• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Magnitude 7.1, 6.4 earthquakes strike Kumamoto in Kyushu, Japan

Status
Not open for further replies.

GorillaJu

Member
The news are saying its likely the 7 was the main shock and the 6.4 the pre-shock. In terms of ratios that's about right. And the 4s and 5s following are aftershocks. Big earthquakes have LOADs of aftershocks. After the big Tohoku quake in 2011 it felt like the floor never stopped wobbling for days and weeks after.
 

~Devil Trigger~

In favor of setting Muslim women on fire
so its official, we can can ...kinda predict earthquakes now? cuz all yesterday i was hearing people say there's more to come.

Or is this just aftershocks...big...aftershocks
 

Lucumo

Member
Yesterday was probably the pre-shock. 7.1 (two hours ago) might have been the big one and what's currently going on are the after-shocks (6.0, 5.8 and lots of 3-5).

But as someone else said:
I'm just praying that these are aftershocks, not preshocks, since according to wikipedia, the distinction is made after the fact and there doesn't really seem to be a way of differentiating them before.
 
so its official, we can can ...kinda predict earthquakes now? cuz all yesterday i was hearing people say there's more to come.

Or is this just aftershocks...big...aftershocks

Aftershocks, can't predict them really just detect them slightly before the main force of the shaking hits. Here in Japan you get an alert on the phone or tv a few seconds before you feel it, 10 or less usually. Generally the more time before you feel it the further away it was.

But yeah they tend to get called preshocks if an even larger one hits.

Getting more quakes and alerts though even now at 4am. Was not that bad for us here, but it was further inland this time. 6- Like others were saying, hopefully Aso stays quiet... went off pretty violently a year or two ago.

Either way kinda weird because it is always wobbling it feels like. Friend and his girlfriend was scared they came over and we were playing video games, tried to go to sleep and like 15 minutes later the most recent one hits @.@ nonstop tonight. No matter how many they have here I guess they still freak even the natives out.
 

jstripes

Banned
Nonstop, some genuinely scary shit.

I can't even imagine. I've experienced about four earthquakes in my life, and they were all brief 4~5 ones, and hundreds of km away, so just gentle swaying/rattling for me.

The idea of constant aftershocks is way out there.
 

Lucumo

Member
Either way kinda weird because it is always wobbling it feels like. Friend and his girlfriend was scared they came over and we were playing video games, tried to go to sleep and like 15 minutes later the most recent one hits @.@ nonstop tonight. No matter how many they have here I guess they still freak even the natives out.
Yep, but at least it's Friday/Saturday. Stay safe though.

A 5.5 just hit as well.
 

kiri

Member
My Yurekuru app is going crazy right now - if you want to keep track of the quakes then I recommend downloading it.
 

Lucumo

Member
Still ongoing. I hope you guys affected by this will get some sleep eventually (those not in the dangerous area obviously)...
 

Sakura

Member
Couldn't sleep... My phone kept going off with the earthquake alarms... Hopefully there aren't any more big ones.
 
so its official, we can can ...kinda predict earthquakes now? cuz all yesterday i was hearing people say there's more to come.

Or is this just aftershocks...big...aftershocks

No they're still unpredictable. They can make educated guesses based on previous data but that's about it.

It's a sure thing that any big quake will be followed by more quakes, most of the time they're smaller, sometimes they're bigger. The energy released by earthquakes can release stress in some areas, but also increase stress in others, that's what makes them so unpredictable.

Twice in 2011 Christchurch had two big foreshocks followed by a large >6.0 quake about an hour later. It's a horrifying experience, because now any large quake we feel makes you worry than an even bigger one is coming. But most of the time they don't.
 
Has been rocking and rolling since the prequake here in Kirishima. Looks like a bit of a mess up north. Hope the damage and loss of life is kept to a minimum.
 
Mount Aso - a volcano near where the quakes were centered and the most active volcano in Japan - is erupting a little bit right now.

I had a bad feeling about that when those aftershocks all were being centered in and around Aso overnight that it was related to volcanic activity.

CgHWSEGUEAEhIaa.jpg


Looks like there's been landslides and road/bridge collapses as well.
 

Mik2121

Member
Getting alerts for more aftershocks, stay safe kyuushuugaf
Where are you located? Here in Osaka recently we got nothing above 5 (highest was a 3 last night and a 4 a few days ago before the Kumamoto one). I can imagine the alarms going crazy yesterday and today though. And with the sound they make... ugh. Sometimes it's scarier than the quake itself!
 

Magni

Member
Watching NHK right now, damn that's a lot of damage. I was in Kumamoto and on Mt Aso last March, surreal watching familiar sights destroyed.

Ganbatte Kumamoto!
 
Watching NHK right now, damn that's a lot of damage. I was in Kumamoto and on Mt Aso last March, surreal watching familiar sights destroyed.

Ganbatte Kumamoto!

Yeah. I did a bit more digging, and it looks like that landslide is blocking the main road and rail line between Mount Aso and Kumamoto. Hopefully if there's an emergency up on the mountain, they can get personnel there.
 

shira

Member
Yesterday was probably the pre-shock. 7.1 (two hours ago) might have been the big one and what's currently going on are the after-shocks (6.0, 5.8 and lots of 3-5).

But as someone else said:

It's also about duration which is scary as fuck

A thirty-second earthquake generally has a magnitude in the mid-sevens.
A minute-long quake is in the high sevens
A two-minute quake has entered the eights, and a three-minute quake is in the high eights By four minutes, an earthquake has hit magnitude 9.0.
 
Been shaking all morning here in Kagoshima, only got like 4 or so hours of sleep thanks to the construction across the street. Tearing up the basement of an old hospital during tremors not matter how small must be scary.
 

Lucumo

Member
Situation is still pretty much the same as 9 hours ago.

Well, I'm off for now. Let's hope it will subside anytime soon.
 

Mik2121

Member
It seems like 22 people have died already since the first quake. Dang. And yeah, most people now seem to think that the quake last night was the "main" quake and the ones before it were prequakes. Hopefully the aftershocks aren't too bad...

One of the bigger problems with quakes in Japan isn't that the buildings might collapse during the quake, but that they will catch fire when electricity and gas come back on old buildings.
Also they're showing part of the Kumamoto castle. Holy shit that thing is falling any second now.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom