Posted on 04/18/2016 9:38:20 AM PDT by Red Badger
Rescuers and a search dog check the damage around a landslide area caused by earthquakes in Minamiaso, Kumamoto prefecture on April 17. ============================================================================================================
TOKYO -- Seismic activity in southern Japan is mystifying geologists and keeping the nation on edge.
The island of Kyushu has been struck by a series of significant earthquakes, with the epicenters moving progressively further inland. The cluster started with the deadly quakes that hit Kumamoto Prefecture last Thursday and Saturday. Temblors subsequently rocked the Mount Aso region and neighboring Oita Prefecture.
There is a known concentration of faults in the area. Still, experts say it is highly unusual to have a string of quakes measuring around magnitude 6 and stretching over such a vast area. The epicenter of the Oita jolt was about 100km away from the first Kumamoto quake.
"I don't quite understand what is happening with the recent earthquakes, because it's an unfamiliar phenomenon," said Yoshihisa Iio, a professor at Kyoto University's Research Center for Earthquake Prediction.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said it is unprecedented to have a group of large quakes in these three parts of Kyushu. Experts are divided over how far the shaking will spread and whether it could prompt more quakes centered elsewhere.
Linked faults
The Beppu-Shimabara graben -- a type of geological formation -- stretches east to west across Kyushu, through Oita and Kumamoto prefectures. A number of faults run underground. Scientists believe such concentrations of faults increase the chances of what they call earthquake swarms. When one fault shifts, causing an earthquake, it can add to the strain on other faults, triggering more tremors.
The government's earthquake research committee attributed the magnitude-6.4 quake that hit Kumamoto last Thursday evening to a shift in the northern part of the Hinagu fault zone. The magnitude-7.3 quake that struck in the wee hours of Saturday morning occurred in the Futagawa fault zone, which runs just north of the Hinagu zone, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan said.
Part of the Futagawa fault zone, about 27km in length, slid by around 3.5 meters, according to the GSI.
The government committee met on Sunday and agreed that the Futagawa zone was the culprit in the main quake. This zone, it turns out, is longer than previously thought and stretches close to Mount Aso's caldera. The committee warned local residents to brace for more aftershocks.
Indeed, aftershocks continue in the Kumamoto, Aso and Oita regions. According to the Meteorological Agency, Kumamoto has seen the second-highest number of inland earthquakes on record, after those set off by the earthquake that hit the northwestern prefecture of Niigata in 2004.
Meanwhile, the GSI said the main Kumamoto quake unleashed 40% more seismic energy than the devastating 1995 earthquake. Saturday's quake "may have impacted nearby faults," said Hiroshi Yarai, director of the GSI's crustal deformation research division. Signs point to the quake nudging the Beppu-Haneyama fault zone in Oita, which lies northeast of the Futagawa zone.
The Beppu-Haneyama zone, in turn, is linked in the east to the Japan Median Tectonic Line -- a huge fault structure that extends through western Japan, including the island of Shikoku and the Kii Peninsula in Wakayama Prefecture. This raises the possibility that the Kumamoto earthquakes could cause a broader chain reaction across the Bungo Channel in the Shikoku region.
For now, though, a Meteorological Agency official said that "the Median Tectonic Line doesn't seem to have been activated yet."
“[Recent] Earthquakes across the world... could herald new MEGA quake, warns top scientist”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3421919/posts
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“See the earth itself crumble beneath your feet. The Mysterians!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rht-uyWidu0
I'm sure it's all that fracking they are doing over there!
heh!
Hyuck, Hyuck!”
-Rube that STILL believes in man-made Climate Change
That’s right...! Thanks I should have explained that!
Few things are more pointless than worrying about earthquakes.
All joking aside, while earth quakes and volcanic eruptions kill and injure many and destroy property and my heart goes out to the victims of such disasters, in truth, when the time comes that this geologic activity stops completely, that is actually THE very bad sign.
Not only would plate tectonics (the force that drives earthquakes, causes the earth’s plates to move slowly over time, and also creates new and uplifts existing mountain ranges) and volcanism stop, but more importantly the earth would lose its magnetic shield.
When that happens anyone still around on planet Earth will wish for the days of earthquakes and volcanoes.
Our planet will be dead and so will we.
Did you ever see this movie?.............................
But then it couldn’t be any worse than Dante’s Peak or Volcano (both came out in 1997) and nothing could have been worse than The Day After Tomorrow.
My great nephew who was about 12 years old at the time, was staying with me one weekend when his parents were out of town and we ended up watching The Day After Tomorrow on HBO. We laughed and laughed and laughed at it as if it was a comedy. Even at 12, my great nephew thought it was ridiculous but he liked the special effects. Some movies are just so bad that they are actually good but for completely different reasons than intended. At least the makers of the Sharknado movies are in on the joke.
South Park BTW did a great parody of The Day After Tomorrow.
Season 9, Episode 8 (Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow)
The Core makes those movies look Oscar Worthy......................
PLOT:
The Earth’s molten core has stopped ‘rotating’.
The Earth’s magnetic field has collapsed.
Birds are getting lost on migrations going the wrong way.
Airliners are getting lost, running out of fuel falling out of the sky.
We’re DOOMED!
A team of ‘specialists’ is assembled.
A specially designed ‘vehicle’ is built, based on the design of a hermit scientist living in the desert.
This vehicle can penetrate the Earth’s crust and make its way to ‘The Core’, and not melt while doing it.
Once there, they will strategically place Hydrogen Bombs at spaces surrounding the now solidifying core, melt it and get it spinning again by detonating them sequentially.
You will be aghast at the insipidness of this movie.
One thing to watch for while viewing this contrivance:
REMEMBER WHICH WAY IS “UP”.................................
LOL! Thanks for the warning.
It has great special EFX, and you can laff all you want at the ‘science”............................
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