BREAKING: another 6.3 off the east coast of Honshu

Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude 6.3 Mw
Date-Time
29 Mar 2011 10:54:33 UTC
29 Mar 2011 19:54:33 near epicenter
29 Mar 2011 02:54:33 standard time in your timezone
Location 37.411N 142.251E
Depth 18 km
Distances
126 km (78 miles) ENE (72 degrees) of Iwaki, Honshu, Japan
152 km (94 miles) SE (127 degrees) of Sendai, Honshu, Japan
161 km (100 miles) ESE (102 degrees) of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan
296 km (184 miles) NE (48 degrees) of TOKYO, Japan
Location Uncertainty Horizontal: 13.6 km; Vertical 6.2 km
Parameters Nph = 342; Dmin = 372.9 km; Rmss = 0.96 seconds; Gp = 28°
M-type = Mw; Version = 9
Event ID US c0002dr3
For updates, maps, and technical information, see:
Event Page
or
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

National Earthquake Information Center
U.S. Geological Survey
neic.usgs.gov...

I have a question about that data shown on the website you link to;

It seems Japan (and others) get hit by quakes alot. Most are between 4-5M. I wonder, do they feel that or are those too deep down? The list goes on and on about quakes near Japan.

They're aftershocks related to the big one. They haven't stopped coming the whole time, but most are 5.x or under.

Some areas, like northern California, do have constant little quakes, but almost all are under 3.x, so quite tiny. Normally, the 6.x and up are the truly rare ones -- even though 5.x is fairly uncommon, there are still over a hundred on average in a year.

Also remember that a 6.0 is not just one step stronger than a 5.0, but ten times stronger. So that's the level where you start to get real potential for shaking damage, tsunami, and so on, which is why it's generally newsworthy even if nothing dramatic ends up happening. As seems to be the case so far this time -- no tsunami warning that I can see.

Ah cool, thanks for that! It puts those number a bit more into perspective, at least for me.

Double post.
Sorry!