Scientific experts from the Japanese administration warned on Friday of the possibility of a “mega-earthquake” after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake the day before left eight people injured in the south of the country.
“The possibility of a large earthquake occurring is higher than usual, but this does not indicate that a large earthquake will occur with certainty,” the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.
This is the first time that Japanese authorities have issued such a warning since implementing a new alert system following the devastating earthquake in 2011, which triggered the Fukushima nuclear accident.
The 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Thursday, August 8, did not cause significant material damage. The disaster management agency reported eight people injured, several of them by falling objects.
Situated at the crossroads of several tectonic plates, Japan is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, with around 1,500 tremors a year, most of which are of low magnitude.
Preventive measures in Japan
However, the most powerful earthquakes cause little damage in this country, which has implemented earthquake-resistant building regulations for decades and educated its 125 million inhabitants on how to react in such situations.
The Japanese government has previously estimated that there is a 70 percent chance of a mega-quake hitting the country in the next three decades. Such a quake could affect a significant part of Japan’s Pacific coast and threaten some 300,000 people, its experts said.
On January 1 this year, an earthquake in the center of the country caused the deaths of at least 318 people.
The most powerful earthquake recorded in Japan so far was on March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake that triggered a tsunami in the northeast of the country.
An estimated 20,000 people died or went missing in the catastrophe, which also caused the nuclear accident at the Fukushima power plant.
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