Prayers, positive thoughts and intent are needed for some time to come. As many of you know, there is the suggestion of a great rumbling to follow the aftermath.
This image is indeed troublesome. What has happened in Japan will happen in California.
I thought it wise post this follow up to the situation in Japan. I have tickets to travel there in July. Just after the purchase, the Fukushima situation was upgraded to 7, putting it on par with Chernobyl as a great nuclear disaster requiring extraordinary measures and efforts. At that point I began to question the reason to make a visit to Tokyo. Then, when I posted the map showing the multiplicity of earthquakes, it was intuitively obvious that this was the precursor of more to come. This article from the Washington Post, seems to clearly indicate that most experts fear that Japan, sitting on the intersection of three tectonic plates, is in a position to be shaken apart. I suggest that if you are interested, you take time to read this article.
Originally published April 11, 2011
Scientists warn of years of aftershocks in Japan, and risks
on other faults
Japan won’t stop shaking. One month after the horrific March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the island was rattled anew by aftershocks: A magnitude-6.6 quake on Monday was followed by a 6.3 quake on Tuesday.
Four days earlier, a magnitude-7.1 quake led to four deaths and widespread power outages. With soldiers still looking for the bodies of thousands of people who vanished a month ago, Japan is coping with the painful reality that it sits in a seismic bull’s eye. Now scientists are warning that the March 11 event not only will lead to years of aftershocks but also might have increased the risk of a major quake on an adjacent fault. A new calculation by American and Japanese scientists concluded that the March 11 event heightened the strain on a number of faults bracketing the ruptured segment of the Japan Trench.
“There’s quite a bit of real estate on which stress has increased by our calculations,” said Ross Stein, a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geophysicist. “The possibility of getting large, late aftershocks to the north and south of the main shock is real.”
Stein and two Japanese colleagues, including lead author Shinji Toda of Kyoto University, have submitted their research to the journal Earth Planets Space. The scientists are not making a formal prediction of another big earthquake. But they believe the section of the Japan Trench east of Tokyo now has more stress than before March 11.
“That section of the subduction zone is clearly loaded,” said Chris Goldfinger, an Oregon State University seismologist who was not part of the new research.
The processes that lead to earthquakes are too chaotic to be predictable in any practical sense. Two other scientists said that even if there is an increase in seismic hazard on nearby faults, it is minimal and hard to quantify.
Susan Hough, a USGS geologist who has written extensively on the subject of earthquake predictions, sounded a skeptical note when asked about the increased risk of a big quake: “Big earthquakes don’t cascade like dominoes, bang bang bang. At least not commonly. So I think the maps showing bright red bull’s eyes of increased stress may be more alarming than they should be.”
Hanging over Japan is the worrisome example of Sumatra. Three months after the Dec. 26, 2004,
magnitude-9.1 earthquake that generated a catastrophic tsunami, the adjacent segment of the same fault broke again, in a magnitude-8.7 earthquake. The fault system has since generated several more powerful earthquakes.
“It will take probably a decade before this aftershock sequence is over,” Stein said.
Tokyo is in a particularly treacherous location. It sits on the gentle Kanto Plain, adjacent to a large bay that is protected by a peninsula from Pacific Ocean tsunamis and typhoons. But there are faults in every direction, and a triple-junction of tectonic plates just offshore where slabs of the earth meet, grind and sometimes violently lurch past one another. Beneath the Kanto Plain might be a rogue slab of crust, debris from all these geological collisions.
Tokyo last suffered a devastating earthquake in 1923. The Great Kanto Earthquake triggered fires that raced across the city and created a firestorm that immolated tens of thousands of people taking refuge in a field.
The original article can be found here.
Originally published April 11, 2011
Scientists warn of years of aftershocks in Japan, and risks
on other faults
Japan won’t stop shaking. One month after the horrific March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the island was
rattled anew by aftershocks: A magnitude-6.6 quake on Monday was followed by a 6.3 quake on Tuesday.
By Joel Achenbach, The Washington Post
Japan won’t stop shaking. One month after the horrific March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the island
was rattled anew by aftershocks: A magnitude-6.6 quake on Monday was followed by a 6.3 quake on
Tuesday.Monday’s quake was strong enough to knock out electricity briefly at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. Four days earlier, a magnitude-7.1 quake led to four deaths and widespread power outages. With soldiers still looking for the bodies of thousands of people who vanished a month ago, Japan is coping with the painful reality that it sits in a seismic bull’s eye.
Now scientists are warning that the March 11 event not only will lead to years of aftershocks but also
might have increased the risk of a major quake on an adjacent fault. A new calculation by American
and Japanese scientists concluded that the March 11 event heightened the strain on a number of faults
bracketing the ruptured segment of the Japan Trench.
“There’s quite a bit of real estate on which stress has increased by our calculations,” said Ross Stein, a
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geophysicist. “The possibility of getting large, late aftershocks to the
north and south of the main shock is real.”
Stein and two Japanese colleagues, including lead author Shinji Toda of Kyoto University, have
submitted their research to the journal Earth Planets Space. The scientists are not making a formal
prediction of another big earthquake. But they believe the section of the Japan Trench east of Tokyo
now has more stress than before March 11.
“That section of the subduction zone is clearly loaded,” said Chris Goldfinger, an Oregon State
University seismologist who was not part of the new research.
The processes that lead to earthquakes are too chaotic to be predictable in any practical sense. Two
other scientists said that even if there is an increase in seismic hazard on nearby faults, it is minimal
and hard to quantify.
Susan Hough, a USGS geologist who has written extensively on the subject of earthquake predictions,
sounded a skeptical note when asked about the increased risk of a big quake: “Big earthquakes don’t
cascade like dominoes, bang bang bang. At least not commonly. So I think the maps showing bright
red bull’s eyes of increased stress may be more alarming than they should be.”
Hanging over Japan is the worrisome example of Sumatra. Three months after the Dec. 26, 2004,
magnitude-9.1 earthquake that generated a catastrophic tsunami, the adjacent segment of the same
fault broke again, in a magnitude-8.7 earthquake. The fault system has since generated several more
powerful earthquakes.
“It will take probably a decade before this aftershock sequence is over,” Stein said.
Tokyo is in a particularly treacherous location. It sits on the gentle Kanto Plain, adjacent to a large bay
that is protected by a peninsula from Pacific Ocean tsunamis and typhoons. But there are faults in
every direction, and a triple-junction of tectonic plates just offshore where slabs of the earth meet,
grind and sometimes violently lurch past one another. Beneath the Kanto Plain might be a rogue slab
of crust, debris from all these geological collisions.
Tokyo last suffered a devastating earthquake in 1923. The Great Kanto Earthquake triggered fires that
raced across the city and created a firestorm that immolated tens of thousands of people taking refuge
in a field.
My prayers go out to Japan and all those that have been affected by disasters. It will take a lot of teamwork to help get their lives back in order.
IMHO, I feel, there is a connection to HAARP and all the tests, that they’ve been doing, and something went terribly wrong. Makes you wonder, with all the unusual weather we’ve been having everywhere or Mother Nature, is just plain mad, at how we’ve been taking care of the planet. I’ve been in Hawaii since 1998, and I do not recall ever having snow on Mauna Kea in April.
I just wonder how prepared Hawaii is going to be, in the event of a tsunami or large earthquake or if for some reason, shipments stop coming in due to earthquakes in California.
Check out the video’s in this article. Thought you’d like to see this, considering you will be traveling to Japan soon.
Truly makes one really enjoy living in the moment and appreciating the simple things we have in life .
http://logisticsmonster.com/2011/04/14/japan-slipping-into-the-ocean/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_campaign=Express_2011-04-14+16:30&utm_content=504972
Thank you Gloria, but I will be staying back with my son. He is six and now, he goes to sleep happy and well. He awakes happy and well. I agreed to co-sleeping for a well-balanced child. Should he go now, according to plan, and awake with the earth shaking, it may affect him for some time. At this point, it is not worth the gamble to stress him out.
Thanks for the link, I’ll check that out now. But as mentioned in the article, Tokyo is poised to crash and burn. I feel HAARP may have influenced Haiti and other “natural disasters.”
Check this: http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/brooks-agnew-haarp-earthquakes-in-szechuan-china-and-haiti/
Thanks for reading the blog post and a double thanks for your comment and link to: Japan Slipping
Aloha Nui!