Alan Kafka
Weston Observatory
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Boston College
On a April 15, 2016, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that occurred on the Kyushu Island of Japan, was recorded by Weston Observatory (see seismogram below). The strong signal at the bottom few hours of the seismogram is the Japan quake. The other strong signals are other earthquakes that also occurred on the same day. The signal at the top is a magnitude 6.4 earthquake in Vanuatu, and the smaller signal about an hour before the Japan quake is a magnitude 6.1 earthquake that occurred in Guatemala.
Today’s magnitude 7.0 Japan quake occurred very near a magnitude 6.2 quake that occurred two days earlier. There is, of course, the likelihood of strong aftershocks of today’s main shock, but there is no way of knowing whether or not the occurrence of these two events would lead to any more large earthquakes in this area.
A tsunami warning was initially issued for this earthquake, but the warning was later lifted.
Check back here for updates on this earthquake.
Additional information about this earthquake can be found on the U.S. Geological Survey earthquake monitoring web site.
Earthquakes and Related Matters 