Earthquake

I just experienced my first earthquake in Japan. It only felt like a little guy. At first, I thought it was just my washing machine kicking into the spin cycle. That impression didn't last long however. Everything in my kitchen was shaking, and looking outside I could see the powerlines shaking, too! My spices all got knocked over in the cabinet, but it seems everything else stayed just where it was.

It was kind of a strange sensation, but nothing too out of the ordinary, I guess. It was like a very big truck rumbling the floor of the house. . . but just a bit too much.

Earthquakes are so common in Japan because it is located on, and was formed by, 3 major tectonic plates, the Pacific, Eurasian, and Philippine plates.

The Japanese use a different system for measuring the magnitude of an earthquake, the shindo scale, in addition to the Richter scale.

As I was writing the post, information was posted about the earthquake on the internet. Its epicenter was located off the coast of Japan. At its epicenter it had a magnitude of 5.0. It didn't feel like anything that strong here however. I don't see the shindo scale listed anywhere yet. But I will update the post when I get that information.

Updated, Wednesday October 19 at 10:20 pm
Since this post, there have been two more earthquakes. One on Monday, which I did not feel, and one of a magnitude of 6.5. Again, not scary, just thrilling. As Ayako, my student, says, "They make you feel alive!" The last link listed above will take you to a page which displays info for the most recent earthquake in Japan.