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Mahesh

11/08/24 07:22 AM IST

Megaquake advisory

In News
  • After a 7.1-magnitude earthquake shook southern Japan recently, the country’s meteorological agency issued its first-ever “megaquake advisory”.
Nankai Trough
  • The Nankai Trough is an underwater subduction zone (nearly 900 km long) where the Eurasian Plate collides with the Philippine Sea Plate, pushing the latter under the former and into the Earth’s mantle.
  • This accumulates tectonic stress which can cause a megaquake — an earthquake with a magnitude larger than 8.
  • The trough has produced large earthquakes roughly every 100 to 150 years, according to the 2023 study, ‘High probability of successive occurrence of Nankai megathrust earthquakes’.
  • These tremors usually come in pairs, with the second often rupturing in the subsequent two years — the most recent “twin” earthquakes took place in 1944 and 1946.
Megaquake
  • In January 2022, Japan’s Earthquake Research Committee said the next magnitude 8-9 megaquake along the trough has a roughly 70% probability of striking within the next 30 years.
  • Such a megaquake could send tremors to areas from central Shizuoka — about 150 km south of Tokyo — to southwestern Miyazaki, the Reuters report said.
  • Tsunami waves of up to 98 feet may reach Japan’s Pacific coasts within minutes after the quake.
  • A major Nankai Trough earthquake could impact an area that covers about a third of Japan and where about half the country’s population of more than 120 million people lives, according to a report by Nikkei Asia magazine.
  • The economic damage due to the disaster could go up to $1.50 trillion, or more than a third of Japan’s annual gross domestic product.
Source- Indian Express

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