At 7:10 UTC (8:10 a.m. in Italy, 16:10 p.m. local time) on January 1, 2024, a strong earthquake struck off the western coast of Japan, hitting Ishikawa Prefecture.
The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) assigned the earthquake a magnitude of 7.1, while the United States Geological Survey (USGS) assessed the magnitude as 7.5 and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) estimated a magnitude of 7.6.
The earthquake occurred in an area where four tectonic plates collide: the Eurasian plate to the west, the Pacific plate to the east, the Philippine plate to the south, and the North American plate to the north.
In this kinematic framework of plate convergence, the focal mechanism of the earthquake is of the compressional type, with a maximum shortening axis NW-SE, and is fully coherent.
The earthquake was preceded by a magnitude 5.5 shock 4 minutes earlier and in the following 2 hours there were about ten strong aftershocks, the strongest of which was magnitude 6.2.
The JMA issued a tsunami warning immediately after the earthquake. Tide gauges on Japan's western coast confirmed that a tsunami had indeed occurred; the highest wave heights were measured in Wajima (120 cm).
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It should be remembered that tsunami waves can be dangerous even when less than a meter high due to their speed and length. The INGV Tsunami Warning Center also monitored the alert from its Seismic Monitoring and Tsunami Warning Room.
The earthquake's impact on the mainland was significant. In the early hours, unverified information emerged, especially on social media, but there are reports describing significant damage and the impact of the tsunami waves.
According to Japanese media, the earthquake caused building collapses, power outages and infrastructure damage. Authorities evacuated about 100.000 people from coastal areas.
Japanese authorities are still assessing the damage and casualties of the earthquake.
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