 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
New Plate Discovery May Force Japan To Review Quake Plans: Report
A Japanese geologist has discovered a new tectonic plate under the Tokyo area, a finding that may force the government to review its quake preparation plans, a report said Saturday. Japan endures 20 percent of the world's powerful earthquakes as the country lies at the crossing of four tectonic plates - the Eurasian, North American, Philippine and Pacific plates. If a quake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale were to hit the Tokyo region in the evening rush hour, it would kill 13,000 people and inflict 1.1 trillion dollars in damage, according to a government estimate released in February. The geological structure of the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo, is complex with the interaction of the Philippine, Pacific and Eurasian plates, but Shinji Toda argued the portion of a plate believed to be part of the Philippine plate was indeed an independent tectonic plate, Kyodo News Agency said. Toda, chief researcher at the Active Fault Research Center of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, said he analyzed data on 150,000 quakes with magnitudes above 2.0 between 1979 and 2004 in the Kanto region, Kyodo said. He is to present his findings at a meeting on Sunday. If Toda's findings are confirmed, Japan "may need to review its earthquake-related policies around Tokyo" since such polices are made on the assumption the Philippine plate is a single tectonic plate, Kyodo said. "We need to fundamentally review our understanding of earthquake mechanisms, including the structure of tectonic plates," Toda was quoted by Kyodo as saying. The previous big quake that hit the Kanto region occurred in 1923, leaving 142,807 people dead or unaccounted for. In January 17, 1995, the western Japanese city of Kobe experienced a pre-dawn tremor, registering 7.3 on the Richter scale, that killed 6,433 people. The Kobe quake was the most devastating in modern times to hit a city in the developed world. All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Related Links TerraDaily Search TerraDaily Subscribe To TerraDaily Express 
Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake Modeled And Mapped
University Park PA (SPX) May 20, 2005The earthquake that generated the Sumatran-Andaman Islands tsunami caused massive devastation, but exactly what happened beneath the ocean is the focus of modeling activities by an international team of geoscientists.
|
|
| |||||||||
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service. |
