Japanese Shoreline Changed

Japanese Shoreline Changed

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Maps of Japan may need to be rather redrawn, following the massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake that shook the nation and triggered a powerful tsunami that roared up to 10 kilometres inland. While it devastated the local area, it also believed to have had an effect on the globe as a whole.

An American Geological Survey seismologist, Dr. Daniel McNamara, estimates that the disaster left a gigantic rupture in the ocean floor, 217-miles long and 50 miles wide. He says it also altered Japan's coastline between thirteen to eight feet, along a 300 mile stretch, although he was quick to make clear that much of the coast most likely didn't move as far.

The Pacific plate then slipped under Japan at the Japan Trench, causing violent tremors and sending a tsunami as high as ten meters slamming into the island's east coast. A member of the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute, Satoko Oki says the massive quake was created by a rupture near the boundary between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates.

According to Japanese seismologists, earthquakes of this magnitude are only seen once in every thousand years off the coast of Japan.

"You see cities still underwater; the reason is subsidence. The land actually dropped, so when the tsunami came in, it's just staying," says McNamara, who claims that parts of the area will remain permanently lower than sea-level. He says the manner in which the quake actually sank the elevation of the country's terrain, to be more troublesome than coastal shifting.

Experts reveal that the huge shake, created by the movement in the tectonic plates deep under the ocean, also threw the earth off its axis point by at least 8 centimeters.

Canadian geologists claim that the 'very, very tiny' changes won't be noticeable 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 outcomes are so small, it'd take very precise satellite navigation to pick it."

Last year's 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile report move the planet's axis slightly, only resulted in shortening the day by 1.26 microseconds. (A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.) Conflicting figures aside, a shift in the Earth's axis wouldn't be noticeable.

McNamara quickly dismissed any link that what occurred in Japan "is not connected in any way to that climate change." Maybe 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 sleep, it was a sign of things to come?

Ms Oki warned that the residents of Tokyo should not consider they are safe and should still be prepared for a large quake hitting the city.

About the Author:
Dr Wendy Stenberg-Tendys and her husband are CEO's and founders of YouMe Support Foundation, providing high school education grants for children who are without hope. You can help in this really great project by taking a few minutes to check out the Sponsor a Student program at (http://youmesupport.org). It will change the life of some really needy kids in the South Pacific.
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