Kuril earthquake informations

The Kuril quake is 8.3 in Richter scale according to USGS, i.e., 10^(-0.8)=1/6 the energy of the 9.1 quake in Sumatra 2 years ago that caused the monster tsunami, and 10^(8.3-4)=10^4.3=20000 times the North Korea (alleged) "nuclear" test last month.

Magnitude	8.3 (Great)
Date-Time	Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 11:14:16 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 10:14:16 PM = local time at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location	46.616°N, 153.224°E
Depth	28.5 km (17.7 miles)
Region	KURIL ISLANDS
Distances	440 km (275 miles) ENE of Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands 500 km (310 miles) SSW of Severo-Kuril'sk, Kuril Islands, Russia 1650 km (1030 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan 7185 km (4460 miles) NE of MOSCOW, Russia
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 7.1 km (4.4 miles); depth +/- 8.2 km (5.1 miles)
Parameters	Nst=213, Nph=213, Dmin=812.9 km, Rmss=1.05 sec, Gp= 65°, M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=9
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	usvcam

Many strong after-quakes were detected around 153-155E, 46-48N.


There are many reasons that the tsunami is much weaker this time.

1. Weaker quake (of 1/6 the strength)
2. Deeper epicenter (28.5km below surface)
3. Direction of the quake was not as vertical as that in Sumatra
   

The location of the quake is right on the rim of on the Pacific Techtonic Plate, and in the middle of Kuril Island Chain, between the south tip of Kamchatka and NE Hokkaido. in (also November) 1952 a 9.0 quake struck the SE tip of Kamchatka, about 600km NE of the epicenter of today's quake. If there is a simple trend, then 54 years later, people in Hokkaido should be very vigilant.

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