On Monday, January 1, strong earthquakes struck central Japan, causing significant damage and generating a tsunami of more than one meter in places, while people in affected areas were urged to evacuate to Heights.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) recorded more than fifty earthquakes with a magnitude of at least 3.2 within four hours on the Noto Peninsula north of Ishikawa Prefecture, which borders the Sea of Japan.
The largest of these occurred at 4:10 p.m. local time (8:10 a.m. Paris time) on the northeastern tip of the peninsula. Originally recorded as magnitude 7.4, this was revised upwards: 7.5 according to the United States Institute of Geophysics (USGS), 7.6 according to the JMA.
The JMA immediately issued a tsunami warning and warned that waves of up to 5 meters in height were to be feared. The authority later lowered this theoretical maximum level to 3 meters. However, this worst-case scenario did not occur: the largest tsunami waves, measured in the port of Wajima on the Noto Peninsula, reached a height of 1.20 meters. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), an American agency based in Hawaii, estimates that the danger of a tsunami is “largely over.”
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Around 33,500 households without electricity
At around 4:30 p.m. local time (8:30 a.m. BST), around 33,500 households around the epicenter of the earthquakes were without power, according to local electricity suppliers. These power outages affected Toyama, Ishikawa and Niigata prefectures on the island of Honshu overlooking the Sea of Japan.
According to a highway operator in the region, several highways in the center of the country were also closed to traffic as a precaution. Bullet train service between Tokyo and Ishikawa Prefecture, where the tremors occurred, was also suspended, Japan Railways said.
The earthquakes caused significant damage, especially to old houses, which were mostly made of wood. Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said he knew of “six cases” of people in collapsed buildings in Ishikawa Prefecture.
Images on Japanese television also showed that a major fire destroyed several buildings in Wajima. Cities in the Russian Far East, including Vladivostok, issued a “warning” on Monday due to a possible tsunami threat, but have not carried out any evacuations at this time.
The memory of Fukushima
Located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Japan is one of the countries where earthquakes occur most frequently. Therefore, extremely strict building standards apply in the archipelago, so that buildings can usually withstand even strong earthquakes. The residents are used to such situations and regularly prepare for them.
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However, Japan is haunted by the memory of the terrible 9.0 magnitude earthquake, which was followed by a huge tsunami that struck the country's northeast coast in March 2011, leaving about 20,000 people dead or missing. This disaster also led to the Fukushima nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986.
“It was confirmed that there were no anomalies at the Shika Nuclear Power Plant [située dans la préfecture d’Ishikawa] “Not at other locations at the moment,” said the government spokesman on Monday.
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