Tokyo: Japan was rocked by two powerful earthquakes on Tuesday morning. The first one, of magnitude 6.2 – measuring a strong 5 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale (of 1-7) – hit the country’s Shimane Prefecture at 10.18 am (local time), as per The Japan Times.
Another quake followed just 10 minutes later. This one took place in Yasugi and was measured a lower 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale. According to The Japan News, its magnitude was estimated at 5.1.
No tsunami alert was sounded by the Japan Meteorological Agency in connection with these earthquakes. As per the agency, the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture was the epicentre for the initial earthquake.
Chugoku Electric Power operates the Shimane Nuclear Power Station about 32 km away, as per Reuters.
Japan continues to be haunted by the memory of the powerful 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake of 2011, which set off a tsunami that left about 18,500 people dead or missing.
The country also fears a ‘megaquake’ that could cause extensive damage. The Japan Meteorological Agency, in August 2024, issued its first special advisory for the southern stretch of Japan’s Pacific coast, warning of such a quake along the Nankai Trough.
The 800-kilometre undersea trench is the zone where the Philippine Sea tectonic plate is slowly slipping beneath the continental plate on which Japan sits.
An earthquake in the Nankai Trough, followed by a tsunami, could kill as many as 298,000 people and cause damage of up to $2 trillion, the government has said.
Japan lies across four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and is among the most earthquake-prone countries in the world.
The archipelago, which has a population of around 125 million, experiences roughly 1,500 tremors each year. Most of these are minor, though the level of damage depends on where they strike and how deep they occur below the Earth’s surface.
