Monster aftershock could strike within days

[Skip_In_Boulder]

FYI - Assuming these guys know what they are talking about.

NORTH-EASTERN Japan can expect another monster earthquake large enough to trigger a tsunami within days, the head of the Australian Seismological Centre says.

The director, Kevin McCue, said there had been more than 100 smaller quakes since Friday, but a larger aftershock was likely.

''Normally they happen within days,'' he said. ''The rule of thumb is that you would expect the main aftershock to be one magnitude smaller than the main shock, so you would be expecting a 7.9.


''That's a monster again in its own right that is capable of producing a tsunami and more damage.''

The Japanese quake was the result of a process called thrust faulting. A piece of the Earth's crust broke away at the juncture of the Eurasian and Pacific plates and was thrust underneath the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido.

The US Geological Survey estimated the quake moved the Japanese coast about 2.4 metres.

''It basically pushed the sea floor up and down on opposite sides of the fault by 10 metres, causing the tsunami,'' Dr McCue said. ''It is a sudden rupture that has occurred, but it has occurred because the two plates are converging at about eight centimetres a year and have been for about 100 years. That eight metres is released suddenly when the plate snaps and breaks and produces the earthquake.''

Japan's last earthquake on this scale was in 1923, when the magnitude 7.9 Kanto quake killed more than 100,000 people in and around Tokyo and Yokohama.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/monster-aftershock-could-strike-within-days-20110313-1bt2p.html

[subterranean]

1. That is something about which I do not want to think.

[Poll_Blind]

2. I give nature permission to do that only if the resulting tsunami puts the nuclear reactors "out".

This thought stolen from a poster on DU who essentially said the exact same thing- drawing attention to the irony involved!

PB

[RufusTFirefly]

3. Speaking as someone who lives in an earthquake zone -- Northern California...

... that is the most unsettling aspect of a large quake: the fact that immediately following the initial quake the odds for a quake of equal or larger magnitude increase dramatically.

Typically, a quake catches us unaware. We have no choice but to react. But the prospect of subsequent quakes is like a sword of Damocles. It leaves us wondering and waiting.