Image by USGS
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One of the most dangerous earthquake areas on earth is the Island of Honshu,
Japan. Here the Pacific, North American, Eurasian and Philippine Plates converge to generate major earthquakes with an average recurrence interval of about 100 to 150 years. These major earthquakes are known as the
"Tokai Earthquakes". The four most recent Tokai Earthquakes occurred in 1854, 1707, 1605 and 1498. All of these are estimated to have been 8+ magnitude earthquakes. A repeat of one of these events will cause thousands of deaths and hundreds of billions of dollars in damages.
The Japanese government is taking the Tokai Earthquakes seriously and has charged the Japan Meteorological Agency with the job of predicting the next one. They have a dense array of instruments placed to accumulate a continuous stream of data related to
seismicity, strain, crustal expansion, tilt, tidal variations, ground water fluctuations and other variables. They are watching for an anomaly in this data which might precede the next major Tokai Earthquake.
Image by USGSRead more about the
Tokai Earthquakes at the Japan Meteorological Agency website.
Labels: Earthquakes
