Hi Ara. There wasn’t a link. You said something about an M>9.0 quake. Would that by any chance be the expected Tokai quake? I have watched a number of specials on NHK TV. I have satellite so I’m able to get Japan live. I have seen two quakes as they occurred. One was the Hokaido quake and the other was the most recent Niigata quake. I was in Niigata when the 1964 M>7.5 quake struck. I had just left the train station and walking across the street when I heard this distant rumbling sound. A couple of seconds later I felt the quake. Let me tell you I felt the quake.

I watched a special on “episodic tremor slip” (ETS). This was before I learned about the ETS in Washington. The ETS in the Tokai area are the same as the ones in Washington with one exception. The silent slip events occurring in the Tokai region and beneath the Bungo Channel have much longer durations and intervals. This has been going on for at least 5 years now. They discovered it through the use of GPS.

I also heard that the Kanto Plains area was experiencing a lot of quakes up until a couple of years ago. The area has gone quiet. Is that by any chance the area you are talking about? So far I haven’t been able to confirm the statement.

My personal feeling based on what I have seen in Japan while I was living there is that while the Tokai quake could be a M>9.0, a quake of M>7.0 to M>8.0 in the Kanto Plains area could be more devastating depending on where and when it struck. Their biggest challenge is going to be fire. There are no two ways about it. They are going to have a heck of time getting the people out of the area and the fire fighting personnel in. It will be Kobe all over again, but at least 20 times more horrific according to some specialists.

If you don’t mind my asking where are you living in Japan and how long have you been there? Also may I ask what your job is? Take Care…Don in creepy town