So I was watching the news today and they did a special on these Earthquake Detectors that are about to hit the market. It's pretty fucking crazy. They were showing them in use. It's basically a little machine w/ a speaker that sits in your house. It's about as big as a broadband router. The thing is, it really only gives you like 5-6 seconds, and that's only if the epicenter is somewhat far away. In the demo, the voice came on and said, "A level 6 earthquake will strike in 5 seconds". Still, it could really save lives. The idea is you could at least get yourself and your kids under a table, and maybe even get some doors open (in case of fire) before it hits. What will they think of next.
I can just picture a Japanese family sitting in a circle around one of these things, waiting days to see if it works.
Without diving into geology and telling you all the details, it can work but only if you're a certain distance away minimum due to the distance required for the seismic wave to travel. The idea that radon can be used to detect earthquakes quite a ways ahead of time has been kicked around for a while, problem is it doesn't seem to happen consistently enough for anyone to bet their life on it. That and you have to have a radon sensor out in the field and they aren't cheap.
Could have done with one of these bloody detectors a few weeks back when 72 hour quakes were shaking the crap out of Beppu. That said the sheer terror on the faces of the local Korean students, and the smell of soiled under garments were pretty good warning enough.
Interesting idea keeping doors open, as the floor doors on our building close shut. This is apparently to support the structure of the building, which in theory sounds like a good idea. I'm just not keen that the doors shut trapping us poor bastards on the wrong side of it and having to bail 50 feet out of my bedroom window onto the assembled push-bikes below.
I'm not sure of the numbers, but I think deaths due to fires/lack of medical attention from being trapped AFTER the quake are almost always higher than people getting squashed. I know this was the case (by a landslide) in the Great Kanto Earthquake. So yeah, if you're on top of the epicenter, you're fucked. But, those are quite often offshore. Other parts of the country are less Earthquake friendly than others as well. Here, to set the mood: http://www.japan-guide.com/a/earthquake/ From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Kantō_earthquake
5 or 6 seconds? By the time you've heard the message and processed it you'll have about 3 seconds to do something. Next they'll make a device to detect rain 5 seconds before the heavens open so you can bring in at least a dress or something in before it gets wet...
I would pay thousands for even 3 seconds before impending doom. In six seconds, I could grab my son out of his crib and be back under my desk (probably the safest place in this part of the pad).
apparently a huge earthquake in japan today (?) i saw on the news reports of pretty extensive destruction and fires at nuclear plants and whatnot, atleast 5 dead too.. didnt catch what region it was in tho but i hope everyone here is ok!
a M6.8 in niigata prefecture (again). poor people there. they get attacked year after year by any kind of natural disasters. :edit: so far about 7 people dead, 640 injured and over 200 houses damaged or down.
