Jonathan Savage discusses a possible megaquake in Northern Japan

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our buddy Jonathan Savage, our Fox correspondent in London, joining
us this morning. Jonathan, A bit of a bizarre twist
in our conversation this morning. It's rare that you and
I talk earthquakes.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
It is we merely caused them. JT. That's exactly broadcasting.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
So what's going on in Japan? They're saying this could
be a monster megaquake?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yes, so a couple of days ago, Japan had an earthquake,
a magnitude seven point five earthquake. It is pretty strong.
It struck off the coast, although damage, as it turned out,
was not too bad, thirty four injuries, some damage to
roads and buildings. But now scientists there say there is
the increased risk of a megaquake and have issued a

(00:45):
government advisory. A megaquake is an earthquake with a magnitude
of eight or higher the increased risk and the advisory
lasts for one week. Issuing these warnings comes off the
back of the disaster in twenty eleven when they had
a magnitude seven level earthquake, then two days later had

(01:05):
an enormous earthquake that killed twenty thousand people, destroyed a
nuclear power plant. I'm sure many listeners will remember seeing
those images and hearing those stories of that dreadful earthquake
back in twenty eleven. So nowadays when they have a
pretty big earthquake, the issue this warning to say be careful,
watch out, be prepared because a megaquake could be coming

(01:25):
in the next week.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, and this is in the country's northern region. Is
that near water? Are we looking at potential tsunami as
well in all of this or is it pretty far inland.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
That is absolutely the case. The earthquake that happened a
couple of days ago was at sea, as was that
twenty eleven earthquake, and every time there is a large
earthquake under the sea, there is a risk of a tsunami.
It was a fifty foot sunami back in twenty eleven.
They are saying that a megaquake could even cause a

(01:55):
ninety eight foot tsunami in the worst case scenario, killing
two hundred thou and people in Japan, causing up to
two hundred billion dollars worth of damage. These are the
worst case scenarios that the government estimates, and those kind
of worst case scenarios are exactly why they are sending
out this advisory and telling people to be prepared to flee.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, let's talk about that. How much of a warning
do people get with this type of thing? You know,
with hurricanes and tornados, you can kind of watch it
and watch your meteorologists on television and keep you up
to date. And here it comes. It's going to get
tomorrow at eleven. I mean with earthquakes, all of a sudden,
it's like everything's cool and on all of a sudden
the earth starts shaking. Is there warnings that people will
have time to flee.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
You don't really get much warning of the earthquake itself,
of course, but a tsunami that tends to build it
happens miles off coast, and you do get sometime to
make your arrangements and to get to higher ground to
get out of harm's way. That will depend exactly where
the tsunami is and how powerful it is. So, you know,

(02:58):
in order to get people prepared, they're saying, look, don't
make any big changes now, don't panic, Just keep doing
what you're doing, but keep an emergency back close by,
have shoes and helmets, talk to your family about how
you're going to evacuate, where to and Also an interesting
one is they're telling people for the next week in
these areas they should not sleep in their pajamas, they

(03:19):
should sleep in day clothes because they will have to
move fast should this happen in the middle of the night.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Wow, that's unbelievable. And these tsunamis too, when they do hit.
I mean, it's not just like a big wave is
crashed on the beach all of a sudden. Everything's destroyed.
There's junk everywhere, there's debris, there's automobiles, there's fuel, there's
i mean, electrical wires. It is complete danger. If you
get trapped in a tsunami and you think I'll just

(03:46):
ride this out and swim inland and be okay with it. Now,
it's nothing like that. I've never been around anything quite
like that, obviously, but you know, just seeing the damage
that a hurricane can do on the coast around those
and actually in those before, and those are bad enough,
let alone, let alone a ninety foot tsunami that's going

(04:07):
to crash in there. So is there a timeline, Jonathan
on when they think this may happen in the next
couple of days, a couple of weeks, a couple of months.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Well, what they saying it's not a prediction, but the
advisory lasts for one week, so they're saying they should
have people should be extra extra sensitive, extra prepared until
next Tuesday and then you can go back to their
normal way of thinking. But of course in Japan they
are very much aware of the dangers of earthquakes and tsunami,
so this is something which is part of their daily lives.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Wow, just incredibly, incredibly dangerous too if it actually comes
to fruition. Thank you so much. Jonathan Savage, our Fox
correspondent in London this morning,