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The earthquake that rocked Japan and sent a tsunami halfway around the world Friday reached Northeastern Pennsylvania at 12:59 a.m., about 13 minutes after the quake initially struck Japan.
The tremor was measured by the seismic monitoring station at Keystone College in LaPlume, the only station of its kind in the region.
Dr. Ian Saginor, a geologist at the college, said the first shockwaves to reach Northeastern Pennsylvania shook straight through the Earth. Others traveling along the surface took about 45 minutes to reach the area.
Saginor said the tremors were “absolutely miniscule” and only detectable using sophisticated equipment by the time they reached the area, though he added, “It’s interesting in and of itself that it made it here; it is about as far away as you can get.”
Saginor said the quake, which struck about 80 miles off the coastal city of Sendai in Northeastern Japan, was about 500 times more powerful than the quake that struck Haiti in 2010 and slightly more powerful than the quake that struck Chile, also last year.
“It’s the fifth-largest earthquake since 1900,” he said. “I think that about says it all.”
Four students from Wyoming Seminary, three Japanese and one Swedish student on vacation, are currently in Japan, the Kingston preparatory school confirmed Friday. Three have been accounted for and are safe, and the school is waiting to hear back from the fourth, school Communications Director Alexis Kropp said Friday. All four said they would be staying in Tokyo, where damage was lighter compared to the northern Tohoku region.
Kropp said students and the Office of Student Life have been using Facebook to communicate about their situation in Japan.
Other students spending their spring break in other countries may have their return plans affected by the quake, which has disrupted air traffic in Japan, and the school is assisting students to alter their plans and get back safely, Kropp added.
Tokyo Narita Airport is a major East Asian hub. Classes begin Monday at the high school.
King’s College in Wilkes-Barre and Misericordia University in Dallas Township said they had no students unaccounted for in Japan or Hawaii, where tsunami waves also struck Friday. Wilkes University spokeswoman Vicki Mayk said the university has at least one Japanese student still on campus, but none in Japan or Hawaii to the school’s knowledge.
All three colleges were on spring break this past week, and all three said they could not know all their students’ vacation travel plans, but that there were no school-sanctioned trips scheduled to areas affected by the quake.