So yes, Sunday morning there was quite a big earthquake in Honshu. Far away from Hokkaido but big enough to cause a collective poignant pause nationally here. I didn't see any coverage internationally, execpt on google news, but I have special filters set up to catch Japanese news so that doesn't count. If it didn't effect us here in Hokkaido and didn't make the news internationally, was it worth posting?
Ishikawa prefecture, where the earthquake struck, is located just north of the Kansai region, and constitutes a large peninsula under which the earthquake originated. Yes I love talking about this stuff because comparably Alberta is such a bore when it comes to seismic activity. I learned of the earthquake late. There were constant flashing updates across the top of the TV while I was watching the sumo finals because of the aftershocks. I think the total is up to around 400 aftershocks now, some of them quite significant in the 4-5 region, and experts predict them to continue throughout the week.
Watching a news program at lunch Monday I learned Ishikawa prefecture has always been a hot bed of seismic activity (as is Eastern Hokkaido). In the past 200 years they have had 8 earthquakes from 6.1-6.9. All of them located near land but quite deep. They showed an interesting graphic - which I have attempted to recreate (in two minutes) - that shows the distribution of the earthquakes. The eastside of Japan is technically more active but their are exceptions (due to complex tectonic plate relations under Japan) and Ishikawa prefecture is one of those areas.
Tomorrow I will type out how they measure earthquakes in Japan and how it affects architecture.
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