Honshu Island moves 2.4m

It will be interesting to eventually read how much shift

in all the control marks across Japan and to see an x/y contour plan .

I guess that info will not have any priority.

RADU

It will be interesting to eventually read how much shift

On the contrary, should have major application as far as identifying plate shifts and damage to underground utilities, if that is the standard in Japan.

Here's a link to an IGSMail item from friday:

http://igscb.jpl.nasa.gov/pipermail/igsmail/2011/006350.html

Authors:
Mara Branzanti, Gabriele Colosimo, Mattia Crespi, Augusto Mazzoni -- VADASE Team
Università di Roma "La Sapienza"
Area di Geodesia e Geomatica

Here's a pdf of the preliminary results at 'MIZU' which is about 140Km from the epicenter:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5392379/MIZU.pdf

Loyal

That first linked article reads more like an "Onion" report than news. It is slightly clearer to understand here:

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/world/03/13/11/quake-moved-japan-8-feet-usgs

Since the North America part of the North American plate moves West much less than the stated 3.3" in the above article per year relative to ITRF. I decided to check out the tectonic plates.

What a surprise, the Northern half of Japan is on a tail of the North American Plate. Since we are moving and rotating the tail moves much faster. The North American Plate wraps around the Pacific Plate which almost exclusively the ocean floor. Assuming the plates moved in the direction of the arrows, per my link above, part of Northern Japan is now 8' farther East than Southern Japan. We have yet to see images of such fault line movement.

Paul in PA

Paul

IGSMail is NOT intended to be a "news source" for the get unwashed, but a way for scientists to communicate between themselves on matters of mutual interest.

I posted the link for those who might be interested in seeing a very SHORT TERM time series on the “CORS” (not an NGS CORS) site nearest to the epicenter of the quake.

Loyal

Loyal

I was referring to the first link in the thread, not your links. Your second link confirms the direction of movement.

I note that there is quite some disagreement on the tectonic plates, some models show the North American Plate ending Northeast of Japan. My link puts the dividing line between the North American and Eurasian Plate a bit South of Tokyo. I would say that easily gives Tokyo a future with a 10.0 quake.

Paul in PA

Mea Culpa

Sorry Paul!

The way the "threads" were displayed, it "appeared" that you comments were a continuation (reply) to my post.

Loyal

Loyal

> I was referring to the first link in the thread, not your links.

Because you replied to Loyal's post instead of the original post, it looked like you were replying to Loyal specifically.

Wendell ?

I read the whole thread, then replied. I should pay more attention to the reply point in the future.

Paul in PA

Wendell ?

It's no biggie, just thought you might want to know that each post has it's own reply link, which means that your replies are attached directly to the post from which you clicked said link. So if you want to reply directly to the original post, you would click the reply link under that original post.

> The energy required to do this is unbelievable.

My thoughts exactly, Pdop. Incredible and scary all at the same time. I hate to see what is going to happen when the San Andreas decides to do it's "big move". (Fault that runs through California, USA.)

PS: Welcome to the site!! I think you are our first user from South Africa!! :good: 😀

Feel free to share any pics and other info about your beautiful city. 🙂 :bye:

Thank you for the welcome, will get into it soon.

Regards
Lee

I don't remember if it was CNN or Fox, but during the coverage on Saturday they popped up two satellite photos side-by-side, showing about 100 miles of coastline. They were saying that you can see that the island moved 8 feet by the differences in the images. My eyes must be failing me, I couldn't tell other than one image was further left in the box than the other. Of course it is impossible to see 8' of movement on an image of that scale.

I thought I knew a fair amount about plate tectonics, earthquakes, etc but I never before realized that part of Japan is on the North American Plate, wraps around from Alaska.