Real danger and tsunami waves within a few days?

After being hit by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake on Thursday, Japan is bracing for a possible major quake. The southern part of the archipelago is also fearful of a tsunami triggered by stronger tremors.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a warning of “massive gases” on Friday, August 9, for the coming days or months. It noted in a press release that there is “a possibility of a new strong earthquake, stronger than usual,” the day after a 7.1-magnitude quake. As a reminder, the Richter scale classifies earthquakes into nine different degrees. For a 7.1-magnitude quake, “serious damage is expected at the epicenter, and the shock will be felt several kilometers away.” Although Japan is accustomed to such earthquakes and has adapted to its architecture, 14 people were reportedly injured Thursday in the south of the archipelago. TF1 information.

This particularly violent quake and the warning of “super-expansion” prompted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to cancel a planned trip to Central Asia. In fact, this is the first time the JMA has issued this type of alert since the devastating earthquake of 2011.

fear of tsunami

When we talk about earthquakes, we also think about the risk of a tsunami. In fact, seismologists predict an earthquake of magnitude 8 to 9, the first of which portends “severe damage at the epicenter and over several hundred kilometers” and the second “complete destruction at the epicenter, possibly several thousand kilometers away.” In addition, Tsunami Warning Center It indicates that a tsunami can form after an earthquake of at least 6.5 magnitude and that “from 8 magnitude, an earthquake can generate a potentially devastating tsunami”, like the one that occurred in March 2011 in Japan. Japanese authorities fear waves up to thirty metres high and have put the country's eastern coast on alert. 30,000 people could be at risk and the damage could reach nearly 13 trillion euros.