Quake shakes parts of western Japan; more tremors expected

This one woke me up with no warning.

I was surprised to see a 4 on the TV map as far east as Okayama, and as far south as Ehime in Shikoku. Some kind of diagonal band cutting across Honshu and Shikoku NW to SE, with at least 20 aftershocks in the seven hours since.

warned at a press briefing that the region could experience further jolts over the next week, particularly in the coming two or three days.

Particularly in the next two or three millennia is more correct. Japan sits on the cusp of three tectonic plates. Japan has a long history of volcanic activity. These 'experts' sure have an easy job to predict the obvious and inevitable.

Aftershocks are common after a large earthquake. Those occur usually as a matter of course. However, large earthquakes, in previous decades in Japan were not predicted, as to timing, with any accuracy.....

"I was surprised to see a 4 on the TV map as far east as Okayama, and as far south as Ehime in Shikoku"

The shocks from shallow ones travel farther. 7km is pretty shallow. There was one in another part of the Japan Sea coast a couple of years ago that was less than 10km depth that caused some rocking in Sannomiya.

It had been a while, I had been expecting one. These woke me up, and the second one I felt worried me. Don't forget the drills.

May God help our  friends in Japan! It is a very active decade of earthquake or tsunami in Japan since 2011!

No abnormalities were found at the Shimane nuclear power plant, its operator, Chugoku Electric Power Co., said.

One would expect no less coming from the operator. A 6+ magnitude quake is very strong. Luckily no one was killed.

@zichi. Just because a NPP is shut down doesn’t mean all the fuel rods magically disappeared to the moon.

I agree with the other posters that the shallow depth of the earthquake means it will have been much stronger than the simple magnitude number may suggest. Shallow means very localized damage. In inaka, the meters that measure the "shindo" (the shaking at ground level, which is the most important thing) are spaced very far apart. This means that the shindo value for the town where this earthquake occurred may be way lower than the shindo at the worst affected part of that town. With localized earthquakes, two identical houses/roads/graves even just a kilometer apart can end up looking very different.

Yet it is preoccupied with military expansion and self-destruction both from the top and bottom. What I have said for years, is give this unused land to other nations who are in need of it, Japan, China, let them set-up business and infrastructure there and everyone would win. They could even rent them this land for 25 year periods if they were not so profoundly demented.

This earthquake was felt throughout roughly half of Japan. Although there have been several large quakes in that area since 1950, there was not thought to be a particular fault line there, but now scientists at Shimane University have posited the existence of a previously unknown belt. Stresses were said to have have been building up from the different plates moving underneath, one going eastwards for example under the Seto Inland Sea.

@zichi. You always jump to protect NPPs, so you present a challenge about this NPP complex. I will visit it in the next month, so let’s agree to disagree until I have more info.

We slept through it.

Don’t forget there’s chance that it was a foreshock. Always have your earthquake senses on in the background.

@Goodluck: Zichi posting facts doesn’t make him a supporter of NPPs, telling lies would make him untrustworthy as a source of information concerning the Japanese Nuclear Village, and that is exactly what his information isn’t, he just provided facts.

But I don't agree with fear mongering nor half truths so I think its better to post the facts as accurate as can be found and then people can decide for themselves

Zichi's comment can't be under-emphasised. I think we disagree on a few things, but never on this.

I once taught some engineers from the Shimane nuclear plant along with some engineers from conventional power plants in the Chugoku area. They were teasing each other about the safety of the nuclear plant. The publicity stuff said the plant could withstand a plane crash. "What about a missile attack?", asked the non-nuclear group? "Shimane would never be the target of a missile attack.", was the reply. "But what if it was a North Korean missile aimed at Tokyo and it went off course?", asked the non-nuclear group. "You may have a point.", from the nuclear group.

Dear "elephant200" yes, there is a distinct rise in volcanic activity and (hence?) earthquakes sometimes causing tsunami are also rising in number--but this is not only for Japan but for the entire Pacific Ring of Fire as it is called. Basically, I think that means the Pacific Rim countries. California, where our son's company is, is also vulnerable--as are Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia (? I think), Vietnam, Australia, Malaysia, islands such as Samoa, etc., South America's west coast countries, and so forth. The volcanoes of this ring around the Pacific Ocean are called the "Ring of Fire" and for some reason are now predicted to be active for a while. Fortunately, in the case of this mode lasting two years, Tokyo itself is not near a tall mountain nor is it sunk below sea-level like Holland. Yet, even at the Olympics (unless the patterns change) one must face the possiblity of a major quake. The infrastructure of Tokyo (like New York City's) is said to be aged and cannot draw off all the run-off water in the event of a tidal wave.