Earthquake Sparks Tsunami Warning In Japan

A 6.6 magnitude earthquake was recorded in the western Pacific Ocean on Thursday morning, local time, with Japan’s Meteorological Agency issuing a tsunami advisory in response.

Japan is no stranger to tsunami waves and earthquakes given its location on the globe, but thankfully it appears that in this instance serious damage and injury has been avoided.

Indeed, after the earthquake was recorded, a tsunami advisory was issued around the Izu islands of the country, and waves of up to 30cm in height were observed on one of the islands, but these were much lower than the 1m that had been predicted as potentially set to come in.

What happened with Thursday’s earthquake in Japan?

The earthquake struck hit at around 11 a.m. local time near Torishima.

Torishima is in the Izu island chain which lie south of the capital of Japan, Tokyo.

A tsunami advisory was put out, with people in coastal areas and near river mouths being asked to get to higher ground, but this has since been lifted, as per the Japan Times.

Despite the apparent clearing, though, the danger is not fully past.

The meteorological agency warned that there could be potential aftershocks, stating there is a 10% to 20% chance of an earthquake with a similar magnitude occurring in the next week or so.

Indeed, as per the agency, seismic activity had been observed throughout the past week in the area, which lead up to Thursday morning’s quake. Other quakes above magnitude 6 have also been observed in recent days elsewhere.

This part of Japan is not quite in the clear yet, then, and the agencies involved will be keeping a close eye on further seismic activity and any potential tsunami waves to follow on from them in the coming days.

It’s something they are used to, though, and so they have all the best equipment to be as prepared as possible for such eventualities.