After suffering a 7.1-magnitude tremor on Thursday, Japan is bracing for a possible “megaseism”. The south of the archipelago also fears a tsunami triggered by stronger tremors.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a “megaseism” warning on Friday, August 9, in the coming days or months. In a statement, it indicated that there is a “probability of a new powerful earthquake, larger than normal,” the day after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake. As a reminder, the Richter scale classifies earthquakes into 9 different magnitudes. For an earthquake of 7.1, it predicts “significant damage at the epicenter, and a shock felt several kilometers away.” Although Japan is used to these tremors and has adapted architecture, there were 14 injuries Thursday in the south of the archipelago, reports TF1 info.
The particularly violent tremor and the “mega-earthquake” warning even prompted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to cancel a planned trip to Central Asia. This is the first time the JMA has issued such a warning since the devastating earthquake of 2011.
Fear of a tsunami
When we talk about earthquakes, we also think about the risk of tsunamis. Indeed, seismologists expect an earthquake of magnitude 8 to 9, the first predicting “major damage at the epicenter and over several hundred km” and the second “total destruction at the epicenter, and possible over several thousand km”. In addition, the Tsunami Warning Center recalls that a tsunami can form after an earthquake of at least magnitude 6.5 and that “from magnitude 8, the earthquake can generate a potentially devastating tsunami”, like the one in March 2011 in Japan. The Japanese authorities fear waves that could reach thirty meters and have put the country’s east coast on alert. 30,000 inhabitants could be threatened and the amount of damage could amount to nearly 13,000 billion euros.