BREAKING NEWS: 6.9 Earthquake Japan 11-30-10

This is rather big isnt it?

EDIS Number: EQ-20101130-195267-JP Common Alerting Protocol
Magnitude: 6.9
Mercalli scale: 9
Date-Time [UTC]: 30 November, 2010 at 03:24:43 UTC
Local Date/Time: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 03:24 at night at epicenter
Location: 28° 24.000, 139° 42.000
Depth: 481.00 km (298.88 miles)
Region: Asia
Country: Japan
Distances: 249.4 km (154.97 miles) of Tono, Tokyo-to
Source: USGS-RSOE
Generated Tsunami: Not or no data!
Damage: Not or not data!
Additional information (Radius of 100 km)
Nuclear facilities: There are no nuclear facilities nearby the epicenter.
Airport(s): There are no airport(s) nearby the epicenter.
Volcanoes: None volcano in the 100-kilometer radius.
The potential impact of the earthquake
Well-built buildings suffer considerable damage. Houses that are not bolted down move off their foundations. Some underground pipes are broken. The ground cracks. Reservoirs suffer serious damage.

LINK

USGS has knocked it down to 6.6.. does not seem like much of a change, but can be significant.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

reply to post by onehuman


Not sure where that area is..Haven't heard any word on MSN so must have hit an isolated area..
Thats good....s&f

The big thing is the depth - this is deep, and nothing much to worry about. If this was 10km deep then it would rock and roll big time, 6.9 is a decent sized quake for sure.

I have lived in NZ most of my life, aside from several years in other places including the UK. I seem to remember there being a lot of quakes when i was a kid here, but i can't help but feeling that the Pacific plate is warming up. We have had a few quakes here (Christchurch 7.1 with dozens of aftershocks and yesterday Taranaki had a 5.1 quake felt over much of the lower north island) recently and the Pacific in general seems to be getting hit by a quake every other day. Is this normal or is it increasing? The earth i think goes through cycles - it has been extremely geologically active in the past and i wonder if we are in for another cycle of increased activity. Whaddya reckon?

Seems to be at a 6.6 now... don't really see anything regarding a tsunami warning. maybe its isolate?

The area is used to very large quakes and although this is still a big one it was reported with the location and depth it wouldn't cause a tsunami. It shouldn't have any big damage to the area, japan has great building technology for earthquakes.

Originally posted by backinblack
reply to post by onehuman

 

Not sure where that area is..Haven't heard any word on MSN so must have hit an isolated area..
Thats good....s&f

Its about 500 miles south of Tokyo in the ocean.

If there was/is no tsunami generated its nothing to really worry about at the moment.

and Then, we could always go the conspiracy route and say... hmmm Korea, dont panic unless Japan gets restless, well let's distract japan and beam our HAARP at them and keep them, busy... kick up the weather a bit... hide the right hand...Oh wait, its just a regular old earthquake.... silly me... I've been reading this site to long!

Sorry couldn't help myself. I hope all are safe, I really do.

Well I live about 300 miles east or so of the epicenter on the island of Okinawa, we got no tsunami warning or anything like that, and didn't feel it. It was a pretty deep quake and looks like no damage was done.

Why do they always "downgrade" quake magnitudes?

I have yet to see an example of them "upgrading" it.

Point is, it causes me to doubt their revisions because they always downgrade things. It's a pattern that is not very logical.

Seems to me upgrades would be fairly commonplace as well. But hey thats just my perspective and a good question.

So call me skeptical of "downgrades", it just seems unlikely that every quake gets downgraded and none ever get upgraded. It smells fishy.

So I like the 6.9 figure a lot more than the 6.6 figure.

Wow. Pretty good size, then. Still, Japan's on the Ring of Fire if I'm not mistaken, so they're probably used to quakes like that.

This quake was pretty deep at 478km/297mi!

Apparently this is called a Deep Focus Earthquake, which is an earthquake between 300-700km below Earth's surface. They only occur along subduction zones and large trenches, and this seems to all check out- it's smack dab on the subduction zone amongst the Pacific, Philippine, and Eurasian plates. It's also located near various trenches/troughs.

The deepest earthquake ever recorded seems to have been at 684 km under the Fiji Islands in 1977...
my.opera.com...

Though after searching the ANSS Earthquake catalog... it seems the deepest earthquake was at 750 km, still under the Fiji Islands, but in 1954:

Date Time Lat Lon Depth Mag Magt Nst Gap Clo RMS SRC Event ID
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1954/06/10 18:36:49.00 -19.0000 -179.0000 750.00 Unk 0 0.00 NEI 195406104002

It seems deep focus earthquakes don't cause much damage... at least I hope not for Tokyo's sake.

Google earth has reported another two in the last hour check for details on Google Earth.

www.washingtonpost.com...



6.9-magnitude earthquake struck off Japan's southern coast Tuesday, shaking a broad swath of the country and swaying buildings in downtown Tokyo.

No damage or injuries were immediately reported, and Japan's meteorological agency said there was no danger of a tsunami.

I'm glad everyone seems to be ok... No damage. no tsunami, no deaths, I think Japan escaped "the big one" for now.

No tsunami warnings....yet.

I didn't feel a thing.

reply to post by onehuman
I was in Okinawa Japan back in 95 when they were hit with a big quake on the mainland in Kobe,I remember I was sitting in a chair and started the chair stated to shake across the floor that was a 7.3.

I lived in japan from 1983 to 1986. Camp Zama ... South of Tokyo.
We got huge earthquakes like this all the time. Man ... that place was rock'n!!
A few tsunami's too. Not the biggies .. but enough to kill.
When I was stationed there we were told that Tokyo is supposed to slide into the
ocean just like California is. Considering how much shaking goes on, I'm
surprised it hasn't happened already. I'm also surprised that Mt. Fuji hasn't
woken up yet ... that'll be a mess.

reply to post by 3finjo


Yes, totally agree..... like you, I have lived in NZ for most of my life and experienced many small Earthquakes and one biggy of 6.8 and yes, being centered shallow makes the experience all the more violent.

Hey guys. I live in the tokyo area, and i did feel an earthquake today. I'd say it happened around 6/7 hours ago? cant remember. It was the biggest one i felt in a while, but it def wasn't in the magnitude 6 area. My house shook for a good few seconds. There was nothing about it on the news or anything so i think everybody here is alright.

From what I understand a great deal of Japan's infrastructure is constructed in consideration for earth-quakes, so although it is an EQ on the upper end of the scale, I wouldn't imagine too much tragedy.

Good find thanks for posting! S&F