Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Crisis in Japan: What should We Do‪?‬

Byline: Dr Ahmad Rashid Malik - Email: drahmadrashidmalik@hotmail.com With a powerful magnitude of scaling down to 9.1 Richter scale at 2:46 p.m. on 11 March 2011, the Japanese archipelago was worst hit by a strong earthquake in its ever known history. Seismologists hardly measure accurately large earthquakes as they are tricky to measure. They were surprised by the intensity of the earthquake that hit Japan as it was bigger than expectations for the Pacific Ocean because the plate boundary was not straight and fairly irregular. The earth axis was being shifted and deformed, causing earth to rotate somewhat faster by shortening the length of the day in microseconds. To US Geological Survey (USGS) and European seismologists noted that the Island has moved by few feet closer toward North America and shifted downward deep in the earth. Stabilization of the plate would take decades.