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Another big earthquake in Niigata. (It's not fair).


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Looks like there's a whole bunch of them on the Niigata/Nagano border there (just above the word I in ISTL). My guess is that area is the area within Tsunan, Myoko, Nagano city, Iiyama that kind of area. Nasty.

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 Originally Posted By: tsondaboy
A Moment tensor solution always gives you 2 planes, like in the USGS pick. You can’t really say just by one solution, which is the plane that represents the fault. Usually the distribution of the aftershocks gives you a good idea of the geometry of the area that has slipped. The distribution up to now points to an East dipping thrust.


Last night's NHK reported the aftershocks indicating a NW dipping fault. Me right \:\)
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It sometimes starts like when you get up to fast, things seem to move but your brain is telling you that its impossible, then the pots and pans start rattling and shit REALLY starts to move!

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 Originally Posted By: soubriquet
Last night's NHK reported the aftershocks indicating a NW dipping fault. Me right \:\)


I didnt see the NHKs report last night so cant comment on that, but this is the after shock distribution up to now.

kato01.jpg

And how it is distributed in time. Red circle main shock M6.8, purple circle largest aftershock M5.8 (up to now).

b16.jpg

As I said, its too early to jump into conclusions.
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Thanks. Certainly looks like a SE dip. What do the red and blue parallelograms on the cross sections mean?

 

Why would NHK report something definitive? They quoted the information as coming from the JMA.

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JMA is known for not being accurate in their estimations, not only of hypocenters but also about weather and staff. \:\)

 

The red and blue parallelograms in the cross sections are the depth extensions of the NW dipping faults in the area. They don’t really fit with the hypocenters distribution as you can see.

The main problem is that all the data we have up to now are from land based on-line stations to the SE. In order to accurately determine the hypocenters we need some travel time data from stations to the NW. From what I know, they are deploying OBSs (Ocean Bottom Seismometers) in the area to the NW, but it will take at least 2 month to collect the data and more than that to process them.

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Thanks. I'm not familiar with thrust tectonics. All my seismic experience is rift/oil related stuff. If those aftershocks are reasonably well constrained, then clearly it's a fairly complex fault system.

 

Do you use an approximation for time to distance/depth, or can you calculate the velocities?

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Calculating the 3D distribution of the Vp,Vs velocities in the crust/upper mantle is what I do for my Phd. It is a process that takes lots of time and requires a considerable amount of data. For reasons of simplicity and speed, we determine the hypocenters using an average 1D layered model.

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In my (unfortunately considerable) experience there are a few different types of feeling. All of them most definitely not nice and scary.

 

Main big earthquakes happen suddenly and of course you don't know to expect them or are prepared for them coming. The two big big ones I have experienced were violent, sudden (in that it didn't start with gentle shaking) and more than anything it was just a case of "lets survive" going on in your head. Heart nearly exploding after the fact.

 

Once the main one is gone the aftershocks start. I think people would agree that in some ways these are wose. They may not be as strong but they go on and on and you are half expecting them. So you are living in fear. Often less sudden you can almost hear them coming, like a low grumbling truck approaching sound. Then the shaking and the wondering how big will it get. I found them to be psychologically very damaging. With the one we had 3 years ago, there were a crazy number of aftershocks.

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SJ1 made the same observation re aftershocks. He didn't like them at all.

 

Earthquakes generate a number of different wave types. They move at different velocities. When you're up nice and close, the P waves and the S waves will arrive tightly bunched. Lucky you.

 

We had several (10-20?) seconds of fairly gentle shaking before the S waves came with a thump.

 

P-wave in rock: 3.5-6.5 km/sec

S-wave in rock: 1.8-3.8 km/sec

 

(source Parasnis)

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Yes we had a similar experience, living so close. I think most people will say that. You're just sitting there expecting all those aftershock earthquakes, it's not nice. On alert every time a car or truck comes by.

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I find it really difficult to describe, don't think you can truly understand the scariness of it until you actually experience it. Not that I would wish that on anyone.

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Imagine you are sleeping in your bed, you open you eyes and there is a large African man with a bone in his nose and a knife in his hand and he doesn't look happy.

 

That is probably the best way to descibe the unexpected, sudden shock and TERROR of an earthquake and the accompanying fear for your life.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There was an earthquake in Manchester the other day. 2.5 magnitude apparently. I didn't feel anything but some people in the office were a bit spooked for a few minutes. Didn't even make the local news that night!

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