Hi Ara. When I was on vacation in Japan in July of 1997 I got the chance to talk to some Japanese seismologist from the University of Kyoto. What I learned from them didn’t sit very well with me. They stated that the stress released from the Kobe quake increased the stress in the Kyoto area. Those statements have been confirmed by the following.

R. S. Stein, P. A. Reasenberg, and J. H. Dieterich, U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, MS 977, Menlo Park, California 94025. (rstein@usgs.gov; reasen@usgs.gov; jdieterich@usgs.gov)

A. Yoshida, Japan Meteorological Agency, 1-3-4 Otemachi, Chiyodaku, Tokyo 100, Japan. (ayoshida@eqvol.kisho.go.jp)

S. Toda, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, 1646 Abiko, Abikoshi, Chiba 270-11, Japan. (toda@criepi.denken.or.jp)

Calculated stress increases of more than 0.5 bar (0.05 MPa) are located near the ends of the Nojima fault (the rupture extending southwest of the epicenter), and on the northwest side of the Nojima fault (Figure 5). The Kyoto region is in a zone of increased stress. The Osaka-Nara region is in a zone brought farther from failure by up to 0.3 bar (0.03 MPa). East (near Osaka and Nara) and west of the 1995 source, stress is calculated to have diminished on both strike-slip and thrust faults. North and south of the source fault, stress on strike-slip faults drops and on thrust faults rises.

The most recent Niigata quake was a thrust quake and occurred on a previously unknown thrust fault. Shortly after the quake there was a short program on NHK-TV about the quake. One of the things they talked about was the location of the boundary of the Eurasian and Philippine Plates. There were some who were thinking that it may be where the quake centered. I haven’t heard anymore about that.

The one thing I remember the most about the 1964 Niigata quake was the noise just before the quake. The sound was a deep rumble that seemed to come from the very heart of the earth. It seemed to be coming from everywhere and yet nowhere. A couple of seconds later I felt the quake. It was a ride I’ll never forget. Take Care…Don in creepy town

• Stress Transfer