Japan earthquake: What’s happening and how dangerous is it?

Japan earthquake: What’s happening and how dangerous is it?

Good afternoon Japan has downgraded a major tsunami warning which was issued after a powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck in the country people in coastal areas have been told to urgently get to Higher Ground while the series of strong earthquakes hit in the Sea of Japan at 10 4 in the afternoon

Local time that’s 10 7 this morning in the UK they triggered a major tsunami warning for ishakua region Japan’s first since 2011 and lower level warnings for the western coast of honu which is Japan’s main island which uh is where most of the population live more than 36,000 homes are without power and

Authorities have warned of an increased likelihood of fires and Landslide Japan’s nuclear Authority says there’s no risk of radioactivity leaking from the nuclear power plants the earthquakes have caused of course some damage video footage showing buildings collapsing in issue C and damage to roads and pipes with some people reportedly trapped

Under buildings our science editor joins us now that’s Tom Clark glad you’re here Tom because you’ll know more about the science to this but this is the first major tsunami warning since 2011 that’s right and that’s the reason 2011 why and and the history of earthquakes in Japan

Why there they don’t take any chances when it comes to large earthquakes like this that happen close to the coast because that brings the serious risk of tsunamis back in 2011 a earthquake or bit with 250 times more energy released than this one caused a devastating wave

30 maybe 40 meters high in some places uh it claimed 20,000 lives it displaced 200,000 people it was a a huge incident gave authorities very little time to respond and of course as you mentioned the intro there it knocked out nuclear power stations contaminating large area

Which which partly led to that uh that evacuation of so many people and that’s why why Japan is worried um this one we’ve already as you can see from this map there’s a sort of purple area where that major tsunami warning was there uh that’s now been downgraded to uh just a

Tsunami warning uh which means waves likely Less Than 3 meters that might not sound like very much but that still brings a significant risk of flooding and to infrastructure um and there is history on this Coast you know as recently as 1993 there was a earthquake

Around the same size as this one a few miles north of of where this one’s happened that’s killed more than 100 people and caused significant damage these are things that um Japan has uh you know has it’s a real history of and react very very strongly to if they

Perceive that risk and given where this one happened given how close it was to the shore and the fact 7.6 on the magnitude scale that is a big earthquake that’s something you need to take very seriously in and importantly the earthquake was quite shallow and that’s key here too that’s another key factor

In when you’re looking at the sort of what are the uh what are the what what’s the profile of a really worrying earthquake the closer it is to the Earth surface the more of the energy will get to the surface where it can cause shaking um shaking obviously on land is

A major problem for buildings and structures Japan’s very well engineered against all of that even so we’ we’ve got reports of multiple buildings damage reports now coming in that that some people or bit a few are trapped under under buildings will need to be uh rescued no no reports on actual casualty

Numbers yet probably quite small but you know that that has happened even even in a country’s well prepared for earthquakes in Japan but obviously if that shaking is below the sea especially if there’s displacement of the ground below the sea uh the sea Flor itself

That’s when it can thrust up and cause a tsunami wave to come towards the coast and that’s in the experience of coastal earthquakes it’s the wave that causes far more damage than the Shak of the earthquake itself and that’s why the worry and the alerts and the warnings

About that tsunami risk yeah and then the impact of you know the EP Center was ishaka and that was at 10 4 local time but it was felt far and wide we’re hearing tsunami alerts from Russia North and South Korea that’s potentially quite huge isn’t it yes of course it is and

We’ve the different thing about this this this uh coast of Japan the west coast of Japan is it’s on the Sea of Japan here which is kind of an enclosed ocean as you can see in that map it’s not the vastness of the Pacific over which a wave will spread out and

Dissipate over quite a large area um so obviously anyone neighboring Japan’s Coastline by the earthquake was could also feel the powerful effects of aami wave which will propagate across the sea you know you’ve got the Korean peninsula there and the coast of Russia as well um so they’re going to be

Looking out for waves and issue alerts like it is given it’s been downgraded quite close to the epicenter in Japan I don’t think the risk of a major tsunami hitting those coasts is is real and um but it but it’s certainly something I’ll be alert from and cly if if you are on

That Coastal area a one meter excess wave that could be sustained remember these these tsunami waves they’re not just a ripple like you see a wave on the beach they are sustained movement of water that can cause a significant impact it’s something you do want to

Know about even if it might not sound catastrophic certainly in the context of previous tsunamis we’ve seen but uh yeah it’s an enclosed area it could behave quite differently to some of those previous tsunamis we might be more familiar with all the same so terrifying you know people getting ready for dinner

Celebrating New Year getting those messages text messages and alerts would have been terrifying presumably Tom authorities are constantly monitoring activity in this area that’s right so Japan being where it is I mean we’ve got on one side of Japan you’ve got the Pacific Plate a huge tectonic plate heading beneath a

North American Plate above it this coast of Japan it’s one of the most s active places in the world Japan lives with earthquakes on a almost daily basis in earthquakes somewhere in Japan obviously this one is significantly large and there have been bigger ones so it’s something people are used to dealing

With but still the psychological pressure that creates the reality of of of of powerful and hugely destructive earthquakes with very unpredictable impacts like tsunamis means that yes it’s very well monitored the um the authorities have uh strict uh monitoring of of of Tremors in the ground there are

Clear rules and as you said text alerts and sirens for example to alert people of tsunami risk in Japan unlike what we saw in the boxing dayami back in 2005 a lot of people didn’t know what to do when there was a Tsunami alert issued or the risk

You the earthquake happening in Japan if you live near the coast most people know that is not the place to be or hang around after an earthquake so people would know to evacuate and that helps mitigate the risk as well so yes I think it is a very terrifying time but it’s

Something Japan is well rehearsed at but still I watched those pictures I’m sure you did too this was sustained shaking going on for you know a long period of time and it I I’ve never been in an earthquake like that but I can only imagine it’s utterly terrifying however

Used to it you are you never know is this going to be the big one that Japan so terribly fears and has seen in its recent history oh completely I was in Fukushima about six years ago just looking at the impact that the 2011 um earthquake and tsunami had on that area

And you know kids as young as six have these training drills to deal with disasters like this however in the next few hours in the next few days it’s still going to be quite a worrying time How likely is this area likely to see aftershocks more waves you you know

Forecasting earthquakes any even the experts would tell you is it’s a mugs game you we don’t know too much about but what we do know the statistics tell us that aftershocks are routine they’re common they tend to be almost always less powerful than the original earthquake but you can have ones that

Are equally powerful very occasionally even more powerful than the initial quake um given there’s been movement on this particular fault we know it’s you know has the tsunami risk it’s something they’re going to want to be alert for for the next couple of days at least um

The initial threat of a tsunami wave is obviously passing now and we’ve seen it being downgraded already uh but yes aftershocks could cause that if there’s different kind of movement even a weaker earthquake could generate a more significant tsunami it’s it’s really hard to know until you understand how

The ground’s moving so yeah they’ll be on alert for a while but also psychologically people we know remain much more alert the adrenaline still flowing for days um probably weeks after things like this before everyone CES down a bit but yeah the the scientists will still keep and the

Authorities will keep those alerts in place for some time to come okay Tom great to get your thoughts and insight into this thank you so much

Japan has been hit by more than 80 earthquakes, with tsunami warnings issued for several areas along the west coast.

Residents in specific areas have been ordered to evacuate their homes.

Sky’s Tom Clarke looks into where the earthquake started, its damage and if it could be as dangerous as the country’s previous disasters.

Read more: https://news.sky.com/story/japan-earthquake-latest-major-tsunami-warning-after-quakes-as-local-residents-ordered-to-evacuate-13040241

#japan #earthquake #asia

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