Posted by Jess
7 Nov 2010
A few days ago we came to the end of month 3 here in Tokyo. My how the time flies. Over this past month we experienced our first earthquake, so I thought I would give a little Japan earthquake information for our 3 month post.
Our earthquake experience was very short and hardly noticeable. Jason and I were sitting in the dining room and the girls were both sleeping. It was the middle of the day, no music on, no TV. If any of these things had been different or if we had been walking around, we wouldn't have felt it. Jason noticed it first - just a little movement in his coffee cup. Then I felt it on my chair - it was as if a large truck had just driven past your house. We looked it up on Japan's Meteorological Agency website and sure enough - a little ways north of here there was a quake at that time and in our neighborhood, it felt like a 1 - which is different than a 1.0 on the Richter scale, but more on that later.
Earthquakes are very frequent here. According to an article on Reuters.com, Japan accounts for about 20% of the world's earthquakes that score 6.5 or higher on the Richter scale. In the past 5 days, there have been 4 quakes in Japan. So really, there are a lot!
7 Nov 2010
A few days ago we came to the end of month 3 here in Tokyo. My how the time flies. Over this past month we experienced our first earthquake, so I thought I would give a little Japan earthquake information for our 3 month post.
Our earthquake experience was very short and hardly noticeable. Jason and I were sitting in the dining room and the girls were both sleeping. It was the middle of the day, no music on, no TV. If any of these things had been different or if we had been walking around, we wouldn't have felt it. Jason noticed it first - just a little movement in his coffee cup. Then I felt it on my chair - it was as if a large truck had just driven past your house. We looked it up on Japan's Meteorological Agency website and sure enough - a little ways north of here there was a quake at that time and in our neighborhood, it felt like a 1 - which is different than a 1.0 on the Richter scale, but more on that later.
Earthquakes are very frequent here. According to an article on Reuters.com, Japan accounts for about 20% of the world's earthquakes that score 6.5 or higher on the Richter scale. In the past 5 days, there have been 4 quakes in Japan. So really, there are a lot!
The Japanese use the shindo scale for measuring earthquakes rather than the Richter scale. This scale measures the intensity that people actually feel at a given location, while the Richter scale measures the energy an earthquake releases at the epicenter.
The shindo scale ranges from shindo one, a slight earthquake felt only by people who are not moving (as we experienced), to shindo seven, a severe earthquake. Shindo two to four are still minor earthquakes that do not cause damage, while objects start to fall at shindo five, and heavier damage occurs at shindo six and seven.
The Japanese are prepared though. Part of orientation for Ella's school was to tell us where they would go in an earthquake evacuation (which area of a local park) and we have hard hats under our desks and earthquake drills at work. There are signs around town that tell you where evacuation zones are and where they are not - as in "No Evacuation Zone, Risk of Widespread Fire". We do not have an earthquake kit at our house, which is shame on us. I've been thinking lately that we should buy some extra bottles of water to keep around, but what are the odds we'd actually need it?
The Japan government also has an early warning system in place. They have some signs that a larger quake might be coming and so there are instructions on what will be broadcast on TV at that point and what to do. This could really only work though for the Great Tokai Earthquake that is expected (if it works at all).
The Tokai Earthquake is an earthquake that has happened regularly throughout Japan's history, about every 110 years or so. They estimate that the previous earthquakes ranked around 8.4 on the Richter scale. The plates that cause this quake are just southwest of Tokyo. The last quake happened in 1854. That's right people, do the math - that means its been over 150 years since the last one and they are supposed to come every 90-120 years. But of course, who knows? It could be a while yet - at least we hope so!
Thanks to the Japan Meteorological Agency, Reuters, Wikipedia, About.com and Go Japan for info for this blogpost!
Kanpai!
Jess
1:43 AM |
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