Japan's Earthquake Has Been Upgraded To A 9.1 MAGNITUDE!

KSDK

Local expert: Japan earthquake a wake-up call

written by Kristen Gosling

Friday March 11, 2011

St. Louis (KSDK) -- A professor of geophysics at St. Louis University Earthquake Center said the magnitude of the earthquake that hit Japan has been revised to 9.1 from the initial magnitude of 8.9.

Dr. Robert Herrmann said so much interest is circulating around the particular earthquake because it was just 200 miles from Tokyo.

It is one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history, and certainly the largest in Japan.

Dr. Herrmann said there was nothing that could have warned people in Japan of the ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes and that there was no clear indicator that it was coming.

Fortunately, tsunami waves travel slowly, so people living across the Pacific Ocean, like those in Hawaii and the western coast of the US had time to prepare.

Dr. Herrmann said one of the immediate effects of an earthquake is that it sends out waves and the waves cause the ground to move. He said a big earthquake shakes the whole earth, so St. Louis is impacted. The city moved up and down about a quarter of an inch, but no one in St. Louis felt it.

Dr. Herrmann said the earthquake in japan wont have anything to do with new earthquakes in the New Madrid region or southeastern Illinois.

He says today's big earthquake was sort of a wake up call and that you have to be prepared because it can happen at any time.