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Tag: Japan Earthquake

  • Japan Earthquake: 6.3-Magnitude Hits Three Main Islands

    Fourteen injuries were reported Friday following an earthquake that struck the south coast of Japan.

    The quake occurred a little after 2 a.m. in the Iyonada inland sea that separates the country’s main islands, including Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu.

    It was reportedly at a depth of 80 kilometers, but experts say that the earthquake could have reached 700 kilometers.

    The U.S. Geological Survey explained on their site what possibly caused the quake:

    Subduction zones at the Japanese island arcs are geologically complex and produce numerous earthquakes from multiple sources. Deformation of the overriding plates generates shallow crustal earthquakes, whereas slip at the interface of the plates generates interplate earthquakes that extend from near the base of the trench to depths of 40 to 60 km.

    The injuries that people incurred from the natural disaster were reportedly minor.

    According to the Japan Daily Press:

    Firefighters in Okayama City said that a 70-year-old woman and two other residents sustained minor injuries while in Tamano, still in Okayama Prefecture, a 1-month-old infant was injured when his mother accidentally dropped him while trying to seek refuge. Hiroshima Prefecture also reported six minor injuries, and several more injuries were sustained by people in Hofu and Shimanto.

    There were also no signs of tsunami threats, major damages, or reported casualties.

    The news company also said, “an Upper-5 intensity was registered in Seiyo, Ehime Prefecture while lower-5 was detected in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, Sukumo, Kochi Prefecture, and Usuki, Oita Prefecture.”

    Additionally, the agency says that they expect four aftershocks to take place within the next few weeks.

    Japan has experienced three major earthquakes since 1933. One of those includes the 2011 9.0-magnitude earthquake in Tohoku, better known as 3/11.

    Coincidently, Japan just commemorated the three-year anniversary of the tragic event on Tuesday, which caused a 30-foot tsunami and a nuclear radiation safety issue.

    The nuclear disaster killed 15,884 people and 2,636 victims were never found following the disaster.

    Tohoku officials have said that they are still gradually rebuilding the area since then.

    Here is a report by the Associated Press about 3/11: 

    Image via YouTube

  • Japan Earthquake Triggers Tsunamis

    An earthquake hit off the coast of Honshu, Japan, on October 25, 2013, measuring a magnitude of 7.1 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports. According to local Tokyo time, the earthquake hit at 2:10 a.m. and produced tsunamis at four reported locations measuring fifteen inches each. While a 1-meter tsunami advisory was issued for much of Japan’s northeastern coast, this advisory only lasted for two hours after the earthquake hit.

    There have been no fatalities reported as a result of the earthquake, nor any reports of lasting damage. In fact, even Japanese television has been showing images of placid waters surrounding the coast.

    The earthquake happened east of the Japan Trench and within the crust of the Pacific plate, which is about 170 miles from Fukushima and 300 miles from Tokyo, yet the earthquake was still felt as far away as Tokyo.

    A Fukushima prefectural government official, Satoshi Mizuno, gave a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

    “It was fairly big, and rattled quite a bit, but nothing fell to the floor or broke. We’ve had quakes of this magnitude before. Luckily, the quake’s center was very far off the coast,” said Mizuno, who works for the disaster management department.

    Japan has experienced multiple storms lately where recuperation efforts are still underway from Super Typhoon Francisco. Part of the reason for the repeat occurrences are due to Japan’s location near the following four tectonic plates: Pacific plate, North America plate, Eurasia plate, and Philippine Sea plate.

    The earthquake has risen concerns about the stability of Japan’s nuclear reactors where it has been confirmed that Japan’s fifty nuclear reactors are presently offline.

    Efforts are still underway to clean the radiation leak near the Fukushima nuclear plant where reports have indicated that this process is behind schedule. According to Satoshi Mizuno, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which is the company that oversees the Fukushima plant, have not noted any damage as a result of this recent earthquake.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDFOTDS5FVA

    [Image Via Wikimedia Commons And Courtesy of Captain Blood]

  • 5.3-Magnitude Earthquake: No Damage to Nuclear Plant

    An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 shook the island of Japan at about 1:25 EDT (2:25 am Friday Japan time), and the troubled and now famous Fukushima Nuclear Plant. However Reuters reports that Tokyo Electric is quoted in Japanese media saying there is no damage to the plant and no tsunami warnings have been issued.

    The focus of the quake was around 20 km (12.4 miles) underground in the prefecture, which houses Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc.’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

    On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered Tokyo Electric to decommission the remaining two reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where four other reactors were devastated by a massive earthquake in 2011.

    The 2011 disaster caused three reactors to melt and damaged a fuel cooling pool at another. Officials have acknowledged that radiation-contaminated groundwater has been seeping into the Pacific Ocean since soon after the meltdowns.

    The region lies on the “Ring of Fire”, an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that runs around the Pacific Rim. About 90 percent of all the world’s earthquakes occur in the region.

    Image via wikipedia

  • Earthquake Hits Japan, 3 Aftershocks Follow

    An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale hit northern Japan today, rocking Fukushima-ken Oki and causing three strong aftershocks within an hour.

    While there have been no reports of major damage or injuries, those affected were concerned about a possible tsunami warning; however, no warning has been issued. Residents are likely reminded of the devastating tsunami that tore through Japan in March of last year and swamped entire towns, leaving more than 28,000 people dead or missing.

    The strongest shockwave had a magnitude of about 4.2. We will update this article with any changes.

  • Apple’s Most Thoughtful iOS Feature Ever?

    When the iOS 5 update hits iPhones in Japan, it will include perhaps one of the more thoughtful and useful notification systems Apple’s ever included with their technology. Perhaps I’m just letting my surprise motivate the hyperbole, but the feature could save thousands of lives, and because of that, Apple should certainly be commended.

    Japanese iPhone owners who update to iOS 5 will have an early earthquake warning notification app built into it, which is about as cool as it sounds.

    Lest we forget, Japan was absolutely ravaged by earthquakes during the spring, and such a capability with such a popular phone–yes, the iPhone 4 is very popular, even in tech-crazy Japan–will only help future reaction times. If only one more life is saved thanks to Apple’s act of philanthropy via dominant mobile device, then it’s done its job.

    According to the 9to5Mac blog, the iOS 5 notification system taps into Japan’s national earthquake warning system, which has been called one of the most advanced in the world, and because of that, including the notification capability into Japanese version of iOS 5 can only be viewed as a positive.

    These warnings, provided the user has them turned on, can mean the difference between reaching safety and being near an earthquake’s epicenter. It should be noted that, according to the 9to5Mac post, these warnings can come minutes or seconds before an earthquake hits. If the latter occurs, there obviously won’t be much reaction time, but knowledge is still power, and if the warning comes before the tremors start, it could make all the difference.

    The post also includes a screenshot of what the notification looks like, which, again, is an option that must be turned on before owners start receiving warnings:

    iOS 5 Earthquake Notification
    The notification also includes a battery use warning, which 9to5Mac translated:

    For those who cannot read the text above, it also warns that the feature may reduce your battery life because it is always connected to Japan’s earthquake warning system.

    Considering how ripe the area is for tectonic activity, I’d say having to charge your iPhone battery a few more times a year is worth the ability to perhaps save yourself before another devastating earthquake hits.

  • Visualizing Twitter Use During the Japanese Earthquakes

    Twitter’s role during, well, anything worth talking about has been pretty well defined. Whether it’s the Vancouver riots, natural weather disasters in Missouri and Alabama, discussing Dirk Nowitzki’s NBA Finals performance, or simply responding to a popular hashtag (rise & grind, anyone?), the Twitter platform clearly generates a great deal of content. The thing is, being aware of the volume and “seeing” the content in action — in other words, an animated simulation of tweets being sent — is another thing entirely.

    The visualization makes you respect the process a little more, and thanks to the official Twitter blog, we know have access to a visualization of tweets that were sent during the early moments of Japan’s devastating earthquake. While one would expect Twitter use to be very high during such an event, seeing it action is a little staggering, but then again, communications obviously ramp up into the overdrive department during natural disasters. Knowing and seeing are two different things, especially in the case of mass communications, something the Twitter platform has clearly become.

    Before the video, Twitter offers an explanation of what we’re about to see:

    On Twitter, we saw a 500 percent increase in Tweets from Japan as people reached out to friends, family and loved ones in the moments after the earthquake. The video below shows the volume of @replies traveling into and out of Japan in a one-hour period just before and then after the earthquake. Replies directed to users in Japan are shown in pink; messages directed at others from Japan are shown in yellow.

    The post also reveals that, during the initial stages of the Japanese earthquake, the volume of tweets being sent was up to 5000 tweets per second on five different occasions. If maintained for a full hour, the would result would be 18 million additional tweets to read.

    The video, which is courtesy of Twitter’s Flickr page:


    The increase of tweets being sent right after the earthquake hits is impressive to look at, although, when you consider what it signifies, thoughts quickly turn to the content of the tweets being sent. It’s doubtful many LOLs were being tweeted, unless a recipient was acting like a typical Internet troll. There’s another video that shows what Twitter refers to as the “spread of information” an hour after the earthquake struck. It, too, does a great job of capturing and visualizing the sheer amount of data being sent back and forth. The red-colored lines represent tweets coming from Japan and the green lines represent re-tweets.


    Day after day, we’re reminded of the negative aspects of social media, thanks to unlimited amount of knuckleheads, especially those in the public eye, who don’t understand the concept of filtering yourself when it comes to public consumption. Fortunately, videos like these exist, and they do a great job of showing the positive benefits of social media.