Scary Earthquake Stats

I was thinking about seismic activity in general, with the recent earthquake in Japan. Of course, here in Virginia, USA, we are quite far from any major fault lines. Even so, we had an earthquake of magnitude 3.0 last July. It was enough to wake me from sleep, but nothing in the house was damaged.

Now, the thing about the Richter Scale is, it increases by multiples of ten. That would mean that the quake in Japan, having been upgraded to a 9.0, was six points higher, which is ONE MILLION TIMES more powerful than the one we experienced here in Virginia. Not one hundred. Not one thousand. ONE MILLION TIMES stronger.

That got me thinking about how often they might have earthquakes in Japan. So I did a little research, and found that there were not one, or even two... But about 40 earthquakes noted in the area of Japan IN THE PAST MONTH. Many were in the range of 4.8 to 5.2 on the Richter scale. That would be 100 times more powerful than the quake we had here in Virginia. Certainly enough to do some minor damage.

I also found out that northern Japan, the area of the last quake, experiences on average seven earthquakes of a magnitude 5.0 or more, per year. In the past month however, the area around Japan has experienced more than a dozen quakes of 5.0 or greater magnitude.

There is definitely something going on with the tectonic plates in that area. In fact, a map showing activity in the last WEEK in and around Japan, from the US Geological Survey, finds 519 earthquakes of various sizes, over the past week. By comparison, for the same time period on the California coast, there are only 8 quakes showing... And all of insignificant magnitude.

Of course we have to be concerned right now, about how we -- the citizens of the World -- can help in the relief efforts. But it would seem that Japan is sitting on a very active fault right about now. We have to keep our guard up as to potential new seismic activity, and be aware that there could be another quake sometime in the next few weeks, months or years.

I am hoping that, as Japan is rebuilt, that their best scientists architects, engineers, and their government will take this into account. My hopes, personally, would be that in the future, all buildings built on the fault lines be done so with the intent of withstanding another quake of the same magnitude. And perhaps that there might be some way to have an early warning system in place for tsunami dangers as well.

In doing this research, I don't mean to be alarmist. I just am hoping that there will be enough aid and forethought so that, in the future, lives will be spared. I also hope you will read my other posts, and make a donation to the relief efforts, both now, and in the future when the news coverage and donations are dwindling.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov