Saturday, March 20, 2021 at 8:50 a.m. – A strong 7.2-magnitude earthquake has rocked Japan in the past few hours. Tsunami warning is currently in effect.
The accident occurred at 6:09 p.m. (9:09 a.m. GMT) near the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, east of the country. The quake was felt as far as Tokyo, several hundreds of kilometers away. Its intensity adjusted down: if its volume was estimated at 7.2 on a Saturday morning, it would now be 7.
Waves up to 1 meter high were observed in this area.
The epicenter is located about 34 miles deep, according to the United States Geological Survey, in the Pacific Ocean.
Fukushima, made famous by a nuclear disaster 10 years ago, is not far from the epicenter. The industrial accident occurred after a magnitude 8.9 earthquake followed by a tsunami. This event is categorized equally Besides the accident that destroyed Chernobyl, it is one of the most dangerous nuclear accidents that mankind has ever witnessed.
Japan is one of the most active countries in the world in terms of seismic and volcanic activity. Located at the intersection of four tectonic plates (Eurasia, the Pacific Ocean, the Philippines and North America), the large subduction zone that stretches along the entire eastern coast of the country regularly causes large earthquakes. And the ocean front in Japan makes it vulnerable to tsunamis.
