jinian | quake comparison

Compared to the 8.9 intensity quake off Sendai, Japan, the second quake in Niigata and Nagano prefectures is not terribly impressive. Its intensity was considerably less: 6.6 at a depth of 10km. I was interested in comparing this to the Nisqually quake, which I experienced while working in a building built out onto a pier in Lake Union, Seattle. The Nisqually quake was scary, but there was no major property damage. (The frighteningly large crack between my building and the land, and falling bricks from historic buildings, were about the size of it in Seattle, though that's fairly far, maybe 70km, from the epicenter.) But the Nisqually quake was 52km deep. The Nagano-Niigata quake is likely to have been a lot more severe at the surface, more like Christchurch's recent quake. (For a map of the two most severe quakes without the many, many 3-intensity dots swamping them, check out http://insidetheatheistsstudio.com/2011/03/11/map-locations-of-japan-quakes/.)

Understandably, PI may be postponing next week's travel to Japan.