7.2 mag quake Hokkaido, Japan

[Wilber_Stool]

Source: USGS

Just came in on RSS feed.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/10/145_40.php



Read more: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/10/145_40.php

[Mojorabbit]

1. I think there was a big one in Indonesia

last night or this morning too.

[spinbaby]

2. Uh oh

That's a big one.

[itsrobert]

3. Wow, Earthquakes hit Iran, Chile, now Japan

on the same day of the big bang test? Is the Earth breaking apart?

[blitzen]

5. either that, or someone tried to...

put lipstick on a pig.

[crossroads]

8. LOL... good one! nt

[Catamount]

15. Thanks for that...LOL

[Ilsa]

22. It's all the fault of those physicists in Switzerland, them and their pesky black holes. nt

[Bearware]

6. Remember the 9.0 Tsunami in 2004

It seems like the earth's crust has been readjusting the stress ever since. Lots of sizable quakes since then.

[WheelWalker]

9. Don't forget Indonesia today, as well. M6.6 My first thought same as yours....

Hadron. This is fucking significant. We may be about to experience something we aren't going to remember.

[Nihil]

24. Appropriate user name for one with such thoughts. (n/t)

:eyes:

[superconnected]

14. Good point.

[Wilber_Stool]

4. Another at 6.9.

Oops. I might be mistaken on this one.

[kestrel91316]

7. 6.6 Indonesia, 6.9 Hokkaido. Tsunami warnings.

[Party Line]

11. The Indonesia quake was first measured at

7.6 and the Hokkaido quake at 7.2

I wonder why they were changed?

I thought the detectors were better than that.

[Wilber_Stool]

13. I'm glad you said that.

I was wondering how I could have gotten it so wrong. Another now at 5.4.

[kirby]

18. Maybe they are reporting with a different scale? n/t

[kestrel91316]

19. Very early reports are based on a tiny set of data. As more data

points report in, they revise the numbers. Nothing suspicious. Happens all the time.

[RaleighNCDUer]

25. Early reports come from a smaller sample of seismographs.

When cross-referenced with others later they get a more accurate assessment.

The nearer seismographs might get a false reading based on the geology of the land between the meter and the epicenter - type of bedrock, amount of soft soil, whatever.

(Note: I am spouting pure conjecture - also known as 'bullshit' - and do not have a degree in geology. It just seems a reasonable answer to the question.)

[Ghost Dog]

10. BBC: Powerful earthquakes strike Asia

Breaking News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7609574.stm

Two powerful earthquakes have struck the north-eastern Indonesian Moluccas islands and Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, triggering tsunami alerts.

The first tremor, which had a preliminary magnitude of 6.6, occurred at 0902 (0002 GMT) about 120km (75 miles) north of the city of Ternate.

A few minutes later, a 7.2-magnitude quake hit Hokkaido's coast, 220km (135 miles) east of Sapporo.

[WheelWalker]

12. M5.4 aftershock, Hokkaido

[gauguin57]

16. Sorry, Japan et al. We'd love to help you out, but we're busy discussing lipstick on a pig.

Because that's what's important.

[Domestictalent]

17. Are there victims?

Hoping not.

[kirby]

20. I think a lipstick factory fell on a pig farm... n/t

[Mnemosyne]

21. Central North Atlantic Ridge - 6.4 IRIS link:

http://www.iris.edu/dms/seismon.htm

Anyone that can explain this to me? TIA

http://www.iris.edu/hq/notice/important_timing_errors_affecting_rt130s

:hi:

[ArbustoBuster]

26. Hopefully an explanation. :)

The second Iris link is reporting that they're having problems with a specific type of clock installed in their seismic monitoring units. The reason this is an issue is that the length of time it takes the shaking from a quake to get to a specific monitoring unit tells you a lot about the quake (where it is, what sort of rock is in the center of the earth, that kind of thing).

[Bonobo]

23. Japanese sites say it was a weak 5. Yawn.

[Art_from_Ark]

27. A "weak 5" does not refer to the Richter scale

It refers to Japan's own unique seismic intensity scale, called "Shindo" in Japanese.

A "weak 5" (Shindo go-jaku) means that the quake was strong enough to cause some damage, topple store shelves, that sort of thing. It was actually quite strong, but not strong enough to cause major damage to major buildings. Magnitude (Richter scale) could actually be quite high at the epi/hypocenter, but the intensity on land could be much less if the epi/hypocenter is offshore, which is often the case with Japanese quakes.

One thing that made the Kobe/Hanshin quake of 1995 so devastating was that the hypocenter was shallow and almost immediately beneath Kobe, a city of more than 1 million.