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Tsunami alert as a quake strikes off Japan
A tsunami alert has been issued in Japan after a powerful earthquake struck near the Okinawan coast.
The Japan Meteorological Agency gave the strength as 6.9 while the US Geological Survey put it at 7.3.
It struck at 0531 (2031 GMT), 84km (52 miles) east of Naha, on the island of Okinawa, 29km (18 miles) below the seabed, Reuters news agency reports.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage in the country, which is often hit by earthquakes.
In 1995, a magnitude-7.2 quake in the port city of Kobe killed 6,400 people.
On its website, the Japan Meteorological Agency initially warned of a tsunami of 2m (7ft) in height but later revised this down to about 0.5m (1ft 7in).
For a tsunami to be classed as "major", it has to be at least 3m.
Courtesy of BBC news tonight,theres also a large ice berg floating about, thats slowly melting ,and we have snow in Scotland.
Yes, yes, yes. We're all, you know... 😥
project - Member
On its website, the Japan Meteorological Agency initially warned of a tsunami of 2m (7ft) in height but later revised this down to about 0.5m (1ft 7in).
Hardly a Godzilla-level threat then, unless you're very small.
lets hope no one was doing a head stand on a beach then
Can you please let us know when there's a bit of wind blowing in the Irish Sea and there might be a bit of chop coming in?
Tsunamis are always quite low. The problem is they tend to keep on rushing inland as the water piles up.
That's exactly the problem, it's not the actual "height" of the wave that matters, it's the fact that whatever the wave height is, it was millions of tons of water at the same height behind it. Effectivly raising the sea level until it runs out of steam, which can be when the wave has trundled a mile inland.
chile and surrounding area also now on tsunami alert.. big quake in ascension this morning...
chile and surrounding area also now on tsunami alert.. big quake in ascension this morning...
But Ascension is in the Atlantic and Chile's coastline is on the Pacific, with a bit on the SOuthern tip. A quake near Ascension would more likely affect the Eastern side of South America and West Africa..... Unless you're on about a different Ascension.
yeah... different ascension
probably spelt wrong... cos my geog is shite. (I blame Mr Williams)..
ascension in chile
in fact....
[b]concepcion[/b] not ascension at all... shows how much I pay attention dunnit!
I stand corrected
why are earthquakes now a magnitude of 8.8 instead of the richter scale?!
billybob - Memberwhy are earthquakes now a magnitude of 8.8 instead of the richter scale?!
A magnitued of 8.8 is the richter scale isn't it? IIRC it's a logarithmic scale so a 8.1 is twice as powerful as an 8.0, a 9.0 is 10x as powerful as an 8.0 etc.
I think 'proper' siesmologists now use a different measuring scale that's based on damage caused rather than magnitude, but it's a few years since I last read about that. Media always seems to report in Magnitude though.
Hope Mr Miyagi is ok - He's from Okinawa and is pretty small......
AgentOrange - Member
Hope Mr Miyagi is ok - He's from Okinawa and is pretty small......
If he adopts the crane position he'll only get one leg wet
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