M5.3 quake hits near Tokyo

Ohayo, Japan!!!

Yeah, thank you Mother Nature for the early morning wake up call!

Thanks Mommy Nature!! For not feeling anything on my side of Tokyo!! I just had the best night's sleep! I do hope this rain stops!!!

Biggest shake we have had out here in Chiba since the March quakes. It was a real up-down jackhammer banging type, rather than the sideways shaking we have had usually. Just long enough to erase any chance of sleeping on through it. And on a friggin Saturday morning damn it. 2 ornaments fell off shelves, and a bit of food, but nothing broken. A good little reminder to stay prepared just in case that big one still comes. But thankfully 9 months have now past so the probability is getting lower and lower!

But thankfully 9 months have now "passed" so the probability is getting lower and lower!

Sorry, lunch, but that's supercalifragelisticexpialadosciously wishful thinking.

Yep, it had me holding my breath for ten seconds or so. Was ready to do a runner. Hope everybody has their emergency kit up to date cos there is no telling when the next 'big one' will hit.

That was pretty violent at my place. Biggest in many months. First time my "yurekuru call" has gone off since at least the summer.

lunchbox

while it was indeed a damned big jolt here were LOTS bigger & longer in March after the 3/11 hit, just sayin

@Disillusioned What good will the emergency kit do though - if the "big one" hits, either the building collapses upon you, or it doesn't. For people like me who live in a tower (30 stories below, 20+ above me), surviving a building collapse is illusory.

its easy has, MOVE outta the city, yr survival chances will increase significantly, its one of the reasons I keep moving further out until I was out by forests & paddies, where my kit will come in quite useful thank you very much!

its easy ""Hans""

@GW that is highly debatable. My building was built this year according to the latest safety standards. If a big one hits, I assess my chances to be vastly higher than to live in a 10 or 15-year old building in the middle of nowhere, where the commute will kill me in the mid term.

When you live in the forest, there is no need to have a kit either, because it is unlikely that a tree will collapse on you, and if it does, out there nobody will see your flashlight signals.

Out to lunchbox in no way whatsoever do earthquake events follow anything like the pattern of occurrence you are suggesting. And Chiba has been hit with quakes much bigger than 5.3 since 3.11.

I slept through it. Was it noticable?

I was actually playing Mario Kart 7 on my Nintendo 3DS at a hotel here in Sagamihara, and it shook like a biggie at first. I was playing with seven others on the internet but I lost the race.

It's off topic but can anyone tell me how to upload an avatar(picture) here at JT?

YongYang, This morning was a Shindo 4 here where I live, we haven't had a shindo 4 here since March. They definitely have had some up in northern Chiba and Ibaragi, but today's shake was Southern Chiba. Earthquakes/aftershocks do follow a pattern. The frequency of them gets less as time goes on. I'm not saying the risk is now gone, I'm just saying that 9 months has passes, I feel a lot more easy than I did just 3 months after 3-11. The risk will never go, but the chance of a big shake hitting will return back to what it was pre March.

Hans. Emergency kits are for survival in the days immediately after a big disaster, when electricity and gas are off, trains, shops and supermarkets are closed, and you can't buy any water anywhere. Me and GW won't be sharing ours.

@Lunchbox The term "aftershock" of course is a man-made term that sounds important, but does not a good job at describing the natural phenomenon. Serious scientists do not use this term. Because any "aftershock" is just another shock, or earthquake - full stop. If you understand tectonics, you will understand that there is no pattern to earthquakes, but it is just humans struggling to apply a pattern in order to cope with the stress. The bleak reality of earthquakes is that you never know when and how strong they hit, as will any serious expert on the matter confirm. So far, even the most elaborate technical systems have been unable to confirm any pattern, the best we can do is measure the very first waves of energy after they happened, and extrapolate on the strength of the tremor. A few seconds, maybe, is all. Who says a so-called "aftershock" isn't a "preshock"?

You won't need your water emergency kit when you're trapped under three thousand tons of debris because the engineered who planned your building made a little mistake in their calculations.

But I do see a value of emergency kits in that they calm down some people - a bit like those "duck & cover" public service announcements in the beginning of the cold war - as long as people think "I'm prepared", there is a good chance they will keep a little more calm in case something happens. It's a subjective improvement, I give you that.

Second time my yurekuru went off in a month and a half. I immediately got up and filled the bath tub.

Then I went back to sleep because it was cold and wet outside.

Tomorrow sunny. Surfs up. Hope I can fit in my winter suit. Belly has some beer extensions on it.

I do not have an emergency kit except for water purification pills.

During 3/11 I did not have bread for a week. Sucked. Got thinner though.

Lunchbox, now you're being more geographically specific, now it's Southern Chiba. OK.

@GW that is highly debatable. My building was built this year according to the latest safety standards

Hans,

I sincerely hope you are in yr building if Tokyo gets hit with a big one head on & you survive, but perhaps you need to put some more thought into it as Tokyo is more than one building, hope none of the nearby ones falls into yours, hope the fires that break out dont engulf yours, etc etc

And btw not all buildings out in the inaka are old haha, mine is about 5yrs & made of big honking logs & re-inforced to boot, she is steady as a rock! And I am up on the high ground so shud hopefully be ok but as we saw on 3/11 nothing is absolute but my chances I believe are better than in the big smoke. But pls remember I wish no harm to anyone.

You won't need your water emergency kit when you're trapped under three thousand tons of debris because the engineered who planned your building made a little mistake in their calculations.

But I do see a value of emergency kits in that they calm down some people - a bit like those "duck & cover" public service announcements in the beginning of the cold war - as long as people think "I'm prepared", there is a good chance they will keep a little more calm in case something happens. It's a subjective improvement, I give you that.

How enlightened, Hans.

For the rest of us, an emergency kit is a good idea. My building stood up fine after 3.11, but no water or gas for a week. It wasn't really livable. An emergency kit would have been a good thing to have at the time. It's not a matter of making yourself feel better, it's a matter of having things you need when an emergency strikes suddenly and you can't get the things you need.

Kurihara-shi, Miyagi was the only city to report the maximum value of shindo 7, on March 11. The city was not damaged by tsunami. There are no casualties, 6 severe injury, 544 minor injury (population of 75,916 people).

http://www.kuriharacity.jp/kuriharacity/contents/emergency/saigai/110311_jisin.html

Hans,

Serious scientists Serious do not use this term.

They are called seismologists, and yes they do use the term aftershock. If you can't see the pattern of earthquakes/aftershocks this year (whatever you want to call them), then you really need to see a doctor, I would go really soon, because the pattern is blindingly obvious. I'll summarize:

Before 3-11, hardly any quakes.

After 3-11, suddenly hundreds of them every day, slowly getting less and less. Almost none nowadays.

Hmmmm, can't see the pattern? Still look random?

Hans, no major concrete structure failed completely in the 3/11 earthquake. Mate, you know not of what you post.

@Lunchbox, 3/11 was preceded by a series of large earthquakes over the previous two days, beginning on March 9th with a M 7.2 event approximately 40 km from the epicenter of the March 11 earthquake, and continuing with another three earthquakes greater than M 6 on the same day. There really is NO pattern that says when the faults are going to slip, jolt and move.

...posted without finishing... While the probability of future large earthquakes has not increased, neither has it decreased and large earthquakes will continue to occur just as we have observed in the past. And so it goes. Nature. No control.

"hope everybody has their emergency kit"

I got 2 flashlights, extra batteries, some candles, around 30 liters of water, 3 liters of milk, a couple dozen boxes of tissue paper, several 12-packs of toilet paper and 2 liters of sake.

There were big earthquakes M7.3 (March 9) and M6.8 (March 10) near the epicenter of 3.11 one. Japan Meteorological Agency says it is possible that those earthquakes are foreshocks of 3.11 M9 earthquake. Some seismologists say those are not foreshocks, some say those are induced earthquakes.

An aftershock is a smaller earthquake that occurs after a previous large earthquake, in the same area of the main shock. If an aftershock is larger than the main shock, the aftershock is redesignated as the main shock and the original main shock is redesignated as a foreshock. Aftershocks are formed as the crust around the displaced fault plane adjusts to the effects of the main shock.

　http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftershock

According to Asahi Shimbun on November 25, 9M class earthquake would occur 30% possibility within 30 years along the coast of Minamisanriku through Boso of Chiba. http://www.asahi.com/science/update/1124/TKY201111240561.html

@Ser: Get some emergency blankets in there. A gas stove and more food. I have a quick to put up tent too. Also have a grab bag at work.

@Zichi: Modeling of the rupture of this earthquake indicate that the fault moved upwards of 30-40 m, and slipped over an area approximately 300 km long (along-strike) by 150 km wide (in the down-dip direction). Again, as posted above the probability of future large earthquakes has not increased, neither has it decreased and large earthquakes will continue to occur just as we have observed in the past. And so it goes. Nature. No control.

The 1498 Meiō Nankaidō earthquake M8.6 occurred off the coast of Nankai. A tsunami was recorded in Suruga Bay and at Kamakura, where it destroyed the building housing the statue of the Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in. Tsunami hazard map of Kamakura today is not covering Kotoku-in area at all. Need to be revised. (Has it?) http://www.city.kamakura.kanagawa.jp/sougoubousai/documents/kamakurabver4.pdf

Serrano:

" I got 2 flashlights, extra batteries, some candles, around 30 liters of water, 3 liters of milk, a couple dozen boxes of tissue paper, several 12-packs of toilet paper and 2 liters of sake. "

I got a few boxes with beer. Priorities first.

Yes, food is important, I have a stash of canned food, and extra blankets. No tent though. That's a good idea, I'll get one.

Just for a think: The Japan Trench subduction zone has hosted nine events of magnitude 7 or greater since 1973.

That's an average of 4.4 years. No where near as rare as some seem desperate to believe.

It's the biggest one I felt in Shinjuku area in a long time. Glad I was up at the time checking my emails. Certainly would have been a rude awakening if I was still laying down.

@Lunchbox I don't see the need to go into personal attacks i.e. telling me to see a doctor, but it goes a long way of telling us about your insecurity towards earthquakes. You are so scared of them that you cling to your pattern theory. I know it's hard for some people to live with the constant possibility of "I'm brushing my teeth now, but in three minutes, I could be crawling over dead bodies"