alt.hn

4/20/2026 at 10:04:40 AM

M 7.4 earthquake – 100 km ENE of Miyako, Japan

 https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us6000sri7/

by Someone

4/20/2026 at 12:01:56 PM

Felt it all the way in Tokyo!

There is this amazing app called NERV that, whenever there is a large earthquake anywhere in Japan, sends you an early warning push notification and an animated display with shockwaves emanating from the epicenter, plus a countdown timer for the first wave hitting you. The first it went off for me it felt like something out of sci-fi. I think I got 45 seconds this time before my apartment started shaking.

https://nerv.app/en/

by piazz

4/20/2026 at 2:25:20 PM

Hmm, why does this needs to be an app and not the built-in alert notification system? Outsourcing critical infrastructure and emergency services to private parties is always a terrible idea.

by ricardobayes

4/20/2026 at 12:17:57 PM

>NERV

Does it play appropriate Evangelion OST track depending on magnitude though?

by konart

4/20/2026 at 12:39:35 PM

It is straight up the same NERV, so it might.

From the site:

> The name and logo of "NERV" are used with the explicit permission of khara Inc., the copyright holder of the "Evangelion" series, and Groundworks Corporation, which manages the rights to the series.

by roer

4/20/2026 at 12:52:32 PM

This is just the best. A very serious company, doing seriously cool and important stuff, also has an anime name/icon.

I wish more corps took themselves so lightly, while remaining serious about what they do.

by azath92

4/20/2026 at 1:05:50 PM

For people unfamiliar wanting an easier comparison, Evangelion is Japans star wars. It'd be like learning of tornadoes from someone with Empire insignia

by mghackerlady

4/20/2026 at 2:21:47 PM

> Evangelion is Japans star wars

Which is funny to say because Star Wars is actually the Western version of samurai movies (especially but not exclusively Akira Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress).

That's the movie that Lucas is pretty open about heavily drawing "inspiration" from (all the way down to specific characters and plot beats) but Hidden Fortress is itself part of a larger genre of similar stories.

by chimeracoder

4/20/2026 at 1:57:44 PM

Evangelion is so mega overrated of an anime im experiencing second hand embarrassment on behalf of Japan for letting its national personaification be exlempified by shinji.

by Der_Einzige

4/20/2026 at 1:11:10 PM

Sadly we're stuck with companies naming themselves things like "Melchior" and "Palpatine" and somehow it's a good thing?

Anyway I need to get back to working on the Torment Nexus.

by bombcar

4/20/2026 at 1:31:32 PM

I think that’s pretty much the same. NERV uses child soldiers and is secretly planning a fused hivemind. They are the Torment Nexus.

by renewiltord

4/20/2026 at 12:24:53 PM

45 seconds is an incredible accomplishment. That’s a decent amount of heads up to get safer place. Obviously nerve wracking but great progress in alerts

by Aboutplants

4/20/2026 at 1:20:05 PM

It sounds impressive but it's worth considering that this was a large quake that was felt by basically half of the country. You do not get this much warning if you are anywhere near where damage happens.

The 45 seconds is better thought of as the time it takes for the quake to propagate to Tokyo

by petterroea

4/20/2026 at 1:08:14 PM

Yeah. That's leagues better than what I get in Taiwan. The alert often arrives when the building is shaking or even after. I've never had a meaningful headstart.

by strangegecko

4/20/2026 at 2:14:36 PM

It would seem the forewarning depends a lot on the distance from the epicentre. This quake, for Tokyoites, was far enough from them that they could beat the earthquake's speed. I'm fairly certain the people on the East Coast near the quake got no notification ahead of the event.

by philistine

4/20/2026 at 1:46:39 PM

I usually get it a few seconds ahead of time at least, in Taipei. I figured it's more related to the proximity than anything else.

by sampullman

4/20/2026 at 12:25:19 PM

I didn't feel a thing a bit south of Nagoya. Almost strange that there was nothing here, when you got shaking in Tokyo.

by Tor3

4/20/2026 at 1:57:03 PM

Receiving one of those sounds really scary.

by Xenoamorphous

4/20/2026 at 12:05:55 PM

How do you use your 45 seconds?

by kzrdude

4/20/2026 at 12:50:41 PM

At 45 seconds, load up social media. (although I actually missed the warnings this time, was focused on work) At least assuming the number is only 7.x.

If it were 8+ or somewhat closer, I'd get under my desk. (then pull up social media on my phone)

by klempner

4/20/2026 at 1:00:22 PM

Standing underneath a doorframe is also advisable.

by fennecbutt

4/20/2026 at 1:09:43 PM

I'm pretty sure that is advice from the last millennium that is no longer taught.

by strangegecko

4/20/2026 at 12:08:41 PM

If it's a big one and it's near you, you'd move away from the windows and heavy things that can fall, I suppose?

For me I always just turn on iPhone screen recording and marvel at this amazing app and wish we had something like this in California.

by piazz

4/20/2026 at 1:24:50 PM

Stop any trains. Open elevators at nearest floor.

by gosub100

4/20/2026 at 1:56:45 PM

> Felt it all the way in Tokyo!

How many stories above the ground, and might you guess at your building's construction (wood frame, steel frame, etc.) and foundations (on bedrock, on loose sediments, etc.)?

by bell-cot

4/20/2026 at 11:26:55 AM

The earthquake magnitude was revised up to a 7.7

No major tsunami is expected, local media reported initial waves were recorded as high as 40cm. The Japan Meteorological Agency forecasted up to 3m (10ft) waves.

I don't believe this earthquake is a big deal. Large earthquakes (M7.0+) happen in Japan several times a year, and given this happened in the middle of the ocean, I don't expect any major damage.

by tristanj

4/20/2026 at 12:23:59 PM

Yes, this is definitely only a medium deal, given that the tsunamis were mild. There is the usual concern that it might be a foreshock for a bigger quake but that's fairly unlikely.

Plenty of disruption (including a bunch of the shinkansen lines) and annoying evacuation up on the coast.

I will say that this was the longest swaying I've felt in my Kawasaki tower mansion apartment since moving here three years ago -- things were still moving about 5 minutes after it started.

by klempner

4/20/2026 at 11:51:40 AM

I live in Aomori (Northernmost prefecture of Honshu) and we got the warning before the earthquake arrived by all the cellphones in the office going crazy at the same time. It was kind of funny, because we have a lot of new guys here who have never been to Japan before and it was their first earthquake ever xD

by pezezin

4/20/2026 at 12:15:16 PM

was reading in a park in suburban tokyo a few years ago, notifications arrived for the noto peninsula earthquake.

kids in the park stared doing wobbly knee dance :D

felt the quake about 30sec later.

by fungi

4/20/2026 at 12:19:53 PM

The one in 2024? I was in Tokyo at that time but we didn't get any notification nor felt anything :/

by pezezin

4/20/2026 at 11:58:16 AM

How much warning did you get? I mean in minutes or seconds?

by whatsupdog

4/20/2026 at 12:01:51 PM

Depends on the location, the alert comes usually as soon as the initial tremors are registered. If you're at the epicenter, tough luck. For example, for me in Tokyo, the alert came 2 minutes before it hit, and even then, the actual earthquake was extremely subtle.

by asutekku

4/20/2026 at 12:20:53 PM

In our case I guess we got the warning 10~20 seconds before the earthquake? I don't know, I didn't count it xD

by pezezin

4/20/2026 at 12:42:10 PM

I live in Tokyo. Today's quake felt pretty strong (maybe because I was on the 14th floor) and lasted a while. Haven't felt one this big in months.

by felixding

4/20/2026 at 1:58:45 PM

Was in Tokyo today, if I didn't see the news, I wouldn't have noticed there even was an earthquake.

Surprised others said they felt it.

by budududuroiu

4/20/2026 at 1:46:04 PM

How long do these earthquakes typically take until they are over?

by vaylian

4/20/2026 at 1:49:57 PM

I’m Chiba so pretty far away from this one, and in this case it was like a real low frequency swaying that lasted maybe 3 minutes or so.

In the past there were small earthquakes closer to me that felt like quite a violent bump followed by higher frequency vibrations, but less than a minute. Those earthquakes were much smaller though, like magnitude 4.

by left-struck

4/20/2026 at 12:00:50 PM

This one was weird, too, like being on a boat in mildly choppy water, not a violent shake at all.

by donw

4/20/2026 at 12:29:50 PM

In my experience (NZ) that means it was strong but distant.

by mkl

4/20/2026 at 11:28:57 AM

[flagged]

by danielovichdk

4/20/2026 at 11:31:07 AM

Because?

Here you have the same earthquake, but reported by Japan: https://www.data.jma.go.jp/multi/quake/quake_detail.html?eve...

As a European, I feel fine that American and Japanese governments report on this.

by embedding-shape

4/20/2026 at 12:01:05 PM

Maybe there should be a web site americaquake.gov just for American earthquakes.

Why did Mongo have an "EARTH QUAKE" button on his spaceship control console? Did he have buttons with the names of all the other obscure bodies he encountered, too?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqVgrkmRF8Y

by DonHopkins

4/20/2026 at 11:55:34 AM

[flagged]

by danielovichdk

4/20/2026 at 12:00:50 PM

Are they making recommendations on that page? Are they trying to "know better" than the Japanese government because they too keep track of earthquakes? I'd say you seem to lack critical thinking, but you'd probably claim the American government stole it from you.

by embedding-shape

4/20/2026 at 11:32:43 AM

Japan has their own communication platforms for this, they're not relying on a US government site. I'm in Japan on vacation, and I got notified of the earthquake within a minute of it happening on the NERV app, which is a common disaster alerting app here.

by notdefio

4/20/2026 at 11:40:44 AM

The creators of this app either didn't watch Evangelion or are huge fans. Hard to say which.

by gerikson

4/20/2026 at 11:45:32 AM

Evangelion is extremely popular in Japan, everybody and their dog knows it, so it is obviously the second option. From the official app website, https://nerv.app/en/

> The name and logo of "NERV" are used with the explicit permission of khara Inc., the copyright holder of the "Evangelion" series, and Groundworks Corporation, which manages the rights to the series.

by pezezin

4/20/2026 at 1:08:27 PM

Evangelion is their Star Wars, at least in terms of merchandising and cultural references. I think I heard somewhere that it's known more for the pachinko machines than the actual media

by mghackerlady

4/20/2026 at 2:00:51 PM

How can any show with the beginning scene of the “end of evangelion” be the Star Wars or anything? Luke skywalker didn’t feel the need to choke his chicken to a knocked out Leia, but this is exactly what shinji does in the first scene of the end of evangelion.

by Der_Einzige

4/20/2026 at 11:50:01 AM

Well you could read the japanese reports, but they'd be in japanese

by ChrisRR

4/20/2026 at 11:48:49 AM

The US monitors things like this because tsunami danger to the west coast is a real if remote possibility.

by bombcar

4/20/2026 at 11:34:39 AM

Japan also obviously also monitors this.

https://nerv.app/en/

This kind of data is actually shared by governments with each other as well.

Science has no borders, much less disasters.

by thiago_fm