The every day disaster movie which is Japan

[railsquid]

Just in case you think Japan is all about reasonably priced and reliable N-gauge, ninjas, giant anime robots and that kind of thing, it also features the occasional earthquake, such as the one the other week just after 11pm which had me hanging on to the shelving units with the trains on it, and as Youtube kindly popped up some random videos of the event, I thought I'd share them with you.

This is NHK, the BBC of Japan, from 11:08:

Just some blah blah entertainment program, interrupted by the earthquake alert, which is a sound you really don't wan't to hear, especially when it's followed by a second alert expanding the scope of the first (the red X is the likely epicentre, and the yellow regions are those at risk of severe shaking).

By 11:09 they have the duty news broadcaster on, by 11:10 the local intensity data (the numbers in the square boxes); 7 is the max, anything from 5 upwards will cause damage of some sort ranging from things falling off shelves to bits of the landscape falling down. Though with this kind of quake out to sea, not so much buildings. At 11:12 the epicentre and approximate magnitude (7.1, later revised to 7.3) are confirmed, and the tsunami all-clear is announced (there are sensors on the sea bed). We also see the emergence of the blue border, which is used during natural disaster events to display emergency information (fun fact: if there are simultaneous natural disaster events, such as an earthquake during a typhoon, we get a blue border within a blue border). There is also a black border for civil defence emergencies, fortunately I've only see that once, when Rocketman Kim decided to crash a missile into the Pacific to the east of Japan.

At the same time the TV is broadcasting alerts, trains will be coming to a automatic emergency stop, and all the mobile phones in the yellow areas will be also be emitting an alert, which was presumably inspired by the sound of nails scratching across a blackboard; here's someone driving along in their car when it goes off:

Various random scenes of shake, rattle and roll:

Finally, some cats:

(and note that location was only 5 on the intensity scale)

[mika]

Thanks for that insight.

Hope you and your family are fine.

Best from earthquake-safe Potsdam
Michael

[Train Waiting]

Thank you.  Interesting to compare and contrast the feline reactions.

Best wishes.

John

[OffshoreAlan]

How absolutely terrifying, especially looking at those overhead motorways (which presumably are constructed with the best anti-quake measures the Japanese can contrive).

Interesting to note some drivers stop, and some carry on - the main danger of the latter I suppose is driving into a gap which has opened up.

Thanks for an intriguing post.

[emjaybee]

Yoinks!

I've had a small, very small,  experience of something similar. We live on a ridge outside the village. Some years ago I was up late, watching something on the box about 1am ish. Suddenly, a noise like a large empty articulated tipper lorry bouncing at speed down a bumpy track, I swear I thought a truck was about to come through the house. Then it felt like the house was shaken like a snow globe. It lasted no more than seven or eight seconds. Not pleasant.

It was the noise that freaked me out, I wouldn't have expected the noise.

Oh, and the wife bellowing down the stairs, "I don't know what you're doing, but pack it in I'm trying to sleep."



Hope you're all safe and well down there. Is it a regular occurrence?

[Safety Engineer]

When I was in Taiwan, about twelve years ago, the daily earthquake appeared on the weather forecast.
Incidentally they have the longest railway viaduct in the world, think it's about 97 miles long. It's on the high speed line between Taipei and Kaoshung.

Martin

[railsquid]

How absolutely terrifying, especially looking at those overhead motorways (which presumably are constructed with the best anti-quake measures the Japanese can contrive).

They weren't originally, then the Kobe quake happened in 1995, and an awful lot of strengthening work has been carried out since.

When I was in Taiwan, about twelve years ago, the daily earthquake appeared on the weather forecast.
Incidentally they have the longest railway viaduct in the world, think it's about 97 miles long. It's on the high speed line between Taipei and Kaoshung.

Same applies the railway lines, particularly the Shinkansen lines, which are often built on concrete viaducts. This quake knocked out a section of the northern Shinkansen line (mainly catenary masts dislodged); that section apparently had not yet been upgraded. It was reopened in about 11 days.

[railsquid]

Yoinks!

I've had a small, very small,  experience of something similar. We live on a ridge outside the village. Some years ago I was up late, watching something on the box about 1am ish. Suddenly, a noise like a large empty articulated tipper lorry bouncing at speed down a bumpy track, I swear I thought a truck was about to come through the house. Then it felt like the house was shaken like a snow globe. It lasted no more than seven or eight seconds. Not pleasant.

It was the noise that freaked me out, I wouldn't have expected the noise.

Oh, and the wife bellowing down the stairs, "I don't know what you're doing, but pack it in I'm trying to sleep."



Hope you're all safe and well down there. Is it a regular occurrence?

Earthquakes pretty much daily in some part of Japan; one of this extent thankfully less so, personally it's the strongest I've experienced since the 2011 one.

It's interesting people in the UK report they can hear earthquakes; here any noise is generated by things shaking, It does feel like the house is suddenly rolling along logs at increasing speed (unless the epicentre is very close, in which case it feels like a giant hammer hit the house from below).

[Bealman]

Yes, that's very interesting. Just after I moved into Chez Bealman back in 1981, I was woken up in the night by what seemed like a train barrelling down on the house. This was followed by a slight shudder.

It turned out the cause was a slip in a local fault line in the escarpment behind me.

When the Newcastle earthquake occurred in 1989 (or around that time), I was packing the dishwasher when things started rattling in there. To this day, I swear that the whole floor of the kitchen and family room were rippling up and down like ocean waves. However, the only noise was things rattling, no rumbles.

We'd just had extensions put on, and my first thought was that something was wrong there. No, it was an earthquake. Buildings in Newcastle were damaged and people were killed.

Bealette 3 experienced an earthquake while she was in Osaka, and also reports no noise, just rattle and roll.

[Safety Engineer]

FYI:
In countries subject to earthquakes, railways have operating rules to cover these events. I worked on the high speed metro in Taiwan linking the international airport to the capital Taipei. There were seismic sensors linked in to the interlockings, which in the event of an earthquake placed signals at Red and stopped trains until the tracks were inspected and deemed safe. There was a staged response depending on the severity of the event, presume other lines had similar arrangements.
(In the US, BNSF stop all trains within a 100 mile radius of an earthquake epicentre until the tracks and infrastructure are inspected).

Martin
(Safety Engineer)

[Malc]

We get the odd quake in the Midlands, mainly due to old mine workings collapsing. I was in my office on the 3rd floor when things started wobbling. On another occasion we thought it was birds fighting on our flat roof, but the evening news told a different story.

[Newportnobby]

When I lived in Telford we had an earthquake late at night. First I knew was a noise like rolling thunder, a sort of brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr then the house shook for a few seconds, a couple of pics fell off the wall and then all was quiet again. I believe the epicentre had been in Dudley.
Not something I want to experience again

[tutenkhamunsleeping]

When I lived in Telford we had an earthquake late at night. First I knew was a noise like rolling thunder, a sort of brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr then the house shook for a few seconds, a couple of pics fell off the wall and then all was quiet again. I believe the epicentre had been in Dudley.
Not something I want to experience again

Was that early 2000s?  I remember a particularly sphincter-challenging one from around then that had me out of bed and checking the roof.  SWMBO slept right through it

[Newportnobby]

When I lived in Telford we had an earthquake late at night. First I knew was a noise like rolling thunder, a sort of brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr then the house shook for a few seconds, a couple of pics fell off the wall and then all was quiet again. I believe the epicentre had been in Dudley.
Not something I want to experience again

Was that early 2000s?  I remember a particularly sphincter-challenging one from around then that had me out of bed and checking the roof.  SWMBO slept right through it

It was indeed, Steve.

[joe cassidy]

I was in a meeting in Lagos, Nigeria, when we heard a loud bang, followed by the room shaking, pictures falling off the wall, etc.

We thought we were experiencing Nigeria's first ever earthquake but it was just a ship exploding close to the shore.