Seismology 101

Just hit by a motherf**ker of an earthquake.

North of Tokyo, in Iwate and Yamagata prefectures, the earthquake was rated a category "7". In humble Toshima-ku, it was rated a "4" and our little apaato got a serious shakedown - felt like I was on Regan's bed in "The Exorcist". Since I've been in Japan, I've experienced god knows how many earthquakes, some weeks on a daily basis, but this is perhaps the second earthquake I've felt where I've seriously thought the shit was about to hit the fan. Luckily, it just caused some minor skiddies.

The conundrum is, however, that Japan has formulated its own "earthquake" scale, the "shindo" scale, which is quite unlike the richter scale. The "shindo" scale measures what people actually feel at any given location, whereas the richter scale measures the energy released by an earthquake. Kind of like the "touchy-feely-seismic-scale". Who said seismologists weren't caring and sharing?