Japan: 7.6 magnitude earthquake leaves serious damage and activates tsunami warning

A earthquake of 7.6 degrees Richter hit the prefecture of Ishikawaon the western coast of the center of Japanand forced to activate an alert for tsunami in a large part of the archipelago, in addition to causing significant damage and leaving at least six people buried under the rubble.

The earthquake, which was felt even in Tokyo, It occurred on the peninsula of I notice at 16:10 pm (7:10 am GMT) and initially the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) estimated that the tremor had been 7.4 degrees on the Richter scale, although it later revised the magnitude upwards by two tenths .

Likewise, the agency initially said that the tremor occurred near the ground and later placed its hypocenter at a depth of 16 kilometers.

The quake reached a magnitude of 7 on the closed Japanese scale of 7, which focuses on the destructive capacity of tremors rather than intensity.

Wajima, the most affected town

Images broadcast on Japanese television or on social networks showed the great strength of the tremor and its destructive power, especially in the town of Wajima (about 500 kilometers west of Tokyo), where the most serious damage has apparently been recorded.

In this city of about 27,000 inhabitants, at least 30 single-family homes have suffered serious damage, leaving six people buried under the rubble, and one building has collapsed. The earthquake has also caused a large fire in this town.

Until 21:00 pm local time (12:00 pm GMT), practically 60 aftershocks of the earthquake had been recorded and the JMA has warned that more tremors reaching Japanese level 7 are very likely over the next week.

The earthquake also damaged roads and highways in the region and forced the movement of several high-speed train lines to temporarily stop.

More than 30,000 homes without electricity have been reported in Ishikawa and another 3,600 in the neighboring area Niigata in the same situation, although the Japanese authorities have said that at least no damage has been detected in any of the country’s nuclear power plants.

Tsunami warning

The earthquake in turn forced the alert to be activated for the possible arrival of waves of up to five meters high in the Ishikawa prefecture and for waves of up to three meters for the prefectures of Fukui, Toyama, Hyogo, Niigata and Yamagata.

A warning for tsunamis of up to one meter was also implemented for the entire western coast of the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido and the north of the island of Kyushu.

The intensity of the earthquake and the severity of the alert forced the presenters of the Japanese public television station NHK to almost shout out to the people who were in the area to move to higher places.

In Wajima The waves reached 1.2 meters in height, and other locations along Japan’s western coast reported sea level rises below one meter.

Even the authorities of neighboring South Korea reported that the coast of Gangwon province, which faces the Sea of ​​Japan (called the East Sea in both Koreas), received waves of between 20 and 45 centimeters.

Fortunately, the water has not caused damage in either Japan or South Korea, although it is expected that the alert from the JMA remain activated for several more hours.

For the moment, the agency has decided to lower only the alert that affected Ishikawa, where possible waves of up to three meters instead of five are now expected.