Originally Posted By Malin I have just been reading this online article from the BBC. And its very frightening reading indeed. Scientists are trying to establish if the Magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake has altered the chances of a major tremor under Tokyo - or increased the risk of another tremor powerful enough to generate a tsunami. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12792943" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scie...12792943</a> They found a 25km-thick fragment broken off one of the plates that they now believe plays a significant role in shaping seismic activity in the Kanto region - and by implication, the outlook for Tokyo. "When it comes to Tokyo, things get immensely complicated," said Dr Stein. "There seems to be broken pieces of plate that are jammed under Tokyo like a pill that won't go down your throat. And on top of that we have the two different slabs of plates beneath it, so there's really a triple stack of faults beneath Tokyo."
Originally Posted By Malin I have just been reading this online article from the BBC. And its very frightening reading indeed. Scientists are trying to establish if the Magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake has altered the chances of a major tremor under Tokyo - or increased the risk of another tremor powerful enough to generate a tsunami. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12792943" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scie...12792943</a> They found a 25km-thick fragment broken off one of the plates that they now believe plays a significant role in shaping seismic activity in the Kanto region - and by implication, the outlook for Tokyo. "When it comes to Tokyo, things get immensely complicated," said Dr Stein. "There seems to be broken pieces of plate that are jammed under Tokyo like a pill that won't go down your throat. And on top of that we have the two different slabs of plates beneath it, so there's really a triple stack of faults beneath Tokyo."
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Disturbing. Just curious, how exactly is TDLR positioned to protect itself from the threat of a Tsunami should one occur in the area? From what I recall (I haven't been in 20 years) the park(s) sit right along the shore near the ocean.
Originally Posted By SuperDry I was wondering that myself. I don't recall seeing the tsunami siren towers along the bay at TDR or elsewhere in Tokyo, even though they seem to be ever-present elsewhere in Japan along the eastern coast. If I had to guess, it would be that Tokyo Bay itself is not at risk of tsunami due to its geography.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt ^^ Good point. But surely it's at risk for tide surges that could potentially flood TDLR, right? The resort sits right at sea level.
Originally Posted By Malin I read an article someone has shared on MiceChat about how the Tokyo Bay area which is mostly built on land fill did not expect to see the amount of liquefaction that it did and that brings into question just how well ready is Tokyo for a big Earthquake. I hope lessons from the recent quake will be quickly learnt going forward. I think SuperDry is right that because of the Resort's location it would mostly be protected from any possible Tsunami. But after the recent Earthquake where so much was wrongly predicted by scientist, Engineers and other experts, its hard to say for sure how safe the Resort would be from an Earthquake of such great magnitude.
Originally Posted By Mr X Let's hope we never have to find out in any of our lifetimes! This one was bad enough. And yes, I gave that issue a lot of thought over the past couple of weeks, the Shin-Urayasu area is a total disaster (just came back from there, actually), and as huge as this was it WAS pretty far from the epicenter even so. I would what fresh hell we'd witness if even a 7 or an 8 struck much closer by! I saw the main staircase going down from Shin-Urayasu station for the first time. They have ropes across barring access but I'm surprised they didn't put up a safety wall. At first, I was curious as to why it was closed off as it looked "okay", until I walked right up to the rope and saw that the ENTIRE GIGANTIC STAIRCASE had ripped nearly clean off from the station! I won't say it's "hanging by a thread", but it's about halfway there...there's a good one foot gap between the end of the station proper and the beginning of the stairs, with only the foundational stuff a few feet below holding things together. (hope the description was enough, I didn't have a camera with me and it would be easy enough to see from a picture) Anyway, that was another holy crap moment for me, one of so many these days. If it'd been even a tad bigger, I can't imagine that Urayasu would've been spared some loss of life! Feels like a miracle it didn't, until you look at what happened up North and realize that it was just luck and location. BTW, not for nothing but wouldn't this topic be better served in WorldEvents? I think the discussion would be more focused on the issues, anyway, as people rarely check out the Tokyo section except to read about TDR.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< the Shin-Urayasu area is a total disaster (just came back from there, actually), and as huge as this was it WAS pretty far from the epicenter even so. >>> Mr X, I know you're not a structural engineer, but you keep referring to Shin-Urayasu and Urayasu in general as being pretty hard hit. Yet, the resort came away from the quake with essentially no damage, even though it's just a couple of miles away and on reclaimed land like Shin-Urayasu. Based on your gut feeling, do you think this is because of superior building standards used at the resort, or was the resort for whatever reason just lucky?
Originally Posted By Mr X My gut feeling is that someone dropped the ball in Shin-Urayasu somehow when they built up the place. It's a disaster, from top to bottom, around that area, sad to say. I haven't been to Maihama so I really can't say anything about that area (other than it's in bad shape, too, but nothing compared to the Shin~Urayasu area as far as I've seen.
Originally Posted By Mr X As far as the resort coming away from the quake with no damage, I'd say the parks proper were fine but the surrounding areas are in terrible shape too (I've seen lots of pictures of Maihama station that look pretty well destroyed, for example). I'm no engineer, as you said, and I don't really know the difference between "minor" and "major" damage, but it all looks pretty horrible to me anyway. The staircase at Shin_Urayasu was a shocker, to say the least. A tiny bit more force, and that staircase would've collapsed entirely (along with everything else in the area, I'd guess!).
Originally Posted By Mr X I don't for a moment think that the Disney parks were "just lucky". I think they built the parks strong on purpose. Check out the damage on the outskirts of the parks and it's pretty obvious. (so, it seems they build the parks "smart", and probably should build all the reclaimed zones the same way world-wide I should think!).
Originally Posted By SuperDry I definitely will no longer be looking with disdain at the "unsightly" extra straps/cords on fixtures in the park that have been added to prevent them from falling on your head should their primary mounting come loose in an earthquake. It's too minute a detail to become public, but I wonder just how many fixtures became loose during the quake such that the secondary strap saved the day? Also, I'm sure we've all seen by now the Mythica footage that showed one of the tall speaker towers falling over almost completely. It appears to fall sideways, such that it would not have hit anyone should it have come down completely. I wonder if the base was designed that way.
