A 9.2 is 2.5 gigatons.

Put it this way: Hit a wall with a hammer and you might cause a dent. Continually hit that wall with a hammer for 15 seconds and you'll probably break through.

It's not just about the size - it's about where it actually hits. (Note that Christchurch had a 7.1 quake six months earlier with 0 deaths)

And I know what you mean, but I hope you at least realize the inherent hypocrisy in making a post only to complain about posts not yielding valid information.

(EDIT : I see you updated the title. Also always good to see an earthquake magnitude overestimated)

There's also the emotional component. The Japanese population has been shaken by the initial quake, the tsunami, aftershocks, and the problems at the nuclear reactor. Adding another significant quake and tsunami (2m, last report), will further rattle already stretched nerves.

Its especially big news when you consider the events of the last 30 days.

I know here in the Greater Toronto Area can get hit by blackouts frequently because of tree falls. Having moved here from the UK I don't get the idiotic notion of letting trees grow through your power lines because inevitably a branch or the whole tree will fall and knock out power. I've seen a few trees that are so big that no matter what way they fall, they'll knock out power to both sides of the street.

It's surely caused by the earthquake, but it's hard to tell if it would only be cause by the earthquake. You've got to draw a line between "act of god" and an "act of man" for being stupid enough to let an earthquake, windstorm or snowstorm knock your power out.

  7.1 2011/04/07 14:32:42 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
  5.8  	2011/04/07 20:41:54  NORTH OF HONDURAS
  6.5  	2011/04/07 13:11:25  VERACRUZ, MEXICO
  

I'll hold my assertion that it seems to be a more active week than normal in the seismological world.

Your comment adds nothing here and is not backed up by any evidence; "probably every week" does not count as evidence. The majority of the number that the USGS counts includes quakes below the ocean. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqsta...

The USGS calls anything 6+ "large". A magnitude 6 earthquake can be deadly. Even magnitude 5 < can be deadly. There are factors at work depth of the quake as well as other factors, like location where it hits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deadly_earthquakes_sinc...

If you look at that handy evidence you provided: Magnitude 6 or larger quakes happen 150 times a year. That's about 2 or 3 a week.

And regarding 5.8 magnitude one you mentioned: earthquakes in that range happen about 10 times a day!

Are you really surprised that events that occur this often happen to cluster up on one day?

So I'd go with 'yeah, basically' in the absence of a seismologist telling me otherwise.

Surely there is a geologist in the midst who can explain whether this is normal/expected?

*http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/qed/

It's hard to find useful information on line about this. But I guess that the lack of information in itself probably means that geologists aren't particularly worried about it.

Much like the Flu is usually no big deal, but can easily kill people with any sort of immuno-deficiency.

I think this one is OK -- and personally if I see another article about how awesome or evil or dickish (or whatever) Facebook/Twitter/Microsoft/Google are, or about how shitty News Corp handled Myspace, or simply showbiz/yellow journalism junk (i.e. pictures of Jobs meeting with Schmidt) I think I'm going to puke.

But there's lots of offtopic articles (i.e. not related to startups or hacking) everyday -- complaining about it just adds more noise and is completely pointless.

Edit: Removed pro-Israel defense. This is not the place for a political discussion.

Your post is still politically loaded. Israel attacks on Gaza are as 'controversial' as evolution, global warming and tobacco causing cancer.

(This stuff might have had a place here once, but as it is now the HN thread won't be any more intelligent than the Reddit one)

Lets move the discution to the definition of some word. Lets call everyone with a different opinion stupid. Lets put out your opinion and try to close the thread ...

More tech-related than Gaza.

created: 29 days ago.

Please don't introduce these types of commets here. I left reedit over it.