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Geeeeeez, Japan just keeps getting hammered. Tokyo (CNN) -- A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Sunday morning off the east coast of Honshu, Japan, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The earthquake was centered 27 miles (43.5 kilometers) beneath the surface about 114 miles (184 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, the agency said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The country's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said there were no reports of problems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant as a result of the earthquake, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK. The plant was crippled by a much more powerful earthquake on March 11.
Japan has been struck by hundreds of aftershocks off the coast of Honshu since that quake.
The study, which was led by researchers at the California Institute of Technology with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory geophysicist Eric Fielding serving as a coauthor, is available online in the journal Nature Geoscience.
In a standard model, transform plate boundary structures -- where two plates slide past one another -- tend to be vertically oriented, which allows for lateral side-by-side shear fault motion. However, as the study found, the 75 mile (120 kilometer) long El MayorCucapah rupture involved angled, non-vertical faults and the event began on a connecting extension fault between the two segments.
The new analysis indicates the responsible fault is more segmented deep down than its straight surface trace suggests. This means the evolution and extent of this earthquake's rupture could not have been accurately anticipated from the surface geology alone, says the studys lead author Shengji Wei. Anticipating the characteristics of earthquakes that would likely happen on young fault systems (like the event in the study) is a challenge, since the geologic structures involved in the new fault systems are not clear enough.
Jean-Philippe Avouac, director of Caltech's Tectonics Observatory and principal investigator on the study, says the data can be used to illustrate the process by which the plate boundary -- which separates the Pacific Plate from North America -- evolves and starts connecting the Gulf of California to the Elsinore fault in Southern California.
NASA - Unusual Fault Pattern Surfaces in Earthquake Study
Typhoon Talas, which was later downgraded to a tropical storm, lashed coastal areas with destructive winds and record-setting rains over the weekend before moving offshore into the Sea of Japan. Thousands were stranded as it washed out bridges, railways and roads. The destruction added more misery to a nation still reeling from a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami six months ago. In one of his first acts in office, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda — sworn in just one day before Talas made landfall — vowed the government would provide as much assistance as quickly as it could.
His predecessor, Naoto Kan, was forced out in large part because of public anger over the response to the tsunami, which left nearly 21,000 people dead or missing and touched off the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. "We will do everything we can to rescue people and search for the missing," Noda said. The typhoon was the worst to hit Japan since 2004, when 98 people were killed or reported missing. It caused most of its damage on the Kii peninsula in central Japan southwest of Tokyo and hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the country's tsunami-ravaged northeastern coast.
The Japan Meteorological Agency predicted more heavy rain Tuesday in northern and western Japan, where the already sodden ground caused fears of more mudslides and floods. The extent of damage from the typhoon was still emerging Monday. Rescuers and reconnaissance teams spread out over the worst-hit areas to look for survivors or people stranded in flood zones, which though far smaller in scale were reminiscent of the debris-ridden, mud-caked wasteland created by the tsunami. Television footage showed washed-out train bridges, whole neighborhoods inundated by swollen rivers and police using rope to pull frightened survivors out of homes awash in the murky waters.
Nearly 200,000 households remained without power Monday afternoon, Kyodo reported. During the search effort Monday, rescuers recovered a dozen more bodies, bringing the confirmed death toll to 34, according to the government's emergency headquarters. Evacuation advisories remained in place for about 100,000 people, although the storm itself was no longer over land. Most of the dead were in Wakayama prefecture (state), said local official Seiji Yamamoto. Twenty-two people were killed and 22 others were missing in Wakayama alone. "There are so many roads out that it is hard to count them all," he said. "Hundreds of homes have been flooded."
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Japanese rescue teams have resumed the search for dozens of people missing after powerful Typhoon Talas ripped through the west of the country. At least 26 people have been killed by the storm, which made landfall on Shikoku island on Saturday, triggering floods and landslides. More than 50 people are believed to be missing, according to local media. Japan is hit by several typhoons each year, but Talas is the most destructive since 2004.
'Saving lives'
Evacuation orders and advisories were issued to 460,000 people as the typhoon swept through the region, dumping heavy rain and bringing winds of up to 108km/h (68mph) on Sunday. Entire villages have been flooded, with bridges and houses destroyed. The BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo says some villages have been cut off and the bad weather in the mountains has made reaching them by helicopter impossible. At least 17 people were reported killed in worst-hit Wakayama prefecture. One person was killed and seven others were missing after a landslide struck one area in the city.
In nearby Nara prefecture, seven people were reported missing after their homes were swept down a river, AP cited public broadcaster NHK as reporting. Rescue workers said their efforts were being hampered by damaged roads and communications issues due to downed phone lines. Talas has now moved over Japan and into the Sea of Japan (East Sea), Japan's Meteorological Agency said. But it warned that heavy rains and strong winds would continue, raising the threat of floods and landslides.
Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who was sworn in on Friday, promised rescue efforts would continue. "We will do our best in saving lives and finding the missing," Mr Noda told reporters early on Monday. The government has set up an emergency task force to co-ordinate the rescue effort. Mr Noda replaced Naoto Kan, who was heavily criticised for Japan's response in the aftermath of an earthquake and tsunami on 11 March which killed thousands.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14783904
