A Japanese panel of experts have warned of a massive earthquake off the pacific coast in Japan Trench was imminent. The quake can produce tsunami waves as high as 30 metres. (File Photo, USGS)
Japan Tsunami Warning Latest: A Japanese government panel on Tuesday warned of a massive tsunami and mega earthquake. The group of experts warned of mega-earthquake centred around the Japan Trench and the Kuril Trench off northern parts of Japan calling it “imminent." According to the report by the scientists and experts, tsunami waves as high as 30 metres could be triggered if an earthquake of magnitude 9 occurs along the sea trenches of the pacific coast, the Japan Times reported.
Earlier on Saturday (April 18) a strong earthquake shook a Japanese island chain in the Pacific Ocean south of Tokyo but passed off without damage as it occurred in the Pacific Ocean west of the Ogasawara island chain, at a location about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of Tokyo, as per the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Japan Trench which is in the centre of this mega-quake and tsunami warning, is an oceanic trench part of the Pacific Ring of Fire off northeast Japan. It extends from the Kuril Islands to the northern end of the Izu Islands and is 8,046 metres (26,398 ft) at its deepest. It links the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench to the north and the Izu-Ogasawara Trench to its south with a length of 800 kilometres (500 mi).
A continuing movement on the subduction zone of the Japan Trench is one of the main causes of tsunamis and earthquakes in the region, including tsunami that occurred on 11 March 2011. The 2011 tsunami in Japan had killed more than 15,000 people.
“A massive earthquake of this class would be difficult to deal with by developing hard infrastructure (such as coast levees). To save people’s lives, the basic policy would be an evacuation,” Seismologist Kenji Satake, a University of Tokyo professor and head of the panel, was quoted as saying by the Japan Times.
As per the panel’s estimate, an earthquake along the Chishima Trench could have a magnitude of 9.3. The off-shore earthquake can jolt parts of eastern Hokkaido with an intensity of 6 to 7 magnitude on the Japanese scale of zero to seven, the report said.
According to the report, waves nearly 90 feet high could reach the town of Erimo.
As per the Japan Times, the area around Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant could be submerged. The plant was hit by the 2011 tsunami as well.
