Japan: Deepest Earthquake Ever Detected

Japan is well known for its volcanoes and earthquakes. It is right on the Pacific's "Ring of Fire".

Many volcanic eruptions have been noted in recorded history, most recently it was Mount Aso in Kyushu and the Tohoku Earthquake (the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami) is still fresh in people's minds despite having taken place ten years ago.

An interesting earthquake took place under Japan's Bonin Islands (Ogasawara Islands) several years ago. At a depth of 423 miles, it was one of the deepest earthquakes ever recorded. National Geographic has posted an interesting article about it.

They begin it with:

One spring evening six years ago, hundreds of miles underground, our planet began to rumble from a series of peculiar earthquakes. Most of Earth's temblors strike within a few dozen miles of the surface, but these quakes stirred at depths where temperatures and pressures grow so intense that rocks tend to bend rather than break.

The first jolt, which struck off the coasts of Japan's remote Bonin Islands, was recorded at magnitude 7.9 and up to 680 kilometers (423 miles) underground, making it one of the deepest quakes of its size. Then another oddity emerged in the cascade of aftershocks that followed: a tiny temblor that, if confirmed, would be the deepest earthquake ever detected.

 To read more, go here.