Wake up call? A 6.7 Magnitude Earthquake!
Can you imagine being woken up by an earthquake and lying there wondering how bad it’s going to be? Well that’s what happened to us around 1AM this morning! It’s not like we haven’t felt an earthquake since we arrived in Japan - at least once or twice a week you get this feeling that something is not right and then look up to see the curtains or something swaying in the room. It’s an odd feeling, your equilibrium gets messed up for a second or two before you realize that the cause is an earthquake. The earthquake continues for a few seconds and then it’s over and you continue on as if nothing happened. Earthquakes are just a part of life in Japan.
But back to this morning….hubby and I are lying in bed sound asleep when we are awakened by the movement of the building. It’s funny and kind of silly but at that point one of us usually says “earthquake” followed by an acknowledgment from the other. Then you can feel the tension in the bedroom as we both wait for the quake to end so that we can go back to sleep. We weren’t so lucky this morning, it seemed as if when one quake ended there was a brief moment of stillness followed by another quake. This kept up for a while and then we both dozed off only to be awakened by yet another quake, the strongest yet! Not a word was spoken between us - we just reached for each other and lay there half asleep with a tight grip on each other’s hand, wondering when/how/if it would end. The earthquake was strong enough that something made a crashing sound as it fell off the counter in the kitchen!
“A series of strong earthquakes including one with a magnitude of 6.7 hit the Tokyo area early Thursday, cutting off power to more than 2,000 homes and causing light injuries, officials and reports said.
The strongest earthquake hit at 1:45 am (1645 GMT) in the Pacific Ocean off Ibaraki prefecture, some 100 kilometers (160 miles) northeast of Tokyo….Japan experiences 20 percent of the world’s major earthquakes and has developed an infrastructure meant to withstand violent tremors….
Japan lies at the crossing of four tectonic plates and is constantly bracing for the dreaded “Big One” feared to inflict major damage.
A 7.3-magnitude earthquake in Tokyo could kill 4,700 people, damage 440,000 buildings and leave thousands of others trapped in elevators, according to a study published by the government in 2006.
By infrastructure they mean that the foundations of the building include a sort of shock absorbing system that allows the building to rock and roll during an earthquake without damaging the structure itself. Since we live on the 12th floor all of the rocking and rolling is intensified quite a bit and I often wonder just how much stress the building can handle before it literally cracks.
It is a helpless feeling to know that you are at the mercy of Mother Nature during events such as these and this morning my hubby and I agreed that you just never know when your number is up. I know that I’m glad we were together and when my number comes up I want to be holding my hubby’s hand, but I’m just not sure I want my number to come up while I’m on the 12th floor during an earthquake - but I guess it’s not my call!
on 8 May, 2008 on 10:23 am
Relieved to know that you and your hubby are fine. As a geologist, I follow these things. I was startled by the number of fore and after shocks with the two strong quakes in the middle.
My most recent quake experience caught me in the hot tub as a local 5.2 rolled through. It was probably the most intense shaking I have ever felt (the joys of being close to the epicenter). It made me pop out of the tub real quick.
When I was younger, I thought that earthquakes were kind of cool. But that changed in the years leading up to the 1989 Loma Prieta quake. And after that one, I don’t even like small to moderate quakes.
on 8 May, 2008 on 3:11 pm
that was a pretty strong one. and it wasn’t even in tokyo. during that third earthquake, i told my wife, ‘this is the one’. i’m glad it wasn’t but it sure felt like it.
on 8 May, 2008 on 4:05 pm
It was ironic that over the last few weeks there’s been more and more discussion about “How Tokyo would be affected if they got hit with a 7+magnitude” …. well last night was pretty close and i guess we’re lucky it wasn’t closer to shore …. first one that actually had me thinking of and escape route last night … usually just brush them off.
on 8 May, 2008 on 5:08 pm
Wind and Neil - we had the same thoughts over here. Since we live on the 12th floor I was not looking forward to testing out the funky contraption that appears to drop down to the next balcony and so on for 12 floors…
Tom - now every little shift has me thinking earthquake…this was the same magnitude as the Hawaii one that we went through in October of 2006. This one seemed much stronger even though I believe the epicenter was closer to us in Hawaii?
on 8 May, 2008 on 7:48 pm
I’m heading to Tokyo in 6 days. I’ve not felt an earthquake before as we don’t get them in the UK. I kind of want to know what it’s like but also don’t want to be in one…
on 8 May, 2008 on 9:35 pm
scary…..i lived in bangkok and they had an earthquake but oddly enough only half the city could feel it…i was in the un feeling half…
on 8 May, 2008 on 9:57 pm
I found myself in an earthquake simulator recently. They took us up to 7 and it is pretty violent! I’ll blog about it soon with pictures and video.
on 8 May, 2008 on 10:52 pm
For me, the panicked-looking newscaster on TV put me off more than the actual shaking. The shaking didn’t concern me that much, but when they put the newsflash up on TV in red characters and flashed ’strong earthquake warning - take caution’ on TV during the actual earthquake, that unnerved me a little bit.
Nick,
Looking forward to the video and pics.
on 11 May, 2008 on 8:06 pm
[...] Thursday morning my hubby and I awoke to a 6.7 magnitude earthquake centered about 160 miles outside of Tokyo. As I wrote on my personal blog, the experience was [...]
on 14 May, 2008 on 7:05 pm
That must have been really scary. We had a slight earthquake here this morning as well.