Hi! We had an earthquake on the 14th. It was a M4 and the shindo was also 4 (as I’ll explain in a minute, the two are different) which is enough to make you think “Oh ***! What’s about to happen?” but not enough to cause significant damage. I felt it right away but had some trouble finding the relevant information. It seems that the JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) has reorganized its website. Now that I’ve pretty much figured things out, I thought I’d share the link with you all. For both English and Japanese, I recommend starting with the following page: https://www.data.jma.go.jp/multi/quake/index.html?lang=en
Notice that you can easily select the language you prefer from a large number (including, of course, Japanese) using the dropdown menu on the upper right of the page. Then, when you see the event that looks (judging by time and epicenter) like the one you felt, click on it to get the kind of map I’m showing with this post.
Each map has a link to a nice explanation about shindo, the JMA’s seismic intensity scale. It’s good to take a look at that before you actually feel a strong earthquake so that you’ll know how to interpret the information right away.
Note that magnitude is a measure of the total amount of energy released. It’s a very important measure for scholars but I think that shindo (how bad the shaking was) is what ordinary folks like us need to know – even though people in our home countries may not be familiar with the system of measure.
– Kirk