Waiting for the Big One
07/29/2005 @ 12:01 am
Yesterday, the Kanto Plain (where Tokyo is located) experienced yet another relatively strong earthquake that had everyone in the city wondering for a split second whether this was the Big One.
In Japan, the magnitude of earthquakes is expressed as shindo values, which are explained below.
- Shindo 0
Shaking not felt by people. - Shindo 1
Shaking felt by some people indoors. - Shindo 2
Shaking felt by many people indoors. - Shindo 3
Shaking felt by most people. People start to feel fearful. - Shindo 4
Imtense sense of fear, some people fear for their safety. Most people who are sleeping are awakened. - Shindo 5 - Weak
Most people fear for their safety. Some people have difficulty moving around. - Shindo 5 - Strong
People feel intense fear. Many people have difficulty moving around. - Shindo 6 - Weak
People have difficulty standing. - Shindo 6 - Strong
Impossible for people to stand. Moving around is possible only by crawling. - Shindo 7
People tossed about by the shaking. Moving around is impossible.
Yesterday’s quake came only five days after another major tremblor on Saturday. Though the quake on Saturday quake registered only Shindo 5 on the Japanese scale, it was strong enough to stop elevators and threw the trains and subways of Tokyo into chaos.
Scientists say there is a 70% chance of a Shindo 7 quake hitting the southern Kanto within the next 30 years.
The news reports from the last quake, 5 days ago, said over 50,000 elevators in the Tokyo area stopped during that quake, and the city was not prepared for the power failures and elevator stoppages. Scary. 50,000! It was in an Associated Press news story the other day…. yes, the BIG ONE is coming, any day now, and be prepared. I wonder what Peter Hadfield, the British man who wrote that book about THE DAY TOKYO GETS HIT BY THE BIG ONE, or something like that, is thinking now? I heard he moved back to the UK a few years ago. True?
July 29th, 2005 at 12:33 amApparently, a river’s ammonia levels rise just before a quake occurs, rising 20 to 40 fold higher than usual. Perhaps microbes die before a big quake occurs, and so the chemicals in a river’s water change, and if this is true, monitoring might lead to quake predictions in the future.
January 10th, 2006 at 11:55 am