Earthquake Diary 60

Last night at about supper time, we had another fairly strong quake. The aftershocks we are having now are mostly coming from an area that is much closer to land than the 3/11 big one. They tend to be between 5 and 6 in magnitude, but the shindo has been from 4 to 6. These quakes originate in the same area as the deadly quake we had about five years ago. This area is on the same plate as Japan, whereas the previous aftershocks were on both the Japan plate and the plate that is sliding under it. Thinking about it this latest round of aftershocks is not surprising. The 3/11 quake moved the ocean bottom 24 meters to the east and parts of Japan moved 5 meters in the same direction, but the main land mass of Japan only moved centimeters. This must have set up horrendous stresses in the area between the 3/11 center and the land, exactly the area where we are now having tremors.

It rained all day yesterday, but not hard in Sendai. This water hitting the areas loosened by the quakes could have caused landslides. Later today I will probably go out and check our neighborhood. Also I want to see what they have been doing on the new temporary sewerage processing site. The last time I looked I could not figure it out at all.

My wife had a telephone conversation with a friend who live a kilometer or two west of Sendai station (I live about six km north). She said that one of her neighbors has a problem. The ground fell away under one side of the house and the house is now tipped at a large angle, too much to live in. They checked with a contractor who said that rebuilding the land would require extensive work on the surrounding area, not just under their house. This is definitely a problem, but they have another potentially worse problem. The hose is not damages, just tipped - their insurance will not cover the reconstruction.  This seems to be a common problem. People have insurance but it does not cover the kind of damage that they had.