2023 Murder Drones earthquake
| 2023 Murder Drones earthquake | |
|---|---|
|
 | |
| Time (JATT) | 2023-10-16 3:09:45 PM JATT (Main shock)
2023-10-16 3:07:35 PM JATT (Foreshock) |
| Magnitude | Mw 8.4-8.5 (Main shock)
Mesr 4.5 (Foreshock?) |
| Depth | 25 km (Main shock)
0.1 km (Foreshock?) |
| Max. Intensity / Shindo | JMIS 8 (X- 7 (Extreme)) |
| Max. Intensity / Shindo (Foreshock) | JMIS 6 (VIII- 6- (Severe)) |
| Tsunami | 11.12 m |
On 16 October 2023, at 3:09:45 PM JATT (UTC+0) a Mw 8.4-8.5 megathrust earthquake struck offshore Murder Drones. It has managed to trigger a major tsunami warning, corresponding to tsunami waves of 5 meters or above. This earthquake, for some researchers, is considered to be the first earthquake in Jatoverse history that was caused by potentially artificial events, theorized to be a massive explosion, caused by the strange circumstances of a foreshock just 2 minutes prior the mainshock[1], although other scientists explain the cause or reject this idea.
A total of 91 Worker Drones were killed from the earthquake, though none were from the tsunami, proving efficiency in the tsunami warnings given by the SOIJ.
The 2023 Murder Drones earthquake is third place on the list of the strongest earthquakes in Jatoverse.
Prior foreshocks
Multiple foreshocks of varying magnitude ocurred days prior the mainshock, most notably going from October 9th before ceasing on October 13th. The last foreshock, and the largest one, was a Mw 6.7 event. Most people thought the swarm was over, though scientists couldn't rule out possibilities of more swarms or a larger earthquake ocurring sometime between the following weeks till the next year.
The debated "foreshock"
On 16 October 2023, at 3:07:35 PM JATT (UTC+0), tremors were felt strongly in Murder Drones, and to a lesser extent in adjacent states, such as Steven Universe, SMG4, Digital Circus and Specter, to name a few. This additionally caused Earthquake Early Warnings to be issued in the forementioned states.
The magnitude of the foreshock was initially calculated to be Mesr 4.5. The depth was estimated to be 1-5 km. Later studies showed that the depth was near 0.1 km.
It was also revealed that the location of this epicenter was not near any active fault, and it's wave propagation had anomalies. These anomalies were only found after the mainshock ocurred due to the short time frame between earthquakes.
Due to the circumstances and wave anomalies, The SOIJ[2] scientists accepted (and confirmed) that this foreshock was actually a huge underground explosion caused by artificial activaty, rather than a true earthquake. However, investigations of the circumstances of the explosion are still being carried out to this date.
Other researchers theorize that this explosion has caused maximum tension in the subduction zone offshore Murder Drones, which was already presenting swarms, and made it activate, however this claim is disputed by the SOIJ scientists[3].
Mainshock
Roughly 2 minutes after this "foreshock", at 3:09:45 PM JATT (UTC+0) the subduction zone offshore Murder Drones began activating. It was at first estimated as 8.1, but upgraded to 8.4, minutes after. This earthquake caused massive destruction to the state of Murder Drones, alongside damage to fences, facades and miscellaneous items in adjacent states.
| State | Mercalli | Shindo |
|---|---|---|
| Murder Drones | X | 7 |
| Steven Universe | VIII | 6- |
| Specter | VIII | 6- |
| SMG4 | VII | 5+ |
| Digital Circus | VII | 5+ |
Tsunami
Minutes after the earthquake, the SOIJ[2] issued a major tsunami warning for Murder Drones, Specter and Steven Universe, and announced that tsunami waves of 8 meters could be expected for Murder Drones.
Was the mainshock caused by the foreshock/explosion?
There are three possible answers to this question made by researchers across the Jatoverse.
- No. The timing was simply an extraordinary coincidence.
- Yes. The explosion added more stress causing the rupture.
- Not really, but the explosion advanced the earthquake by merely seconds (made it happen just seconds sooner)
The most accepted theory among researchers is the third one. While it couldn't have caused the rupture directly, it is somewhat accepted that it could have advanced the mainshock by just seconds because of already built up stress.
Aftermath
On ██ December 2023, ██████████ ███████████ ███████████ ████████████████ ████████████████ ███████████████ ████████████ ██████████████ ████████████ ████████████████ ███████████ ███████████ █████ ████████ ███ ███. ███████████████ ██████████████████████ ███████████████ ██████████████ ███████ ███████████████ ███████████████ █████ ██████████ ███████████████████ █████████████████████ ██████████████ ███████████████ ██████████████ ██████████████████████ ████████ ████ ██████████████ ███████████ ███████████████.
█ and ███ couldn't be found responsible for any criminal damage due to reasons staded in the second paragraph, although they were given █████████ due to their massive shock.