Japan Coastline Changes
Japan Coastline Changes
Japan Coastline Changes
After the massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake that rocked the nation and triggered a powerful tsunami which travelled up to 10 kilometres inland, maps of Japan will need to be slightly redrawn. The quake is believed to have had a profound effect, not only on the surrounding terrain, but on the earth as a whole.
Dr. Daniel McNamara, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, says that the disaster left a huge rupture in the sea floor, 217-miles long and 50 miles wide. He affirms it also altered Japan's coast between 13 to 8 feet, along a 300 mile stretch, though he was quick to say that much of the coast most likely didn't move as far.
Satoko Oki, of the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute, said the huge quake was caused by a rupture close to the boundary between the North American and Pacific tectonic plates. The Pacific plate slipped under Japan at the Japan Trench, causing violent tremors, creating a tsunami as high as10 meters, which slammed into the island's east coast.
Earthquakes of this size are only witnessed once in every 1,000 years off the coast of Japan, according to Japanese seismologists.
McNamara affirms the way in which the quake actually lowered the elevation of the country's terrain, to be more troublesome than coastal movement. He says that parts of the terrain will reside permanently under sea-level."You see cities still underwater; the reason is subsidence. The land actually dropped, so when the tsunami came in, it's just staying."
Authorities claim that the massive quake, created by a shift in the tectonic plates deep underwater and also threw the earth off its axis point by at least 8 centimeters.
Geologists from Canada believe that the 'very, very tiny' changes won't be noticed for centuries. "It's going to make minute changes to the length of a day. It could make very, very tiny changes to the tilt of the earth, which affects the seasons, but these effects are so small, it'd take very precise satellite navigation to pick it."
Besides the many conflicting figures, a movement in the Earth's axis wouldn't be obvious. The 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile last year, which also reportedly moved the planet's axis slightly, only resulted in shortening the day by 1.26 microseconds. (A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.)
McNamara was quick to dismiss that connection that what happened in Japan "is not connected in any way to that climate change." However, he felt that when the Shinmoedake volcano suddenly leapt back into life, sending a 3000 metre high plume of smoke into the air, after a 52 year old slumber, it was a sign of things to come.
Ms Oki warned the residents of Tokyo shouldn't consider themselves safe and should get ready for another big quake striking the city.
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