Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Minor earthquake and tsunami

This morning we were awoken by an earthquake of magnitude 7.3, shindou 5- off the coast of Fukushima with some small aftershocks. Our phones immediately gave off tsunami warnings (1-3 meter). Several coastal towns have received evacuation warnings.


This map shows the locations and heights of tsunami waves in cm measured according to the JMA:

Prefecture City Initial Tsunami Arrival Time (JST) Highest Tsunami Observed (cm) Highest Tsunami Arrival Time (JST)
Iwate Kuji 07:25 80 07:54
Iwate Miyako 07:07 40 08:09
Iwate Kamaishi 07:03 20 08:58
Iwate Ofunato  06:56 40 07:56
Miyagi Ishinomaki Ayu river unconfirmed 80 07:39
Miyagi Ishinomaki unconfirmed 80 08:11
Miyagi Sendai 07:09 140 08:03
Fukushima Soma 06:54 90 07:06
Fukushima Iwaki 06:29 60 06:49
Ibaraki Oarai 06:52 50 07:08
Ibaraki Kamisu 06:53 30 09:06
Chiba Katsuura unconfirmed 30 09:03
Chiba Tateyama 07:00 30 07:13
Hachijo island Hachijo unconfirmed 30 09:45


Earthquake and aftershocks overview from the Japan Meteorological Agency

As always, if it's not shindou (shaking intensity) 5, there's no real damage to speak of, so our area was completely safe. One photo was knocked over at my desk at work, and we lost some sleep due to the continuing aftershocks. According to the JMA: "Although there may be slight sea-level changes in some coastal regions, no tsunami damage is expected."








A cooling pump at TEPCO stopped but was already restarted. Several JR lines stopped running for a bit, causing heavy delays. The NHK has reported injuries so far:
  • Fukushima: a male in his 60s cut his foot on glass, a female in her 70s was struck in her head by a cupboard, and a 63 year old woman hit her shoulder when falling out of bed.
  • Miyagi: a 65 year old woman sprained her ankle when escaping her home.
  • Chiba: a 78 year old woman dislocated her shoulder when falling out of bed. 
And the NHK also shows a movie of a wave traveling up a river in Miyagi prefecture.

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