2006-11-16

Kuril earthquake informations

The Kuril quake is 8.3 in Richter scale according to USGS, i.e., 10^(-0.8)=1/6 the energy of the 9.1 quake in Sumatra 2 years ago that caused the monster tsunami, and 10^(8.3-4)=10^4.3=20000 times the North Korea (alleged) "nuclear" test last month.

Magnitude 8.3 (Great)
Date-Time
  • Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 11:14:16 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time
  • Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 10:14:16 PM = local time at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
  • Location 46.616°N, 153.224°E
    Depth 28.5 km (17.7 miles)
    Region KURIL ISLANDS
    Distances 440 km (275 miles) ENE of Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands 500 km (310 miles) SSW of Severo-Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands, Russia 1650 km (1030 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan 7185 km (4460 miles) NE of MOSCOW, Russia
    Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 7.1 km (4.4 miles); depth +/- 8.2 km (5.1 miles)
    Parameters Nst=213, Nph=213, Dmin=812.9 km, Rmss=1.05 sec, Gp= 65°, M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=9
    Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
    Event ID usvcam

    Many strong after-quakes were detected around 153-155E, 46-48N.


    There are many reasons that the tsunami is much weaker this time.
    1. Weaker quake (of 1/6 the strength)
    2. Deeper epicenter (28.5km below surface)
    3. Direction of the quake was not as vertical as that in Sumatra
    The location of the quake is right on the rim of on the Pacific Techtonic Plate, and in the middle of Kuril Island Chain, between the south tip of Kamchatka and NE Hokkaido. in (also November) 1952 a 9.0 quake struck the SE tip of Kamchatka, about 600km NE of the epicenter of today's quake. If there is a simple trend, then 54 years later, people in Hokkaido should be very vigilant.
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