Japan issues tsunami warning after 7.6-magnitude earthquake – Firstpost

Japan on Monday issued a tsunami after being struck by a major earthquake.

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck 73 kilometres east-northeast of Japan’s Misawa city at 7:45 pm local time, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The first wave of the tsunami of up to three metres was expected to hit Japan’s Pacific coast by 11:40 pm local time in port areas spanning the northern regions of Aomori to Iwate, the public broadcaster NHK reported the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) as saying.

The USGS said the earthquake occurred at a depth of 53.1 kms.

Such earthquakes in the 0-70 km depth range are classified as ‘shallow’ and are the most destructive as they release energy closest to the Earth’s surface.

Japan is prone to major earthquakes

This is the latest major earthquake to hit Japan as the country remains very prone to earthquakes because of its geography.

In recent years, Japan reported the worst earthquake on January 1, 2024, when a 7.5.-magnitude earthquake killed around 600 people and damaged several thousands of homes. In April 2016, two earthquakes —6.2 and 7 on the Richter scale— killed more than 250 people.

In recent decades, Japan reported the worst earthquake measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale that killed around 19,000 people and destroyed large swathes of the Tohoku coast and triggered the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The earthquake caused up to 40-metre high tsunami.

Japan sits at the junction of four major tectonic plates —Pacific plate, Philippine Sea plate, Eurasian plate, and North American plate— that constantly collide, subduct, and slide past each other. Such actions create intense seismic activity and cause frequent earthquakes.

The broader area in which Japan sits is called the ‘Ring of Fire’. It is a horseshoe-shaped belt that encircles the Pacific Ocean and stretches from northwestern North America to the Pacific Ocean covering Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand.