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  pizzaboy at 07:09 PM JST - 14th June

  zybster: relax and take a chill pill, no one is perfect, let alone in blogs. If you're going to get THAT excited over comments as tame as the ones you're blasting, your problems are much worse.

  my inlaws live in Kurihara, thank god they're ok.

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  Athletes at 08:05 PM JST - 14th June

  apecnetworks

  I have read the article of Australian professor about quake monitoring. According his idea, we can monitor the possibilities of quake like weather focus. Tectonic plate movement causing the upper layers of earth rising & falling. If he got daily earth layers images from Satellite, he will verify up & down movement level. Then he can predict the possibilities of quake It is very hard to get the accurate focus right now. However it is not impossible. Hopefully more research & development will come.

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  elicat at 09:41 PM JST - 14th June

  I was working when it happened. And I was discussing with co-workers about "what will be our reaction, if hit the work place". We were not taking it seriously. How could we immagine that the "real" quake was ocurring in the northern area. Thanks for no fire, although ocurred some land and rock slides. Thanks for the small number of death and injured people. It'll increase because of missing people, but I hope not that as in China. The people who felt the quake are somehow shocked, but they are calm and the authorities reaction-considered one of the best in the world to rescue and help the people-sent the aids in a short time. What a pitty we couldn't save at least one live life in China. The life continues!

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  OhioDonna at 11:28 PM JST - 14th June

  I am sorry to hear about the quake. Here in the US we are being bombarded with tornados and severe thunder storms in addtion to the flooding not to mention wild fires in drought stricken areas. Last evening a severe storm ripped through my neigborhood and we lost power for a short time. It seems as if the weather is more severe that the norm.

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  yasaxikoo at 12:53 AM JST - 15th June

  0.8 magnitude estimated less than in Wenchuan County Sichuan Province,China which cost nearly 80 thousands people died or missed,several hundreds of thousands being hurt and jolted massive areas of south-western part of China,just reported 4 died and 10 missed and 100 injured in Japan!so while China called earth quack as massive disaster,the same thing happened in Japan gonna to be called accident!

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  damexicanbuda at 07:09 AM JST - 15th June

  Dear dr jones, it is very interesting to read that you also noticed that in this earthquake in NORTHERN Japan, only 6 people died, while in China at least 50,000 plus are confirmmed dead, the Chinese have lower standards of construction for their buildings and a more crowded country, ok. Dude! Norhtern Japan, there is nothing up there, Iwate? Fukushima? If this had happended here in Tokyo, we would have thousands of dead and injured! No matter how good the safety standards here in Tokyo, it is just too crowded and people will panic, etc..just wait and see Mr. Japan is superior to China!

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  Apsara at 08:14 AM JST - 15th June

  You can't compare the earthquake in Iwate with the one in China, or use it as a basis to compare the two countries. Big differences in the size of the earthquake, the kind of area it hit and many other factors. The China earthquake was many times stronger than the one that hit Iwate- there is a huge difference between a 7.2 earthquake and and 8.0 earthquake, even though the difference in numbers may not look like much.

  The great Kanto earthquake of 1923 killed hundreds of thousands of people in and around Tokyo, and authorities estimate that over 100,000 could die if one of a similar size were to hit Tokyo today. An earthquake in Japan can often be a massive disaster (Kobe is another example, more than 6,000 people died), it just happens that THIS one wasn't because it hit an area with such a low population.

  If a magnitude 8.0 earthquake ever hits Tokyo you will see a worse disaster than the one in China, you can be pretty sure of that.

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  GJDailleult at 10:03 AM JST - 15th June

  Apsara is right, as the Richter Scale is a base 10 logarithmic scale. I have no idea what that means, having completely forgotten my long ago high school math, other than what it means regarding earthquake magnitude. The difference between a 7.0 and an 8.0 earthquake is not 1.0 (ie. one eighth stronger), the 8.0 is actually 10 times stronger. So in other words, the China earthquake and yesterday's earthquake aren't comparable in any way. Sorry if I sound like a know-it-all, but it appears some people don't know that.

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  Moondog at 11:17 AM JST - 15th June

  At the time of the '95 Kobe earthquake I lived in the neighboring town of Ashiya (and still do, actually) where 49% of the houses either fell down during the quake or had damage sufficient to warrant tearing them down before being reoccupied. So, having some experience in these matters, I would like to make a few comments about earthquakes in response to several of the above comments:

  A. If you can run outside, it's not much of an earthquake and therefore your house isn't likely to fall down.

  B. While the quake might not be strong enough to collapse the building, it might be strong enough to loosen the heavy stone tiles on your lovely J-style house just in time to slide off and kill you as you come out the door.

  C. While being naked in the shower when the quake hits--especially if it's not mid-summer--is going to be inconvenient, in general the bathroom is a good place to be. The toilet and bathtub may well have the strength to provide you a nice air pocket where you can await the rescue crews. That might take a week or more so the toilet water will come in handy and be much nicer to drink than your own urine.

  D. In general, the street is the most dangerous place to be during an earthquake, at least in Japan, because most buildings (especially those in residential areas) that fall, will do so because the first floor 'parallelogramed.' Due to the dense construction in Japan, the only place a collapsing building can go is into the street. And if building doesn't get you, then maybe one of those ubiquitous block walls running along most residential streets will.

  E. If everyone in Tokyo runs into the street, there's going to be a crush of people that will set records. Good luck getting home! It seems having a 30-day food cache at home isn't enough. Companies need to lay in a store, too.

  F. As for comparing construction in China and Japan, Japan is indeed safer but there are many old buildings in Japan that will fall in 'the big one.' Japan has revised it's codes twice since the '60's, in '71 and '81. Here's the general rule-of-thumb on what will happen in a strong earthquake: (1) if built before '71, it will collapse, (2) If built between '71 and '81, it will have extensive damage and probably need to be torn down, and (3) if built after '81, it will have damage, but be repairable. (Did you ask the construction date before signing that lease? Maybe you should!)

  G. Even if your building was built after '81, you can still be injured or die. For example, if you keep your tower computer is on the edge of your desk just next to the bed, there is a chance it will land on your head when it bounces off the desk. Or that big wardrobe where you keep your clothes may fall on you.

  H. Comparing a Magnitude 7.5 quake in one area with a Magnitude 7.5 quake somewhere else is meaningless. In fact, paying attention to magnitude ratings at all is of very little value because there is only a slight relationship between magnitude and damage. Besides the distance from the epicenter, you also have to consider the depth of the quake. An M7.5 at 20 km depth might cause only slight damage while an M7.5 at 5 km kills thousands. This is why the Japanese have developed the 'shindo' scale which gives a rating for the motion at the surface. Shindo ratings actually mean something and are the ones flashed on the TV screen of NHK, etc., after every quake in Japan.

  Note to Japan Today editors. Being in Japan, you really should know better than to be including magnitude numbers in your stories. You should note the shindo instead and leave the silly magnitude numbers for the foreign media to banter about.

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  pizzaboy at 11:28 AM JST - 15th June

  best post i've read in here in a LONG time, thx moondog

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  GJDailleult at 01:21 PM JST - 15th June

  Just one point about Moondog's excellent post. The strength of an earthquake at any point is determined by the combination of the magnitude at the epicenter, the distance from the epicenter, and the depth of the quake. Magnitude is one of three factors at work. So instead of referring to "silly" magnitude numbers, I think a better choice of words would be to say that using magnitude numbers gives an incomplete and possibly misleading measure of an earthquake. Personally, I think both numbers should be included in the opening sentence, unlike this story where the shindo number was not given until the fourth sentence / paragraph.

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  Moondog at 02:10 PM JST - 15th June

  You're welcome, pizzaboy, and thanks, GJDailleult, for your response.

  GJDailleult right, of course, the magnitude number is not 'silly' in and of itself. It has valid use for scientific research, etc. Including it in news articles is fine, too, as long as it's the number buried down in the text, hopefully with accompanying text that references the fact that, being a magnitude number, it's less significant to understanding danger or damage than the Shindo number in the headline.

  I'm sure I'm not the only expat in Japan who received email from home in the past few days wanting to know if I'm still alive. I get those emails even when there's a quake with a high M number that results in no damage. That happens because the mass-media around the world react to reports of any quake with a high number with "Breaking News" reports before waiting to see whether it's a significant event or not. That is not only silly but also irresponsible, considering the stress such a report may induce in family and friends in other areas.

  The only time the media should report high M-number quakes without waiting for damage reports is when they are accompanied by a tsunami warning.

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  NICOLE77 at 02:55 PM JST - 15th June

  Pizzaboy、Im agree- Great post Moondog. Before reading Moondog's post, I was thinking that there are some really unnecessary posts on Japan Today of late ...

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  NICOLE77 at 02:56 PM JST - 15th June

  I should have typed.. I agree.... sorry, it's Sunday!

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  apecNetworks at 05:36 PM JST - 15th June

  To Athletes:

  I have read the article of Australian professor about quake monitoring. According his idea, we can monitor the possibilities of quake like weather focus. Tectonic plate movement causing the upper layers of earth rising & falling. If he got daily earth layers images from Satellite, he will verify up & down movement level. Then he can predict the possibilities of quake It is very hard to get the accurate focus right now. However it is not impossible. Hopefully more research & development will come.

  If that professor is correct, then some animals can detect the up/down motion. My research has turned up several instances where animals in the wilderness, or in rural areas reacting several minutes prior to an earthquake. In the Indonesian Tsunami, elephants moved 50-100 yards inland before the Tsunami hit the coast - operative term: infrasound. My intuition tells me it is multiple signals that the animals are picking up and some or one of the signals is still unknown. If the signal was known, earthquake detection would be much more further along than now. Thusfar, terms such as infrasound, electromagnetic frequencies, schumann resonances are my only leads.

  My readings has led me to Tesla, but I have no background into that field. I discussed this awhile back, and someone in Japan did listen to my suggestions. Maybe the person is still reading JT? A breakthrough is possible, but WHEN???

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