The 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck off the Japanese island of Kyushu on Thursday, August 8, left three people injured. No serious material damage was reported immediately.
A strong earthquake struck off the southern Japanese island of Kyushu on Thursday, August 8. Three people were injured: one slightly and the other two with unspecified degrees. However, no serious damage was immediately reported.
Although the American geological service USGS had initially mistakenly reported two successive tremors, it now only reported a single earthquake of magnitude 7.1.
The quake struck at 4:42 p.m. (9:42 a.m. Paris time) off the southern island of Kyushu, at a depth of 25 kilometers, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, which had initially mistakenly reported two tremors. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) also detected a single earthquake measuring 7.1 magnitude.
Minor damage
Public broadcaster NHK showed violently shaking traffic lights in Miyazaki Prefecture, where the quake was felt.
“The sea surface is rough. I felt a strong jolt when the earthquake happened, which lasted between 30 seconds and a minute,” a local official told the channel.
Images posted on social media, which we were unable to independently verify, showed only minor damage, including dishes and books falling from shelves, and a small wall collapsed in a parking lot.
An X account claiming to be an Osaki city official posted a video showing a long crack in a concrete road.
No disruptions to infrastructure, including electricity, water and telecommunications, have been reported, government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said. The nuclear regulator has also not found any abnormalities at nuclear power plants in the region.
Several small tsunami waves
Tsunami waves of up to one meter high were expected in some coastal areas of the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, two of the four main islands in the archipelago, according to the JMA.
A small tsunami is possible in Chiba (east of Tokyo), about 850 kilometers from the epicenter, the agency also warned, recommending not to go to sea or approach the coast until the end of the alert.
There is also a “relatively higher” risk than usual that the much-feared mega-quake could occur around the Nankai Trough, the agency warned, but said this did not mean such an event was imminent.
More than an hour after the quake, tsunamis as small as 10 cm, 20 cm and 50 cm had been confirmed in some locations, including the port of Miyazaki, according to the JMA. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning that dangerous tsunamis were possible within a radius of 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the epicenter.
A country with significant seismic activity
At the crossroads of several tectonic plates along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, Japan is one of the countries with the most seismic activity in the world.
The archipelago, home to some 125 million people, experiences about 1,500 tremors a year, which account for about 18% of earthquakes worldwide.
The vast majority of these earthquakes are mild, and even the strongest ones usually cause little damage, thanks in part to the country’s extremely strict earthquake-resistant building standards. The Japanese are also very aware of emergency measures in the face of natural disasters.
On January 1, at least 318 people died in a powerful earthquake that struck the center of the country. The tremor and subsequent aftershocks collapsed buildings and caused fires.
The most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan was a magnitude 9 earthquake on March 11, 2011, off its northeastern coast, which triggered a tidal wave that left around 20,000 people dead or missing.
This tsunami also caused the Fukushima nuclear accident, the worst in the world since Chernobyl in 1986.
Juliette Brossault with AFP
