08-09-2024, 03:23 AM
"if a maximum earthquake occurs, and a huge tsunami more than 30 meters high would hit coastal areas.
The latest estimate says about 230,000 people would be killed and about 2.09 million buildings would be damaged by fire or destroyed."
If I understand correctly, that is based on estimates of an 8.0 earthquake. The "megaquake" could be anything from 8-9. The magnitude scale for earthquakes is logarithmic, which means each whole number increase on the scale represents a tenfold increase in amplitude and roughly 31.6 times more energy release. They may not have been able to model the consequences of a 9.x earthquake because there have been too few of them to study. Most buildings in Japan are constructed to withstand earthquakes between 7.0 - 7.9, though that is an approximation because they use their own system of measurements for seismic activity and building resiliency.
As far as potential impacts to Hawaii, that would be dependent on what type of quake it is. I'm sure that was part of their data when they came up with "8 - 9". Obviously I'm not a seismologist but I think the biggest ones are megathrust earthquakes and they cause the largest tsunamis not just because of the intensity but because the type of movement on the seafloor.
The latest estimate says about 230,000 people would be killed and about 2.09 million buildings would be damaged by fire or destroyed."
If I understand correctly, that is based on estimates of an 8.0 earthquake. The "megaquake" could be anything from 8-9. The magnitude scale for earthquakes is logarithmic, which means each whole number increase on the scale represents a tenfold increase in amplitude and roughly 31.6 times more energy release. They may not have been able to model the consequences of a 9.x earthquake because there have been too few of them to study. Most buildings in Japan are constructed to withstand earthquakes between 7.0 - 7.9, though that is an approximation because they use their own system of measurements for seismic activity and building resiliency.
As far as potential impacts to Hawaii, that would be dependent on what type of quake it is. I'm sure that was part of their data when they came up with "8 - 9". Obviously I'm not a seismologist but I think the biggest ones are megathrust earthquakes and they cause the largest tsunamis not just because of the intensity but because the type of movement on the seafloor.