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Japan hit by 6.9-magnitude earthquake

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Outfits like AP report the magnitude cuz it's all they got. Which is to say they ain't got diddley. They report any quake with a large magnitude as soon as it's announced by Golden or wherever.

It's extremely irresponsible to cause worry to the folks back home, etc., by reporting events with large magnitude because, as noted above "it don't mean a thing!" They should wait and see if anyone reports damage or death before making any report whatsoever.

Now, let's all hold our breath until that happens.

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Categories correspond to the damage they are capable of causing - exactly the same basis as the shindo scale.

Not quite the same. The shindo gives the severity of motion, but there are other factors in the damage, including the direction of the shaking (side to side vs. up and down) and the predominant wavelength.

We had quite a bounce this morning in Sapporo at 6:45, with an aftershock several minutes later. Didn't need the morning coffee.

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Lunchbox, I hear you, and the Hurricane thing is actually a very interesting analogy, because it is very much like the Shindo scale. It is not a simplistic measure based purely on windspeed or barometric pressure. It takes into account a wide range of factors intended to measure the "destructiveness" of a hurricane. Categories correspond to the damage they are capable of causing - exactly the same basis as the shindo scale.

Magnitude does not accurately reflect how much damage a quake will cause. You can have a very localized quake Mag 6 or below, and if it is shallow enough, have fatalities and building collapses. Likewise, you can also have quakes near magnitude seven, as is not uncommon in Japan, that are so deep that while felt over a broad area, don't do much more than rattle crockery.

The beauty of the Shindo scale is that it is local and central. The news will always say that the quake was a "maximum shindo XX" indicating how much actual shaking and damage was caused where it was most intensely felt, which corresponds very much to the hurricane scale (people will say a quake was a 6+ quake, or a 6- quake on the news). If it is a 6+ quake, you immediately know that there were some house collapses, power outages, and stuff falling over injuring people. Emergency services know what to expect going to areas worst hit.

Magnitude tells you diddly squat about the actual impact of the quake. It's not completely irrelevant, but whereas emergency services prepare for hurricanes based on the scale of hurricane it is, magnitude is absolutely no basis for an emergency response to a quake. Shindo is.

For your hurricane analogy, a better magnitude equivalent would be a kilojoule energy rating for the storm - which of course is meaningless because you could be dealing with a large spread out storm, or a small localized intense storm. That is precisely why they use the scale they do - and why Magnitude is an absolutely redundant scale for use in the general media and public domain for understanding what actually happened when a quake occurs.

Not that I care at all...

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I'm with lunchbox.

hiko wrote: so why even bother giving us Magnitude

Because it's not possible to give Shindo for every location. Magnitude is a measure of the energy released, and as such it's still important information.

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Hikozaemon, Good analogy with the sun. How about this analogy though: Magnitude is like saying there is a category 4 Hurricane in the Mexican gulf, and shindo is like saying that the wind speed in Texas was 150kp/hr. If I live in Florida, where the hurricane isn't going to effect me, both are important statistics.

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Lunchbox, my point exactly - everyone understand Shindo, so why even bother giving us Magnitude?

What is so important about it? What does magnitude tell us? Shindo doesn't just tell us the seismic acceleration in Tokyo - it gives readings for all of Japan - it is region specific information in each area. Magnitude is like the total power output of the sun, and Shindo is the local temperature. They don't report on solar activity on the weather - they give local temperatures. I don't understand the point in reporting on a quake giving no information other than magnitude.

Magnitude is interesting to geologists, but measures nothing of relevance to ordinary people. Just tell us how much it shook and where.

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loveinjapan - I can't believe this is the first time you heard about Shindo scale in 7 years in Japan. It is always specified, whenever there is an earthquake, and it's as important and revealing as the Magnitude (and even more revealing, if you are interested about the effect, not the source of the quake)...I believe the whole world could use this scale to quickly evaluate damages...

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Lunchbox - OK, but I'll still say an earthquake news without the intensity levels measured in the immediately affected area is still crude reporting by AP if not useless.

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Lunchbox, dont speak for me. I have been living here for 7 years and its my first time hearing the term Shindo.

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Eigokun, it sounds like you hjave just got off the plane. Everybody living in Japan knows the difference between Shindo and Magnitude, we don't need to look it up.

Hikoemon. Magnitude is also important. If the article said there was an earthquake with an epicentre 500km away from Tokyo, that had a Shindo of 3 in Tokyo. That would be pretty meaningless to the rest of Japan. Magnitude is also important information.

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I don't know why Japan Today would be running an article with a measure of the earthquake in Magnitude, which is completely meaningless.

Yes, it was a 6.9 quake, but it was 500km away from the ass end of anything.

Magnitude is completely irrelevant for describing the quake.

The quake was a Shindo 3 in Kanagawa, Tokyo, Chiba, Ibaraki, and a two in the prefectures around that. That tells anyone reading how much it shook - and while it was a bit of a jolt in central Tokyo, a Shindo 3 is barely news - calling it a Mag 6.9 quake just paints a false picture of destruction, which is precisely why it is utterly meaningless as a way for the public to understand "how big the shake was".

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Yeah, felt it in Saitama. Saw the water vibrate first, and then everything started the shimmy. Kinda like a fun house... but at work. back to work as usual affter though...

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I was at home, and it was quite shaky. My building is ancient, so I was a little concerned, but not concerned enough to get up.

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Alright alright thanks for looking up the Internet for me everyone. At least I didn't pretend to know it from beforehand and still calling it epic center like Zenny.

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Some people on here seem to be confusing frequency with magnitude -- they are two totally different things.

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Yes, we all got very, very lucky here in Tokyo this time!

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Eigokun ... 6.9 is the magnitude. 3 refers to Shindo 3 on the Japanese scale which measurs quakes differently. Japanese scale measures relative strength of shaking at any given point. Magnitude measures amount of energy released at the epicenter. Had this magnitude 6.9 quake been 3 miles deep instead of 300 miles deep the outcome could have been tragic.

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Thank god, gods this did not have an epicenter here in the middle of Tokyo!

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eigokun, I think you maybe getting confushed with the Japanese Shindo scale, which measures the intensity, not the magnitude. This quake was way down, 480km, and by the time it travelled to Kanto, it had a seismic intensity of 2-3. The shindo would be different depending on where you were at the time.

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All were brief though, but seems like a lot of activity in a short term which may be good,a s pressure is released and hopefully less chance of a big one.

this does not make a difference as to if there will be a "big one" or not. make sure you have an earthquake kit on standby.

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I felt it! Thought it was very long one.

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Felt it in Sendai, and it was strong enough to make the building rattle.

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Was on the 19th floor of a building in Odaiba and was fairly worried by it to be honest...

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Yep, had a good 15 seconds or so of swaying in Ichikawa. Wasn't alarmingly strong, but it didn't want to stop.

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I felt one in Osaka, if that helps. Was a bit later in the day, though. Like 3:54 p.m. or so.

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Didn't feel it in Itabashi. However, I remember back in '85 walking through the terminal in Kinshicho during a large earthquake when I was practically thrown to the ground along with my companions while large thick glass doors flopped back and forth like rags.

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6.9 at the epicenter.

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The magnitude is given for the epic-centre(source spot where the quake occured).

Thought everyone knew that, News always 1st give the magnitude at the source and a bit later levels per affected areas.

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Today's quake was 3 and the big Kobe quake in 1995 was 7.2 in JMA magnitude so I find it rather misleading that the AP news is reporting today's minor quake as 6.9-magnitude.

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Mother nature.

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Our school shook and everyone felt it out here in Gunma...

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That was a long one!

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I felt it in Yokohama

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In central Tokyo and definitely felt it. Things were swaying back and forth. Strongest earthquake i've felt in quite a while.

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out Narita way I noticed clothes & stuff hanging rocking away but felt almost nothng

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I was in Meguro near Jiyugaoka when it hit, and it was one of the few times I considered getting up and leaving the apartment for safety. It just didn't want to stop.

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In central Tokyo, never felt it.

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Felt 3 earthquakes in teh last 3 days here in West japan but this was not one of them. All were brief though, but seems like a lot of activity in a short term which may be good,a s pressure is released and hopefully less chance of a big one.

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It was a 3 on the Japanese scale in Chiyoda and Minato-ku. Didn't register as a 4 or above anywhere in Japan according to the JMA site. The three-in-a-row Niigata earthquakes a few years back were big enough that I noticed them while walking outside. Those and one that was about M5 that struck directly below Tokyo and messed up the trains for hours were far bigger than this one- small things actually fell over in our apartment during those.

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Felt it pretty strongly here in Chiyoda-ku. Felt like one of the biggest for a few years, particularly considering it was so far away. It also went on for a long time.

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I felt it here in central Tokyo. Quite strong, I thought about a 4 or so. I wonder if Ogasawara islands got a tsunami?

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I certainly felt it. It must have been huge if it was 300 miles deep and shook Tokyo that much! We're lucky it was so deep.

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US Geological Org said at first it was a 5.5. I felt it but it was very weak in Setagaya. However, I am in a brand new high tech building.

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I'm in west Tokyo and was outside walking at the time and didn't feel it at all. My husband at work in Asakusa says he didn't either, but people seem to be commenting on it on Facebook. No biggie here obviously, but some overseas news sources are reporting things like "M6.9 earthquake strikes central Tokyo"- news definitely needs more fact checking than it seems to get these days.

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Join - In a tall building and felt it. One of the bigger ones I have felt...

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Yep, our building swayed quite a bit.

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I am in a tall building in Tokyo and felt it. Scary stuff.

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I felt nothing and I also live in western Tokyo.

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Things shook quiet a bit here in western Tokyo.

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Didn`t feel a thing in my part of central Tokyo.

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