M5.3 quake jolts Hokkaido; no tsunami danger

Pressure on Nankai trough is building up I guess. Not a week ago a +5 in Kanto and one in Kumamoto and now a +5 in Hokkaido....

The Nankai trough affects an area from Miyazaki to Shizuoka, including Shikoku and Southern Kansai. Nothing to do with Hokkaido and not really Kanto nor Kumamoto which is east of the Nakai effect. Hokkaido is affected by the Pacific Plate up against the Okhotsk/ Eurasian Plate.

Actually the Nankai trough runs from Tokyo to south Kagoshima is it not? Then from Tokyo to the east runs the Sagami trough. Kumamoto might be located on the Eurasian plate but very near the Nankai trough so I think an eathquake would affect the pressure on Nankai, however you are right that the Hokkaido earthquake might have little to no effect but since we could feel the 9.0 all the way in Kansai on 3/11 i doubt it has NO effect on Nankai at all but don't take my word for it im just an armchair scientist.

@TigersTokyoDome : Thank you for informing the uninformed. You saved me 5 minutes of typing.

papi, you are probably more of a scientist than me, but not as much as miyako. The Nankai only runs as far west as Shizuoka and as far east as Miyazaki.

The Tohoku 9.0 was a ridiculous earthquake. Something like the 5th largest on record. Feeling it in Kansai was not so surprising.

。。。one in Kumamoto。。。

Ha ha! Forgive my laugh, but we who have lived through this know that the number of earthquakes has been far greater than "one."

I agree with Papi - there could exist no tectonic relationship between events in Hokkaido and Kyushu. That said, watch out for the Nankai trough - when it breaks (which it will eventually), it will be a game-changer.