Japan Issues First Ever 'Megaquake' Warning (phys.org) 10
After a 7.1 tremor struck southwestern Japan on Thursday, the country's meteorological agency issued its first-ever alert for a possible "megaquake." It marks the first time the warning has been issued under new rules drawn up after a 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster killed almost 20,000 people. Phys.org reports: The JMA's "megaquake advisory" warns that "if a major earthquake were to occur in the future, strong shaking and large tsunamis would be generated." "The likelihood of a new major earthquake is higher than normal, but this is not an indication that a major earthquake will definitely occur during a specific period of time," it added. The advisory concerns the Nankai Trough "subduction zone" between two tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean, where massive earthquakes have hit in the past. [...]
Japan's government has previously said the next magnitude 8-9 megaquake along the Nankai Trough has a roughly 70 percent probability of striking within the next 30 years. In the worst-case scenario 300,000 lives could be lost, experts estimate, with some engineers saying the damage could reach $13 trillion with infrastructure wiped out. "The history of great earthquakes at Nankai is convincingly scary," geologists Kyle Bradley and Judith A Hubbard wrote in their Earthquake Insights newsletter. And "while earthquake prediction is impossible, the occurrence of one earthquake usually does raise the likelihood of another", they explained. "A future great Nankai earthquake is surely the most long-anticipated earthquake in history -- it is the original definition of the 'Big One'."
Japan's government has previously said the next magnitude 8-9 megaquake along the Nankai Trough has a roughly 70 percent probability of striking within the next 30 years. In the worst-case scenario 300,000 lives could be lost, experts estimate, with some engineers saying the damage could reach $13 trillion with infrastructure wiped out. "The history of great earthquakes at Nankai is convincingly scary," geologists Kyle Bradley and Judith A Hubbard wrote in their Earthquake Insights newsletter. And "while earthquake prediction is impossible, the occurrence of one earthquake usually does raise the likelihood of another", they explained. "A future great Nankai earthquake is surely the most long-anticipated earthquake in history -- it is the original definition of the 'Big One'."
gizzzilla! (Score:2)
Like the DHS terror alert scale (Score:5, Funny)
Blue - Be somewhat afraid
Yellow - Be afraid
Orange - Be very afraid
Red - Really be very afraid
Re: (Score:3)
The top level on that scale really need to be Brown Alert [youtu.be].
Brown Alert! Re:Like the DHS terror alert scale (Score:1)
The top level on that scale really need to be Brown Alert [youtu.be].
Ah, very good; I was too slhttps://slashdot.org/story/24/08/09/2339254/japan-issues-first-ever-megaquake-warning#ow to react.
Japan Sinks (Score:2)
Japan Sinks Anime: 2020 | Official Trailer | Netflix
It's actually not bad, except for the cult, but otherwise pretty solid watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:3)
A lot of nuclear plants are built on the coast, because the seas is a convenient supply of water for cooling. The alternative is a river, but you need to be really sure that it is never going to dry up. Another issue is that when it gets warm and your nuclear plant needs to dump a lot of excess heat, all the fish and plant life in the river die. The sea has a lot more ability to sink heat without excessive local temperatures.
It's not just Japan, lots of countries do it. Japan isn't the only one with tsunami
We're all going to diiiieeeeee (Score:2)
Quick! Prepare for that megaquake! How can you prepare? Live in space, of course! Everything is going to hell!
Bummer (Score:2)
Been waiting all these years for The Big One to dump LA into the ocean, but no....