Earthquake!

[wuchan]

there was a quake?

[IparryU]

ya... pretty lame one though.

[yanpa]

Central England laid waste by massive M3.2 quake

Houses shook for up to 10 seconds... things fell off shelves... skirting board painting activies barely affected...

[Coligny]

Lawrence Green, @lawrence41green, tweeted: "Are we expecting a tsunami from Rutland water after this morning's earthquake??"

[matsuki]

grumble grumble 5:18am!!! grumble grumble zZzzzzzZzzzzzzz

[Taro Toporific]

Bang! Just one big shake!

Mag 5.1 in Chiba!

m5.1.png

[Coligny]

Bang! Just one big shake!

Mag 5.1 in Chiba!

m5.1.png

Kewl map, which wabsite ?

[Taro Toporific]

Bang! Just one big shake!
Mag 5.1 in Chiba!

m5.1.png

Kewl map, which wabsite ?

http://labs.transrain.net/services/earthquake_jp/?lat=35.6&lng=140.2&m=M5.1&d=70.2km
https://twitter.com/earthquake_jp
What makes it cool is that the twitter website does away with the crappy subjective Japanese Shindo Scale and just uses the objective Moment Magnitude Scale (MMS) (Richter scale predecessor).


Damn there was just another one at 10:33
http://labs.transrain.net/services/eart ... 4&d=44.2km

Screen Shot 2014-05-13 at 10.36.28 AM.png

地震速報 ‏@earthquake_jp 4m
［速報LV1］13日　10時33分頃　茨城県南部（N36.1/E139.9）(推定)にて　M4.4（推定）の地震が発生。　震源の深さは推定44.2km。 http://j.mp/1g2AchI

[matsuki]

Thought that was what I felt...

[yanpa]

What makes it cool is that the twitter website does away with the crappy subjective Japanese Shindo Scale and just uses the objective Moment Magnitude Scale (MMS) (Richter scale predecessor).

Hmm, you're losing me there. MMS is the Richter scale successor, and is a measure of the energy released, not the intensity at a particular locale. While the Twitter feed you link certainly quotes the "crappy subjective Japanese Shindo Scale". (Not being a seismologist, how is e.g. the Mercalli intensity scale less crappy?)

[Taro Toporific]

What makes it cool is that the twitter website does away with the crappy subjective Japanese Shindo Scale and just uses the objective Moment Magnitude Scale (MMS) (Richter scale predecessor).

Hmm, you're losing me there. MMS is the Richter scale successor, and is a measure of the energy released, not the intensity at a particular locale.

Arrg. My brainfart / typing mistake. Yes, "successor" was what I meant.

While the Twitter feed you link certainly quotes the "crappy subjective Japanese Shindo Scale".

That map is sort of deceit by the JWA. It instantly shows the real MMS/Richter measurement and then there is a 1~2 minute lag as the government observers are polled and then shitty Shindo results are posted, grrr.

(Not being a seismologist, how is e.g. the Mercalli intensity scale less crappy?)

Arrrrg, the Shindo and Mercalli are total subjective rubbish*---I don't want to know if the fuckqueing government observers were scared and their porn magazines fell off the shelves; just tell me IMMEDIATELY what the exact shaking force was.

*Europe and Japan prefers subjective measurements Shindo and Mercalli because of the lack
of proper instrumentation in the old days but high population densities available to make observations.
In the Americas, objective measurements like the MMS and Richter scales are only logical due to the philosophical
problem centered around if-an-earthquake-makes-a-tree-fall-in-the-forest-and-no-one-is-around-to-hear-it
does-it-make-a-sound?

[yanpa]

While the Twitter feed you link certainly quotes the "crappy subjective Japanese Shindo Scale".

That map is sort of deceit by the JWA. It instantly shows the real MMS/Richter measurement and then there is a 1~2 minute lag as the government observers are polled and then shitty Shindo results are posted, grrr.

(Not being a seismologist, how is e.g. the Mercalli intensity scale less crappy?)

Arrrrg, the Shindo and Mercalli are total subjective rubbish*---I don't want to know if the fuckqueing government observers were scared and their porn magazines fell off the shelves; just tell me IMMEDIATELY what the exact shaking force was.

The Showa era called and demanded its "government observers" back. Here in Heisei we get our Shindo measurements from machines

Anyway must be off and feed the little komuin who lives in my gas meter and who will turn it off every time he feels it's above shindo 4.

[yanpa]

*Europe and Japan prefers subjective measurements Shindo and Mercalli because of the lack
of proper instrumentation in the old days but high population densities available to make observations.
In the Americas, objective measurements like the MMS and Richter scales are only logical due to the philosophical
problem centered around if-an-earthquake-makes-a-tree-fall-in-the-forest-and-no-one-is-around-to-hear-it
does-it-make-a-sound?

Hmm, still not following you here. It sounds like you're saying "Japan prefers Shindo over magnitude", which makes absolutely no sense as they're measuring two separate things ("earthquake intensity at a given location" vs "measure of the energy released").

[Taro Toporific]

The Showa era called and demanded its "government observers" back. Here in Heisei we get our Shindo measurements from machines

Yes, but the squirrels running on the treadmills take 1 minute 30 seconds to run the cogs on the steam-powered fax machine to send the Polaroid photo of the seismic measurements to the JWA reporting center.

(Seriously, the 1m-30sec lag on Shindo measurements is ridiculous,
as is waiting for an official government observation and proclamation.
Waiting for the official "assessment" based on automatic
seismic measurements is totally B-O-G-U-S.)

Anyway must be off and feed the little komuin who lives in my gas meter and who will turn it off every time he feels it's above shindo 4.

Did you forgot to make offerings at the Gas Kamidana?

Shinto-gas-offering.jpg

My City. My Gas.®*

[yanpa]

The Showa era called and demanded its "government observers" back. Here in Heisei we get our Shindo measurements from machines

Yes, but the squirrels running on the treadmills take 1 minute 30 seconds to run the cogs on the steam-powered fax machine to send the Polaroid photo of the seismic measurements to the JWA reporting center.

Methinks the issue is not with data transmission speed, but data analysis, as your typical earthquake doesn't come with a neatly defined seismic signature, rather the data will need to be analysed over a certain interval to be sure the measurements are for a particular quake. You wouldn't want the system firing off a measurement of say Shindo 4 at the first peak it registers, if the quake continues for a minute or two (as they are sometimes known to do) and peaks even higher. I'd guess there's also some cross-checking against the P-wave and S-wave data.

At least that's what I naively imagine is happening.

[Yokohammer]

There's another issue at work here too. And that is the bitter complaints and finger-wagging the seismologists must endure if they're even slightly off and have to revise a figure that has already been released. Lots of bowing and apologies with hundreds of clicking shutters and flashes in the background ensue.

I think it used to be faster. But since a couple of incidents when they were slightly off and publicly shamed for it, things have slowed down a lot. Of course that's not very helpful in situations when people need timely, up-to-date information to save lives, for example, but at least nobody loses face.

Even the weatherman gets drawn and quartered if he makes a mistake around here.

[yanpa]

Just how useful is knowing the Shindo say 30 seconds earlier anyway?

[Yokohammer]

Just how useful is knowing the Shindo say 30 seconds earlier anyway?

Not very.

It's the early warnings for the big-ins that matter somewhat. The earlier they are the better.
But half the time the "early" warning happens after the damn quake is already in progress, which doesn't help much at all.

[Taro Toporific]

Just how useful is knowing the Shindo say 30 seconds earlier anyway?

Bite the Big Buddha!

1) Automatically disseminate the epicenter MMS/Ritcher readings as they occur*.

2) Then, roughly estimate the "LV" damage rating (［速報LV1］).

3) Finally, poll the fucking government observers for their fuckqueingly precious only-in-Japan Shindo scale, grrr.

*This automatic Japanese map of the MMS readings
is the whole reason I was so interested in the first place.
It's fucking stuuupid to have to go to the USGS to get
prompt information about Japanese quakes.

[Coligny]

*This automatic Japanese map of the MMS readings
is the whole reason I was so interested in the first place.
It's fucking stuuupid to have to go to the USGS to get
prompt information about Japanese quakes.

In a way... Yes... In another one... I'd trust the guys from the USGS and the pacific warning center over any of the local clowns...

[yanpa]

Fascinating - mobile phone earthquake alarms still function even after the contract has been cancelled.

[GomiGirl]

Fascinating - mobile phone earthquake alarms still function even after the contract has been cancelled.

Apparently it also works on old phones with prepaid sims.

Wish it didn't work at 4 in the morning though.

[matsuki]

Fascinating - mobile phone earthquake alarms still function even after the contract has been cancelled.

I got that shit in full surround sound...what a horrible way to be awoken at the buttcrack of dawn

[GomiGirl]

Fascinating - mobile phone earthquake alarms still function even after the contract has been cancelled.

I got that shit in full surround sound...what a horrible way to be awoken at the buttcrack of dawn

Yes we did too - I guess when you have multiple keitais around the place it is a nightmare when they all go off at 4 in the morning. Plus the public service announcement blasting outside the window it seemed. aarrgh

[Taro Toporific]

... multiple keitais around the place it is a nightmare when they all go off at 4 in the morning. Plus the public service announcement blasting outside the window it seemed. aarrgh

Oddly, on both of my AU keitai (one android and one stupidphone) there were no alarms, just a text message warning. Likewise, my concrete box in Ota-ku, in southwest Tokyo, did not have any public service announcements. I slept thorough the whole thing and just discovered it now here on the FG.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I was getting drunk at my friends place when both our iPhones (SoftBank FYI) went off. That's actually the first time I ever got a quake alarm. We turned on NHK and played the tsunami warning in the background for awhile while we continue to pound the shochu but it doesn't look like much happened.

[Coligny]

Toats weird, felt this one in the BigT... Despite it being a quarter of nothing and super far...

image.jpg

[matsuki]

Nothing here in monicatta

[IparryU]

quake.png

that was a shaker....

[Taro Toporific]

Is everybody up north ok?


Northern Nagano -- Max Intensity 6.8 earthquake.

http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/3/2014112 ... 22208.html

20141122221109395-222208.png