Osaka area hit by powerful quake sits above active faults

If you don’t already have this site, check out your area. Of course this only shows known fault lines, not all.

https://gbank.gsj.jp/activefault/cgi-bin/search_e.cgi?search_no=e007&versioin_no=1&search_mode=2

Asahi Shimbun has a more detailed background about the Arima-Takatsuki fault zone. It says that even though this earthquake was the strongest ever measured in Osaka by the post-1923 methods, bigger ones such as a 7.5 in 1596 are estimated to have occurred. Archaeologists and seismologists cite landslides on Osaka's imperial burial mounds to support the estimate. I find that kind of history pretty fascinating but since my neighboring prefecture of residence wasn't hit hard this time, I guess the people living in the disaster zone don't need it when safety and disrupted commuting is a higher priority. I understand the irritation that today is a little too early for "deep dive" articles on the seismic history of this region. Stay safe all JT friends in Osaka.

Ya think? All of Japan is on active fault lines. I don't like the idea of any more quakes like we just had, but I suppose I better prepare. I know where my local evacuation zone is, and happens to be just outside my apartment, for better or worse. Got my earthquake bag near the door (so long as I'm home, I can get it), and plan to get a few other things ready just in case.

And these guys debating over which fault line it was, and people saying it was dangerous... I really wonder what that accomplishes. I mean, if they said, "Well, it was this line, and theres an NPP on it. So, we best stop the NPP permanently," and that had any weight, I can see the theoretical debate having some point.

Just watching a government spokesman giving a press conference explaining the nature of this quake and the faults underneath.

"Of course", he added, "there is nowhere in Japan that is safe from earthquakes."

Earthquakes are more scary and imminent issue for Japan than IS terrorism and nukes of North Korea. It happens inevitably and beneath the ground we live on.

Just had another powerful aftershock-the cats are under the table again!

These wombats sitting in their laboratories...

I bet you they're not peddling debunked mythology gleaned from viral emails.

Takuya Nishimura, an associate professor of geodetics at Kyoto University, said there was a possibility that the quake had occurred at the eastern end of a fault extending from the northern part of the prefecture to Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture........... adding that another fault lying further north might also be behind the latest quake."

Isn't the Professor just saying he doesn't know which fault line caused it? Why speculate?

@Schopenhauer, true the stronger intensity earthquakes are a major problem for Japan. But earthquakes in general are, as you say, an inevitable feature of living on planet Earth. There are nearly 200 countries sharing an average of 1000 quakes of magnitude 2.0 or greater every day. The number of distinct shocks in Osaka is at 20 in a half day, with an additional 5-10 quakes in other parts of Japan listed on the JMA website. So we might estimate that on a bad day like today, Japan's possibly 40 earthquakes in 24 hours is 8 times the global average of 5 per country per day, overlooking that a comparison is flawed because not all countries are equal size or densely populated. Beyond that, think of all the strong quakes happening hundreds of km deep in the mantle that don't disturb us on the surface. Bill Bryson for one writes engagingly about this kind of topic.

Sure hope they are shutting down and securing nuclear power plants. Just wish for once the government would listen to the scientists?

No worries, since1981, as "there are no reports of damage" they announced immediately after the quake.

Why they never insert those two little words 'so far' beats me. Not interested in boosting their credibility among the population?

A quick check on Google earth satellite will show clearly that Japan is not actually a country.

Um, I'm pretty sure Japan is a country.

Sitting above an actual fault line does not always cause the most damage in the area of the fault line. Mexico City gets slammed by earthquakes caused by fault lines hundreds of kms away in the Pacific ocean but which reverberate up the plateau and magnify the harmonic motion. I think the academics in Japan should refocus their studies accordingly.

A quick check on Google earth satellite will show clearly that Japan is not actually a country. The whole archipelago is just a raised fault line where three tectonic plates meet. You done have to be a geologist to conclude the whole of Japan is susceptible to major earthquake activity. These wombats sitting in their laboratories with all kinds of sensors collecting and anykiding huge amounts of earthquake data are still totally unable to predict earthquakes. Nobody predicted the Tohoku quake and 99% of the earthquake warnings I receive on my phone are false alarms. There was an earthquake warning issued in Kansai this morning, but due to the vast majority of warnings being false, people just ignore them.

The Japan meterogical agency can hoop and holler all they like, but the fact if the matter is, all of Japan is prone to major earthquakes and predicting them is just a matter guessing the right place. The earthquakes are always coming.