On this date in 1923: one of the worst earthquake disasters of all time

[Art_from_Ark]

occurred in the Tokyo-Yokohama area of Japan. Known as the Great Kanto Earthquake (Kanto Daishinsai in Japanese), this terrible seismic event was responsible, directly or indirectly, for the deaths of 140,000 people and the destruction of countless buildings (incidentally, Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel was one of the few structures in the stricken area that was relatively unscathed). As with most earthquakes of this scale, most of the victims were killed by fire or smoke inhalation. To honor the memory of the victims, September 1 is now Disaster Prevention Day in Japan.





More photos available here:
http://www.japan-guide.com/a/earthquake/

[Sick of Bullshit]

1. There was another major disaster that occurred (began) on September 1

World War II

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. That Sept. 1 earthquake

is always in the back of my mind when the earth starts shaking in Japan.

In particulary, there was one day during my student years when we had earthquakes of increasing intensity all day. Fortunately, they stopped before they reached the building-toppling level, but people I talked to the next day said that they had really wondered whether it would all end in another major disaster like the one in 1923.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. These days, the talk is focusing on an expected major quake between

Tokyo and Nagoya-- although the recent jolts in Sendai seem to have caught a lot of earthquake watchers off guard. You just never know when or where the ground is going to start shaking in this country.

[roguevalley]

4. Its awful, those earthquakes.

Their tsunamis reach us on the west coast. I remember
reading about an earthquake in China that killed over
a million people. I cannot conceive of that. Poor things.
What a dynamic and disinterested set of plates we glide
around on.

RV, still considering the Good Friday earthquake and
hoping the missouri thing never wakes up.

[Art_from_Ark]

5. The "Missouri thing", a.k.a. the New Madrid fault

There was an interesting 6-part series on PBS several years ago called "The Making of a Continent". One of the episodes dealt with the New Madrid Fault, which is essentially the Mississippi River for much of its path. The program concluded that a major earthquake is likely to occur there within the next 400 years. If such an event were to occur, St. Louis and Memphis would be hard hit, especially Memphis, as parts of that city are lying on top of soil that could easily liquify (i.e., turn into quicksand). A University of Memphis study (available below in PDF format) has identified a small fault (apparently a branch of the New Madrid Fault) which it has named the Ellendale Fault that runs through much of the city.

http://erp-web.er.usgs.gov/reports/annsum/vol43/cu/g0031.pdf