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Preparing for the next "big one"


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If I was worried about quakes too much I just wouldn't live here, it could happen anywhere it seems. From what I remember the one in Niigata was hardly predicted as being a place of particular danger until it happened. I'm lucky enough not to have experienced a really big shake, but I can imagine thoughts on the matter changing a lot if you go through something that traumatic.

 

There's a lot here in Chiba. It's not going to be pretty if there is a really big one in Tokyo and/or this area.

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but I can imagine thoughts on the matter changing a lot if you go through something that traumatic.
Definitely. Before Chuetsu I had experienced some little ones from time to time and basically forgot about them after 30 minutes or so. Never really put much thought into it.....
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Originally posted by XY:
If I was worried about quakes too much I just wouldn't live here, it could happen anywhere it seems. From what I remember the one in Niigata was hardly predicted as being a place of particular danger until it happened.
The main faults are pretty well known, all the way down the east coast and from Kanto through to Kyushu. There are still plenty of smaller faults elsewhere which can do plenty of damage when they let go, such as in Niigata. Many of these have been mapped, but you do get blind faults which don't have any surface expression.

Yamagata is fairly safe because the crust here is in tension, rather than compression or shear. The Yamagata Basin has formed because the crust has pulled apart and the basin floor has subsided. We don't get typhoons either, just a lot of snow. That's OK with me.
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The bad news, big-will, is no.

 

usgsmap-detail.gif

 

The thrust faults (shown with the triangles) store the most energy and give rise to the biggest earthquakes. However, these tend to be reasonably deep and distant (offshore). The shear faults store less energy, but may be much closer and shallower. These are the faults where you get surface ruptures. As you can see, there's a major fault south of Tokyo, and a major shear running right under O11's house in Shikoku.

 

This report is very graphic, and quite readable.

 

http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/effects-kobe.html

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Driving seems to be a good thing to do when there's an earthquake - unless of course the road opens up in front of you! I have a friend who lives in Nagaoka, and they said that they were driving when the quake struck there and it just felt like a (very) strong wind and he didn't realise there had been an earthquake until he noticed all the lights out everywhere, people on the streets and things fallen over.

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I was driving when a 5er hit near Hiroshima 4 years or so back. And I sure felt that one! Actually I was waiting at a red light and the car started bouncing up and down! Felt like when a truck goes past you while stopped on a bridge, only worse. The buildings nearby were swaying quite violently, the power lines were whipping about all over the place, a piece of the building right next to the car fell off and smashed on the road in front of the car, and to make it all worse, my idiot mate wanted to get out and run, but also wanted the option of being able to get out the way in the car! So what did he do? He stood with one foot in and one foot out of the car! lol.gif So I couldn't even move the car! That was a scary experience. When I got home my apartment was trashed with the clock stopped (on the floor) at the time the quake had hit.

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