Earthquake in Japan: a real risk and tsunamis in a few days ?

A powerful earthquake struck off southern Japan on Thursday, raising concerns studies on the possibility of a major earthquake as early as this week.

Alert in Japan after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake followed by another 7.1 magnitude earthquake produced Thursday off the island of Kyushu, in southern Japan. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a 'megagas' alert on Friday 9 September. Augustût, in the days or months à come. In a press release, she indicates that there is a " probability that a new, powerful and higher earthquake occurs. than in normal times, the day after a 7.1 magnitude tremor. As a reminder, the Richter scale classifies earthquakes into 9 different magnitudes. For an earthquake 7.1, it predicts significant damage to the area. the epicenter, and a shock felt at the several km". Although Japan is used to &agrav; These tremors and adapted architecture, there were 14 injuries on Thursday in the south of the archipelago, reports TF1 info.

This particularly violent tremor and the warning of “mega-ism” even prompted the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, to abandon a planned trip to Central Asia. Indeed, this is the first time that the JMA has issued this type of alert since the devastating earthquake of 2011.

The 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. 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 points out that a tsunami can form after an earthquake of at least magnitude 6.5 and that ” From a magnitude of 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 east coast of the country on alert. 30,000 inhabitants could be threatened and the amount of damage could reach nearly 13,000,000 billion euros.