Historic earthquakes
Many parts of the country have experienced devastating earthquakes and tidal waves in the past. The Great Kanto Earthquake, the worst in Japanese history, hit the Kanto plain around Tokyo in 1923 and resulted in the deaths of over 100,000 people.
In January 1995 a strong earthquake hit the city of Kobe and surroundings. Known as the Southern Hyogo Earthquake or Great Hanshin Earthquake, it killed 6,000 and injured 415,000 people. 100,000 homes were completely destroyed and 185,000 were severely damaged.
Earthquake measurement
The Japanese "shindo" scale for measuring earthquakes is more commonly used in Japan than the Richter scale to describe earthquakes. Shindo refers to the intensity of an earthquake at a given location, i.e. what people actually feel at a given location, while the Richter scale measures the magnitude of an earthquake, i.e. the energy an earthquake releases at the epicenter.
The shindo scale ranges from shindo one, a slight earthquake felt only by people who are not moving, to shindo seven, a severe earthquake. Shindo two to four are still minor earthquakes that do not cause damage, while objects start to fall at shindo five, and heavier damage occurs at shindo six and seven.
During and after an earthquake
Falling objects, toppling furniture and panic present the greatest dangers during an earthquake. Try to protect yourself under a table or doorway. Do not run outside, and try to remain as calm as possible. If you are in the streets, try to find protection from glass and other objects that may fall from surrounding buildings.
After a strong earthquake, turn off ovens, stoves and the main gas valve. Then listen to the radio or television for news. In coastal areas beware of possible tidal waves (tsunami) while in mountainous areas beware of possible land slides.
Japan is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, with 108 active volcanoes, according to National Geographic. Japan rests on the Ring of Fire, which is "a series of volcanoes and fault lines that roughly circle the Pacific Ocean."
The United States has seen some activity underground recently as well. In Seattle, Wash., a magnitude 4.5 earthquake shook the area, but no damage was reported. Alaska, meanwhile, is paying attention to its Mount Redoubt volcano, which is showing signs of a possible eruption.
Scientific American wrote, "The so-called ring of fire edging the Pacific is known to be highly active. So it's no surprise that said ring is jolting Seattle residents awake and putting denizens of Anchorage on notice of an imminent eruption from the redoubtable Mount Redoubt."
BEIJING — The death toll from the powerful earthquake that struck western China Wednesday rose to at least 617 people on Thursday, with 10,000 more injured as many remained buried under debris, Chinese state media reported.
People gathered in open areas after the quake hit.
The quake, which struck at 7:49 a.m. in Qinghai Province, bordering Tibet, had a magnitude of 7.1, according to China’s earthquake agency. At least 18 aftershocks measuring more than 6.0 followed throughout the day, government officials said, according to Xinhua.
China’s earthquake agency said the quake centered on Yushu County, a remote and mountainous area sparsely populated by farmers and herdsmen, most of them ethnic Tibetans. The region, pocked with copper, tin and coal mines, is also rich in natural gas.
As with the devastating earthquake two years ago that killed 87,000 in neighboring Sichuan Province, many buildings collapsed, including schools. But with Qinghai’s far smaller and less dense population, the toll is likely to remain far lower.
A seismologist, Gu Guohua, said in an interview with the national broadcaster CCTV that 90 percent of the homes in the county seat, Jeigu, had collapsed. The houses, he said, were of “quite poor quality,” with many constructed of wood, mud and brick.
The dead included at least 56 students and 5 teachers who were crushed in the rubble of collapsing schools or dormitories, the English-language government newspaper China Daily reported. Of that number, 22 students — 20 of them girls — died in the collapse of a vocational school, the newspaper quoted the deputy chief of the Yushu education bureau, Xiao Yuping, as saying.
Among those still missing were 20 children buried in the wreckage of a primary school, and as many as 50 people were trapped beneath a collapsed office building that houses the Departments of Commerce and Industry, according to news reports.
“We’re in the process of trying to rescue the students,” Kang Zifu, a local fire department official, told CCTV on Wednesday afternoon. “We’re hurrying to help them.”
He said at least 32 survivors had been pulled from the debris.
The prefecture that includes Yushu is on the Tibetan plateau, with a population that is more than 96 percent Tibetan and overwhelmingly poor. Many villages sit well above 16,000 feet, with freezing temperatures not uncommon in mid-April. By Wednesday evening, temperatures in the county seat had already dropped to 27 degrees, and snow and sleet were forecast in the coming days.
“The most important thing now is that this place is far from everything, with few accessible rescue troops available,” Mr. Wu said. “I feel like the number of dead and injured will keep going up.”
Officials said that rescue efforts were stymied by a lack of heavy equipment. Medical supplies and tents, they added, were in short supply. Phone calls to local government offices went unanswered Wednesday afternoon.
State news media reported that 700 paramilitary officers were already working in the quake zone and that more than 4,000 others would be sent to assist in search and rescue efforts. The Civil Affairs Ministry said it would also send 5,000 tents and 100,000 coats and blankets.
Workers also were rushing to release water from a reservoir after cracks were discovered in a dam, according to the China Earthquake Administration.
Genqiu Renqin, a teacher who lives in Sichuan Province, about 60 miles from Yushu, said he felt the earth shake and immediately drove to see if relatives who lived near the epicenter were safe.
“Almost all of their homes were badly damaged, but luckily no one was seriously injured,” he said, speaking by phone from a town about 25 miles from the county seat. “All the people in the area are camping out for now.
