As you can see, an unprecedented event has happened; Japan has put out a rare “megaquake” advisory after a 7. 1-magnitude earthquake that hit off the country’s southern coast on Thursday and affected 14 persons. Saying that it has created terror in the country, and people, including the prime minister, have canceled his visit to Central Asia.
The earthquake, which is being termed a once-in-a-century event, has caused fear of a mega quake and its resultant tsunami. In turn, the government of Japan has called on people to revise evacuation plans and watch for any other messages.
Scientists have not been able to forecast when the extremely big quake will occur, but the JMA has claimed that the chances of a big one are above average at the moment. However, the agency has been keen to note that this in no way precludes a mega hazard occurring in the near future.
Japan geographically is located at the Pacific Ring of Fire, a location that puts it among the world’s most active seismic zones. In this country, earthquakes occur frequently, with an estimate of about 1500 occurrences every year, but most of them are of low intensity.
The current advisory solely pertains to the Nankai Trough, a subduction zone where the Pacific Plate is sliding beneath the Eurasian Plate in the Pacific Ocean.
Seismologists say that if such an earthquake occurs along this region, it would be categorized as a mega-quake of over 9. It would be 0, which means that considerable property loss and numerous human lives might be lost in case of an explosion.
A study carried out last year asserts the comparable probability, prescribing a probability of approximately “once per a few hundred times” for a large earthquake to follow a magnitude-7 event within a week.
In other words, the given probability is just high enough to warrant an alert, but it is still not definitively guaranteed that the recent shake-ups will cause a big quake.
The central government, in its 2022 forecast, expected a quake of this scale to happen in the next thirty years with a probability of about 70%. The possible outcomes, which are measurable in terms of human lives lost and trillions of dollars estimated to be lost in the process, have understandably left the nation rather jumpy.
Japan prepares for the matter-of-fact possibility of a catastrophic natural disaster, and thus, the government and Japanese citizens must continue to be ready and able to effectively respond when disaster strikes.
