Quake Watch 2012

No problem. Glad to help. Actually I think both Puterman and Muzzy would be able to advise better than I on other possible resources for your part of the world; that was just one I happened to have handy.

Re your comments on the Grand Cayon: if the south rim gets mushed up against the north rim that might be bad for tourism.

In other words, it's not very likely to happen...

Okay, must rush back to work!

Regards,

Mike

reply to post by Nyiah

For Japan, a good resource is the JMA -- Japan Meterological Agency -- which is the official agency in Japan that also monitors and records their quakes. If you go to the JMA Quake Page (in English) it has a map showing recent quakes and also shows the most recent one with a list of shindo values below it.

To explain, the listing shows the quake's magnitude, but below is a list with the "Shindo" (shaking) value. This has been the Japanese method for some years. The lowest shindo value is 1, the highest is 7. You'll see the notations for these values on the map on the above page.

The most recent quake listed there has a magnitude 3.8 (Mw -- moment magnitude, a common international scale), but under it is a list of its shindo values for the nearest regions. As this is a smallish quake, the closest regions would feel it with a shindo of 2, ones further away have it listed as a shindo 1.

In other words, the Japanese wouldn't even put down their cups of Cha for a quake that small.

The value of the shindo is its practicality: when a quake occurs, especially a larger one, what people are concerned about is "How will it affect us where we live? The shindo listings tell them.

The same applies when there is a bigger quake and TV programs are interrupted to warn the people. They advise the public of the big quake's shindo for various regions. Generally, the closer a region is to a quake, the higher the shindo value. And the system is so effective that they can sometimes warn people of the quake before its shock even reaches them.

So it was when the huge quake struck off the Japanese coast in March 2011. The JMA knew of it as soon as the nearest seismos picked up the strong P waves and set off auto-alarms. Within seconds they knew it was huge and also had a fair idea how strong it would be in various regions from their computer modelling software. The JMA alarm warnings went out to the media and the main TV stations immediately broke into their programs to announce the warnings and shindo values -- complete with maps supplied by the JMA!

This is why people in Tokyo, for example, had several seconds' warning before the shocks reached them. It gave time for the trains to be stopped and for people to take cover as best they could. In the schools, the alarm was also given immediately so that teachers were able to warn the children and get them to do the cover drill that they all practice.

All this was done even before USGS had the quake details listed on its pages...

This rapid-action pro-active response, which the Japanese have down to a fine art, probably helped to save lives. After all, they consider this is the real purpose of monitoring quakes. Keeping records of quakes is all well and good but in Japan, at least, their top priority is to try and protect people from harm in quakes in any way humanly possible. And they are very, very good at it.

EDIT TO ADD: Just want to make it clear I'm not criticizing the USGS for not being so quick off the mark with Japan-based quakes. The simple fact is that the Japanese have what is probably the best set-up in the world and for the good reason that they need it. It would be hard for anyone to match them when it comes to quakes in their own back yard.

If the USGS can provide reliable data quickly for its own people, then it's doing what it's really there to do. And most of the time, they do a good job. But they could improve if TPTB would provde more funding so they could run rapid-warning systems as good as the ones the Japanese have. Hopefully this funding will be provided before it's really needed. Hopefully! (End edit.)

Regards,

Mike