2024 Sea of Japan earthquake
Thousands spent the night in shelters in Japan following tsunami forecasts
Following a strong earthquake, thousands of people in Japan are spending the night in evacuation centers.
Kyodo news agency
According to the Kyodo news agency, four deaths have been verified, and numerous injuries have been reported.
In multiple places, an undetermined quantity of individuals remain buried beneath the debris of crumbling structures.
On Monday, at roughly 16:10 local time (07:10 GMT), a 7.6-magnitude earthquake occurred. After being issued, tsunami warnings were eventually lowered.
Approximately sixty earthquakes have been detected since the first one.
Hakuba Alps of Japan
In the Hakuba Alps of Japan, a snowboarder on vacation reported that his hotel room shook. Baldwin Chia told Reuters that while he was worried about avalanches, he had not heard of any occurring.
Although earthquakes are frequently reported in Japan, he said that “you wouldn’t expect to actually experience one”.
Andy Clark
When the earthquake struck, British visitor to Japan Andy Clark told the BBC that it was a “scary afternoon and evening” because he was in the seaside city of Toyama.
According to him, he “grabbed the sea wall to stay upright” before running for cover on the roof of a school. Mr. Clark claimed that the aftershocks were making it “hard to get some sleep”.
Professor Jeffrey Hall of Kanda University reported experiencing tremors for around two minutes while in Yokohama, which is located on the other side of Japan’s main island. He described the earthquake as “very, very serious” to the BBC.
Although significant infrastructure damage is obvious, the full scale of the disaster is probably not going to be known until Tuesday morning.
National network NHK
National network NHK reported that numerous houses and power poles toppled, according to officials in Suzu City, Ishikawa prefecture.
According to utilities company Hokuriku Electric electricity, over 36,000 households were left without electricity and major routes were closed close to the epicentre of the earthquake.
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, a former BBC correspondent in Japan, reported from Taiwan that a landslide had destroyed several hundred meters of the main freeway connecting Toyama and Kanazawa.
Noto district of Ishikawa
At first, authorities in the coastal Noto district of Ishikawa, close to the epicentre of the quake, issued a major tsunami warning, stating that waves might rise as high as 5 meters (16 feet).
According to local accounts, this was Japan’s first warning of this kind since 2011, when a strong earthquake in the northeast caused waves as high as 40 meters.
Less than a meter high waves actually crashed against the Sea of Japan beach in Ishikawa on Monday.
Subsequently, the serious warning was reduced to a warning, and then to an advisory. The neighboring prefectures of Niigata and Toyama were also on guard.
Following the tragedy, Tokyo received letters of support from Japan’s allies.
US President Joe Biden
declared that his nation was ready to provide support. “Our people are united by a strong affinity between the United States and Japan, who are close allies. We are praying for the people of Japan during this trying time “said he.
Rishi Sunak
Following the tragedy, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared that the UK was “ready to support Japan” and expressed his sympathies to “all those affected by the earthquakes in Japan which have caused such terrible damage.”
Pacific Ring of Fire
Because of its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where numerous tectonic plates converge, Japan is among the seismically active countries on Earth. Japan has one of the most advanced tsunami warning systems in the world thanks to the ongoing threat of earthquakes.
Multiple nuclear power plants
Although there are multiple nuclear power plants in the impacted areas, there is “no risk of radioactivity leaking” from the facilities, according to Japan’s nuclear authorities.
Following the earthquake, Russia and South Korea’s meteorological office also issued tsunami warnings.
Following a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in 2011, a tsunami ripped across coastal areas in northeastern Japan, killing almost 18,000 people and uprooting tens of thousands more.
The most catastrophic nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl was brought on by those tsunami waves, which caused a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima power facility.
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I’m Hassan Saeed, a Clinical Psychology graduate deeply engaged in the realms of WordPress, blogging, and technology. I enjoy merging my psychological background with the digital landscape. Let’s connect and explore these exciting intersections!
