It’s my experience that it’s best to inform before information comes from other sources and generates worry. Therefore, yes, I was in Sendai at the time of this 5.0 earthquake, and it woke me up, but, as the saying goes, I was shaken, not stirred.
In case the information on the USGS site expires, here’s the skinny:
Magnitude 5.0 – NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
2008 October 29 15:48:40 UTC
Earthquake Details
| Magnitude | 5.0 |
|---|---|
| Date-Time |
|
| Location | 38.100°N, 141.618°E |
| Depth | 88 km (54.7 miles) set by location program |
| Region | NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN |
| Distances | 65 km (40 miles) ESE of Sendai, Honshu, Japan 110 km (70 miles) ENE of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan 130 km (80 miles) NNE of Iwaki, Honshu, Japan 315 km (195 miles) NNE of TOKYO, Japan |
| Location Uncertainty | horizontal +/- 5 km (3.1 miles); depth fixed by location program |
| Parameters | NST=143, Nph=143, Dmin=348.6 km, Rmss=0.78 sec, Gp= 94°, M-type=body magnitude (Mb), Version=Q |
| Source |
|
| Event ID | us2008ytb8 |
- This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.
Thanks for the good news. My “other sources” are falling down on the job: even now, a Google News search for “earthquake japan” finds nothing more worrisome than this concern over toilets.
It was, in Japanese terms, an insignificant event. It didn’t make the news except as a lowly ticker item. On the USGS page where you can enter some information if you felt an earthquake it wasn’t listed either – apparently not strong enough. I don’t mind.
Toilets are not the only concern when the overdue earthquake hits Tokyo. If it hits in the night, it won’t be too bad, but in the day there will be thousands (millions?) in the city that live one or two hours’ train commute away. The mental picture I get is that of “the rout of civilisation, (…) the massacre of mankind.”
Someone – allegedly a Sharon Thornton from the IUGG – e-mailed me to let me know the link to the USGS site was broken. I’ve fixed it, but not as per her (his?) suggestion, which linked to a krill oil website (which does have a list of earthquakes…).