Earthquake Diary 64

Last night was a bit unusual. My wife and I were watching the news on TV, when the earthquake alarm went off on her cell phone. While it was still sounding, an a big red earthquake warning popped up on the screen, saying that strong shocks were coming. We both had the same response, saying "Oh no, not again" in Japanese (her) and English (me) and then sitting up so that it would be easier to move if we needed to. After a few more seconds, the shock waves came and the building swayed wildly. Not as bad as during the 9.0 quake, but strong enough that a year ago I would have been very concerned. As soon as the shaking stopped we sat back, relaxed, and changed the channel to NHK, which usually has the fastest and best disaster information.

Within a couple of minutes, NHK showed a map with the shindo figures. The quake rattled just about all of Japan. Tokyo had been just as bad as Sendai, since the quake was in Fukushima about midway between us. We calle d our daughters who live in the Kanto (Tokyo) area. Both were okay as were husbands and kids.

So far there was nothing unusual. This has been happening daily for a month. Then there was a strong aftershock. This, too, was not unusual. However, a few minutes later there was another aftershock and then another and another and another and another. Two and a half hours later we were still having aftershocks every five to ten minutes. The amplitude gradually decreased but every once in a while there would be another fairly strong tremor. As I have said, our building is on huge springs so it continues to move even after the quake itself has topped. The result was that we were in constant motion, like being on a ship, until I went to bed two and a half hours later. I do not know how long the aftershocks continued, but there was another just after I got up this morning. I have never been in a quake with so much after-action.

One reason for the unusualness of this series of quakes may be that it was under land, not the sea, and main quake was 7.4 and only six kilometers deep.