A strong earthquake struck off the southern Japanese island of Kyushu on August 8, triggering several small tsunami waves, but no serious damage was immediately reported.
Tsunami waves up to 1 m high expected
The U.S. Geological Survey USGSwhich had initially mistakenly reported two successive tremors, now reported only one earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, which occurred at 4:42 p.m. local time (7:42 a.m. GMT) at a depth of 25 kilometers. The earthquake “was originally showing as two events in our list. This error has been corrected. There was only one event“, the USGS explained on its website. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) also detected a single earthquake measuring 7.1 magnitude.
Public broadcaster NHK showed footage of traffic lights shaking violently in Miyazaki Prefecture, where the quake struck.The sea surface is rough. I felt an intense jolt when the earthquake happened, which lasted between 30 seconds and a minute.“, a local official told the channel.
Tsunami waves of up to one meter are expected or may have already hit some coastal areas of Kyushu and Shikoku, two of the four main islands of the archipelago, according to the JMA. The agency also said a small tsunami was possible in Chiba (east of Tokyo), about 850 kilometers from the epicenter.Tsunamis will strike repeatedly. Please do not enter the sea or approach the coast until the warning is lifted.“, the JMA ordered X.
But more than an hour after the quake, tsunamis of only 50 cm, 20 cm and 10 cm had been confirmed in some places, including the port of Miyazaki, according to the JMA. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning that dangerous tsunami waves were possible within a radius of 300 kilometers from the epicenter.
No anomalies have been reported at the region’s nuclear power plants, according to the nuclear regulator.
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Deadly earthquake in early January
THE “damage to persons and property“are still being assessed,” government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said. Images posted on social media, which AFP could not independently verify, showed only minor damage, including dishes and books falling from shelves, and a small wall collapsed in a parking lot.
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 the world’s earthquakes.
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 the 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11, 2011, off its northeastern coast, which triggered a tsunami that left about 20,000 people dead or missing. That tsunami also caused the Fukushima nuclear accident, the worst in the world since Chernobyl in 1986.