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I was recently in Japan when an earthquake alarm went off. Turns out they have a ton of earthquakes - most days look to have 3-4, and as of this posting there

I was recently in Japan when an earthquake alarm went off. Turns out they have a ton of earthquakes - most days look to have 3-4, and as of this posting there have been seven today. https://www.data.jma.go.jp/multi/quake/index.html?lang=en https://www.data.jma.go.jp/multi/quake/index.html?lang=en

bamboozled 2y ago
Many people find the alarm worse than the quake, how did you find it ? :)
- ex-leper 2y ago
  I live in Taiwan and find the earthquake alarm scarier than the majority of earthquakes that follow. The alarm in Japan sounds mellow by comparison.
  - bamboozled 2y ago
    This, I gotta see
- FredPret 2y ago
  It felt like the alarm was announcing the end times, but we couldn't feel the quake at all. It was a 5.x but far away
  - bamboozled 2y ago
    I heard a funny story where someone was working in Tokyo in a dev shop, and they had something like 100 hand sets for doing QA on different smart phones. Apparently they all went off at the same time. That would've been wild.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
tkgally 2y ago
A statistic I’ve seen—but am unable to verify at the moment—is that about 20% of the human-perceptible earthquakes that occur on Earth each year take place in Japan. I’ve been living in the Tokyo area for many years. Yes, it’s not unusual to have three or four earthquakes a day nationwide, but most are small and felt in only a limited area. I typically notice one every month or two on average. More occur, but it’s easy to miss the smaller ones if you are outside, on a train, etc. An exception was after the huge Tohoku quake on March 11, 2011. For months thereafter, I felt aftershocks every day. Here’s the nationwide list for a couple of weeks later: https://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/earthquake/list/?sort=1&key=1&b=34000 https://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/earthquake/list/?sort... There were over a hundred quakes just on March 27, all strong enough to be felt. We may have seemed to get a bit blasé about earthquakes then, but I don’t think people here ever really get used to them. When the shaking begins, you never know whether it will end quickly or, in a few seconds, get much stronger and possibly destructive.
keepamovin 2y ago
The interesting thing is that M7 (this) quakes occur roughly 10,000 less frequently than M3 quakes.
- Ekaros 2y ago
  Isn't it log scale? So M7 is also aprox. 10 000 times stronger? Still linear correlation between strength and occurrence is interesting.
  - keepamovin 2y ago
    Yes that is what 10000 times more often than M3 means because 10000 is 10 to the power (7-3)

bamboozled 2y ago

Many people find the alarm worse than the quake, how did you find it ? :)

ex-leper 2y ago
I live in Taiwan and find the earthquake alarm scarier than the majority of earthquakes that follow. The alarm in Japan sounds mellow by comparison.
- bamboozled 2y ago
  This, I gotta see
FredPret 2y ago
It felt like the alarm was announcing the end times, but we couldn't feel the quake at all. It was a 5.x but far away
- bamboozled 2y ago
  I heard a funny story where someone was working in Tokyo in a dev shop, and they had something like 100 hand sets for doing QA on different smart phones. Apparently they all went off at the same time. That would've been wild.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

tkgally 2y ago

A statistic I’ve seen—but am unable to verify at the moment—is that about 20% of the human-perceptible earthquakes that occur on Earth each year take place in Japan. I’ve been living in the Tokyo area for many years. Yes, it’s not unusual to have three or four earthquakes a day nationwide, but most are small and felt in only a limited area. I typically notice one every month or two on average. More occur, but it’s easy to miss the smaller ones if you are outside, on a train, etc. An exception was after the huge Tohoku quake on March 11, 2011. For months thereafter, I felt aftershocks every day. Here’s the nationwide list for a couple of weeks later: https://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/earthquake/list/?sort=1&key=1&b=34000 https://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/earthquake/list/?sort... There were over a hundred quakes just on March 27, all strong enough to be felt. We may have seemed to get a bit blasé about earthquakes then, but I don’t think people here ever really get used to them. When the shaking begins, you never know whether it will end quickly or, in a few seconds, get much stronger and possibly destructive.

keepamovin 2y ago

The interesting thing is that M7 (this) quakes occur roughly 10,000 less frequently than M3 quakes.

Ekaros 2y ago
Isn't it log scale? So M7 is also aprox. 10 000 times stronger? Still linear correlation between strength and occurrence is interesting.
- keepamovin 2y ago
  Yes that is what 10000 times more often than M3 means because 10000 is 10 to the power (7-3)