After living in
Japan (more or less) peacefully for the last 4 years and
half, I have to admit I tend to forget that we're still exposed to a M7+
earthquake that would destroy Tokyo, as all seismologists seem to agree and as
I mentioned before.
However, some news published in a local newspaper suddenly reminded me of it and I'm really not sure how to take it...
According to Yoshio Kushida, a self-taught astronomer who studies electromagnetic field changes generated by magma movement (which has supposably an influence on charged particles), a major earthquake could strike Tokyo on the 16th or the 17th of September.
The news has apparently spreaded by word of mouth, but the information
hasn't risen an eyebrow of the earthquake researchers, as no announcement has
been made on TV (at least, not that I am aware of).
According to them, there is no technical solution to predict earthquakes as of
today.
I can't help but to wonder how the situation will be handled if that really had to happen. The pictures of the last major earthquake in 1923 which killed about 120,000 people are quite scary, on the other hand, the buildings were not designed to sustain such strong earthquakes at that time.
Yet, recent research has shown that even the buildings which claim to be able to sustain a M7+ earthquake wouldn't resist the added effect of resonance of the earthquake if it happened...
For reference, the summary report of the earthquake in Kobe in 1995.
[the picture above was borrowed from this site]
