23:46:30 -0300 (ART: America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires)
Mon, 15 Aug 2005 22:46:30 -0400 (EDT: America/New_York)
Mon, 15 Aug 2005 21:46:30 -0500 (CDT: America/Chicago)
Mon, 15 Aug 2005 20:46:30 -0600 (MDT: America/Denver)
Mon, 15 Aug 2005 19:46:30 -0700 (PDT: America/Los_Angeles)
Mon, 15 Aug 2005 16:46:30 -1000 (HST: Pacific/Honolulu)

[NormB]

Japan is sitting on so many faults it is amazing it hasn't had more big EQs.
Last time there was that EQ in Chili I predicted that it would trigger a big one in CA and the next day or so, wham!

Hope that doesn't happen this time!

[ChildOfThe60s]

[Strategerist]

To be technical and pedantic, actually the "Richter" itself scale has been out of use for decades; it was specific to Southern California.

There actually are a number of different earthquake magnitude scales that are all logarithmic (an 8 has 10 times more ground motion than a 7, a 9 has 100 times more ground motion amplitude than a 7) but use different ways to calculate this....there's Ms, Mb, and Mw. Each number higher is actually 31 times more energy released, so a 9 has 1,000 times more energy than a 7.

The most commonly used now is Mw or Moment Magnitude; the other scales don't work well for really big quakes. It still takes a long time to calculate an accurate magnitude for a really big quake.

The 9.15 estimate for the Dec. 26 quake is in Moment magnitude. There have been two larger quakes in Moment Magnitude that were fairly accurately measured; the largest was the 1960 Chile quake at 9.5, and also the Alaskan quake in 1964 was larger thna the Sumatra quake.