Japan Earthquake Today 2016: Breaking News of Ring of Fire Quake

 

Japan Earthquake Today 2016: Breaking News of Ring of Fire Quake

ST LOUIS (LALATE) – A 5.4 magnitude Japan earthquake today 2016 has struck near Tokyo. The latest Ring of Fire earthquake today May 16, 2016 began earlier today. Damage assessment is pending.
USGS indicates to news that a 5.4 magnitude Japan earthquake today 2016 started just after 5:23 am PST. The quake was 4 miles west of Iwai. It was 4 miles south Sakai. It started 6 miles east of Sugito. And it was 26 miles east of Tokyo.

USGS tell news that “The boundary between the Philippine Sea and Eurasia plates continues south and southwestwards from the Suruga Trough, extending 2000 km along the Nankai and Ryukyu trenches before reaching the island of Taiwan. Along the Ryukyu Trench, the Philippine Sea plate exhibits trench normal subduction at rates increasing from 48 mm/yr in the northeast to 65 mm/yr in the southwest.” They add “Convergence and the associated back-arc deformation west of the oceanic trench creates the Ryukyu Islands and the Okinawa Trough. The largest historic event observed along this subduction zone was the M 8.1 Kikai Island earthquake in 1911.”
Several quakes have been hitting the country in recent months. In November 2014 a 5.5 hit locally. The quake was one mile from Moriya. It was four miles from Mitsukaido and six miles from Toride. The quake also started six miles from Abiko and twenty-five miles from Tokyo. In July a Japan earthquake started twenty-seven miles east of Tokyo. The quake was only one mile south of Yotsukaido. It was also six miles south of Sakura and seven miles west of Yachimata. The quake also began three miles east of Chiba-shi.
USGS also tell news that several plates run through this region. “In the vicinity of Taiwan the structure of the Philippine Sea: Eurasia plate boundary and the associated pattern of seismicity becomes more complex. 400 km east of Taiwan a clockwise rotation in the trend of the margin (from NE-SW to E-W), paired with an increase in subduction obliquity creates a section of the plate boundary that exhibits dextral transform and oblique thrusting motions.” USGS adds “South of Taiwan the polarity of subduction flips; the Eurasia plate subducts beneath the Philippine Sea plate. Debate surrounds contrasting models of the plate boundary position between the zones of oppositely verging subduction, and the boundary’s relation to patterns of seismicity.”