Major Earthquake Strikes off Fukushima

A magnitude-6.9 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan at round 6 a.m. native time on Nov. 22, 2016 (four p.m. EST on Nov. 21).

Credit score: USGS

A magnitude-6.9 earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima, Japan, at this time (Nov. 21), triggering a tsunami warning.

The earthquake, which was initially reported as a magnitude-7.three, struck round 6 a.m. native time on Nov. 22, about 23 miles (37 kilometers) southeast of Namie, Japan, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. A tsunami warning issued by the Japan Meteorological Company has predicted wave heights of as much as 10 toes (three meters).

In line with the Japan Meteorological Company, a tsunami warning usually means harm as a consequence of tsunami waves is predicted and residents ought to instantly evacuate coastal areas and riverside areas. These warnings additionally imply that tsunami waves are anticipated to hit repeatedly, and folks shouldn't depart protected floor till the warning is lifted. [Image Gallery: This Millennium's Destructive Earthquakes]

The realm isn't any stranger to catastrophic quakes; on March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9.zero earthquake struck Japan. The so-called Tohoku quake, which launched a whole bunch of years of pent-up stress on the subduction area the place the Pacific Plate is diving beneath the Eurasian Plate, set off a large tsunami with run-up heights of 128 toes (39 m) and inundation reaching 6 miles (9.7 km) inland.

The multistory waves inundated the coastal Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Energy Plant and triggered a degree 7 nuclear meltdown. 4 years after the quake, 230,000 individuals who misplaced their properties had been nonetheless in momentary housing, based on Japan's Reconstruction Company. Because the catastrophe, radioactive waste, resembling cesium-134 and cesium-137, has floated throughout the Pacific Ocean and washed ashore on the West Coast of the U.S.

The epicenter of at this time's earthquake was about 80 miles (130 km) southwest of the 2011 Tohoku quake's epicenter, however that quantity can provide a deceptive impression of how far aside the 2 quakes occurred, stated Don Blakeman, a geophysicist with the USGS in Golden, Colorado. With quakes as giant because the 2011 earthquake, "the fault rips for a lot of man tens of kilometers," Blakeman informed Stay Science.

Whereas the Japan Meteorological Company issued a tsunami warning for the area round Fukushima and an advisory for your entire shoreline of the nation, the present quake is unlikely to set off a Pacific-wide tsunami, Blakeman stated.

"It is a strike-slip earthquake," which means that two sides of the fault transfer sideways relative to one another. "So, you do not get the vertical motion you want," Blakeman stated.

Unique article on Stay Science.