7.1 Earthquake in Japan

Posted by krembo 1 hour ago

Comments

Comment by tkgally 44 minutes ago

In parts of Kumamoto Prefecture, it registered 7 on the Japanese shindo (seismic intensity) scale, which reflects the amount of ground shaking at a particular location. The shindo is a better indicator of the likely amount of damage than the magnitude is. A shindo of 7 is extremely strong [1].

Ten minutes ago (at around 17:15 p.m. Japan time), NHK was reporting that there were many emergency calls coming in from Uki City, where shindo 7 was recorded, but that the extent of the damage or injuries was not yet known.

There have also been many aftershocks, including some strong ones, and tsunami warnings.

[1] https://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/Activities/jishintsunami/jishin...

Comment by 41d 20 minutes ago

I hope everyone is safe in Kumamoto. In my area, we have been repeatedly warned that a major earthquake called the Nankai Trough is likely to occur in the last few years or decades, so I am very scared of big earthquakes happening in other areas as well.

Comment by DiscourseFan 42 minutes ago

Kumamoto is barely finished rebuilding from the last quake, you can still see cracks in structures as you drive down the road. This is really horrible; not to mention the city is already beginning to depopulate as the youth move north to Fukuoka.

Comment by kuczmama 43 minutes ago

I'm living in the South of Japan, it was a 4 intensity where I am (about 90km) from the epicenter. Luckily there was only some light shaking and nothing fell over here.

Comment by sevenzero 42 minutes ago

Hope the areas around you were just as lucky, thanks for the update!

Comment by canpan 55 minutes ago

Similar strength and location as the 2016 one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Kumamoto_earthquakes

Comment by mrwaffle 46 minutes ago

Was looking at webcams here (https://tokyo.fyi) but realized this is further south.

Comment by ibaikov 2 minutes ago

Found a few online webcams, but I'm not really sure I saw the earthquake. People didn't even seem to stop on the webcam I was watching. Lots of cars on the bridge afterwards though while before it there were much less, idk

Comment by vaylian 1 hour ago

Does anyone know if this also affects South Korea?

Comment by masklinn 50 minutes ago

Given it’s barely even felt outside of Kyushu (JMA 3, the dark blue dots, is "dishes may rattle, some people walking outside notice") that seems unlikely.

Comment by ChrisRR 41 minutes ago

Dishes may rattle feels like such a japanese way to describe it

Comment by GreyMolecules 59 minutes ago

Never felt anything in SK

Comment by asp_hornet 56 minutes ago

Thank you for this update.

Comment by barosl 52 minutes ago

I was told that some people in Busan, the Korean city nearest to Japan, felt the earthquake and even felt dizzy.

Comment by jasmcole 3 minutes ago

I'm in Busan, though I didn't feel anything. (I was on the beach at the time though.)

Comment by ButlerianJihad 53 minutes ago

United States Geological Survey https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?extent=21.04224...

Live NHK-WORLD-NEWS feed (English-language commentator) https://www.youtube.com/live/f0lYkdA-Gtw?si=Sc8ZbldZUQESiJQZ

Comment by TZubiri 1 hour ago

7.1 seems to mean non resistant buildings may collapse.

Comment by sevenzero 56 minutes ago

Yea seems pretty bad given its on the higher end of the scale... I might be naive but I hope nobody died

Comment by markdown 49 minutes ago

It's Japan though. They don't have non-resistant buildings.

Comment by asutekku 36 minutes ago

Like half of the buildings are non-resistant since they are old and made of wood. IIRC only buildings built after 1991 are guaranteed to be earthquake resistant.

Comment by markdown 3 minutes ago

Earthquakes didn't start in 1991. The Japanese have always had to live with earthquakes and build accordingly.

Comment by klausa 35 seconds ago

For a long time "live with earthquakes and build accordingly" meant "make it easy to rebuild", not "engineer the structures to withstand the earthquakes".

Comment by crest 22 minutes ago

One of the reasons Japan uses wood for construction is that combined with their traditional building techniques it results in earthquake resistant buildings.

Comment by klausa 38 minutes ago

There's plenty of old buildings here that are not built up to the latest standards; increasing exponentially the further you get from the core of a big city.

Japan is _very good_ at tearing down old buildings and building better in their place; but it doesn't mean that there are zero old buildings around.

Comment by amelius 6 minutes ago

Wouldn't the not so strong old buildings have collapsed during previous quakes?

Comment by 51 minutes ago

Comment by what_hn 56 minutes ago

Shit hope everyone is ok.

Comment by aaron695 6 minutes ago

[dead]

Comment by minraws 55 minutes ago

Tldr; Seems like major cities didn't get hit by the earthquake at 7 scale.

Hoping for zero casualities.

Comment by minraws 53 minutes ago

Apparently there is a risk for tsunami so Japanese govt has issued a further alert. Hope it isn't anything too bad either

Comment by Melatonic 32 minutes ago

Haven't seen anything on the Tsunami global warning list so hopefully it's okay. Earthquake looks centered on land which (to my unofficial understanding) means low risk of Tsunami but of course higher chance of direct damage

Comment by 1317 11 minutes ago

don't know what this is doing at the top of HN, if you're there then you know about it already, if you're not then it doesn't affect you in the slightest

Comment by Foskya 6 minutes ago

It may not affects me personally but i'm still interested in the topic and the discussions it generates.

Comment by amelius 4 minutes ago

what if you have family there ...