22 participants of regular course paid a courtesy call on Mr. Maehara, the
Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), Japan on
2 September 2010. The Minister expressed, "I expect all of you that the
training course will help to promote disaster management of home country
and that you will be a bridge of exchange between Japan and your country
in the future."
All of 22 participants who have finished the "50th Regular Training Course
in Seismology and Earthquake Engineering" (started from last October)
received the master degree of the National Graduate Institute for Policy
Studies (GRIPS). They will attend the closing ceremony on 17 September
2010 at IISEE/BRI.

Hajime KUROSAWA
Head of Administration Division, IISEE

Early in the morning of 4 September 2010, an earthquake (M 7.0) occurred
in the South Island of New Zealand. The epicenter was located 56 km west
of Christ Church and the focal depth was 12 km. Fortunately,
there was no casualty, however several buildings were partly destroyed
and the outside walls fell down.
In "Catalog of Damaging Earthquakes in the World (Through 2008)"
(http://iisee.kenken.go.jp/utsu/index_eng.html),
only one earthquake that caused more than 100 casualties
is registered (in 1931 M7.9, dead 256).
Currently IISEE is expanding the
record of aftershocks of recent large earthquakes (more than M 7.0),
which will be available at the web site soon.
Your comments and feedbacks to the IISEE will be highly appreciated.

Shoichi ANDO,
Director, IISEE