Strong new earthquake hits Japan

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3957165.stm

A strong earthquake tremor has shaken northern Japan, four days after a quake that killed at least 31 people.
The magnitude 6.0 tremor hit at about 1040 (0140 GMT). No injuries or fires have been reported so far but a large building reportedly collapsed.

The quake was centred on Hirokami, Niigata prefecture - the same region most badly affected by Saturday's quake and aftershocks.

The tremor was also felt in Tokyo where tall buildings shook.

The most powerful of Saturday's tremors, which have become Japan's deadliest in a decade, measured magnitude 6.8.

Local hospitals have said they are overwhelmed by the more than 2,000 injured on Saturday. More than 100,000 people have been staying in emergency shelters, too scared by aftershocks to return home.


Yikes! These people have been shaken up enough for awhile!

yesterday.

Someone speculated that global warming may result in greater tectonic activity. As the sea level rises it shifts the weight on the plates below the ocean and pressure on the sides of the continents. As glaciers melt they reduce the weight on land. The result may be enough to cause slips along fault lines and increase volcanic activity. It is pretty radical theory and may be total BS. However, with Mount St. Helens showing activity and the recent earth quakes maybe there's something to it.:shrug:

There's so much we don't know about plate tectonics that I wouldn't be surprised if the theory was correct.

There certainly is a lot of activity of late. Romania had a 5.7 today...no reports of injuries. There was a 5.4 in Kazakhstan, and a 6.0 near the South Sandwich Islands today as well...

But fun to talk about.

The total weight of ice and water is miniscule compared to that of the crust of the Earth.

People take the absence of tectonic activity for a certain period of time to mean that something must have happened to make it start up again. That's about as sensible as saying Poseidon got pissed at humanity again.

n/t

The effect is known as Isostatic Rebound or Isostasy.

Far from being "weird science" and "BS", it's well documented geology.

Here's a website to give you an introduction: http://www.homepage.montana.edu/~geol445/hyperglac/isostasy1/

The difficulty with making inferences from earthquakes is that it takes a very powerful statistical model to come to even simple conclusions about what's happening -- and then, multiple models (explanations) of the activity may explain it equally well.

--bkl

(LINK)

I don't really believe it is the reason for the current seismic activity but I never rule any theory out until its been sufficiently disproved. Hey, look what global warming did in that recent movie, "The Day After Tomorrow". :+



Seriously, just kidding about the movie. I think in some ways it did more damage to proponents of reducing green house gas emissions than helped.

that such a densely populated area would suffer only 31 (known) casualties. Of course it is sad that there was any loss of life, but it seems as though there is a huge amount of potential for damage at those magnitudes.

A little surfing and you will find pics of the damage. Some of the damage to infrastructure looks just as bad as the damage to the SF bay area back in 89.