Powerful earthquake hits Japan and officials warn of aftershocks

A powerful earthquake struck western Japan on Monday, triggering tsunami warnings and evacuation orders, trapping people under collapsed buildings and disrupting electricity and mobile phone services in Ishikawa Prefecture, the quake’s epicenter. said.

Initial reports suggested the earthquake had not caused the large tsunami waves or fatalities initially feared, but officials warned of the possibility that major aftershocks could occur in the coming week, and especially in the coming days.

The earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula around 4:10 p.m. and measured 7.6 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Authorities in Ishikawa Prefecture said at least four people died as a result of the earthquake. The quake was much weaker than the magnitude 8.9 earthquake that struck Japan in 2011, triggering a tsunami that killed thousands of people and led to a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Monday’s earthquake left at least six people trapped under rubble in Ishikawa. even more people feared they were trapped or injured. Officials in that city said they were overwhelmed by the number of people calling for help. One fire station there received more than fifty calls reporting collapsed buildings, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The Japan Meteorological Agency initially issued a major tsunami warning, saying waves could reach as high as five meters in the parts of the Noto Peninsula facing the Sea of ​​Japan. They ordered residents to immediately move to higher ground.

But several hours later the government lowered the warning, saying the largest expected wave height was three meters, about 10 feet. By Tuesday morning, it had again downgraded the tsunami warning to an advisory.

The largest waves were recorded just after the earthquake in Wajima port, where they reached about 1.20 meters, public broadcaster NHK reported. North Korea has also issued a tsunami warning, as has Russia, which has issued a tsunami warning for parts of Sakhalin Island, which is close to Japan’s northern Pacific coast. South Korea reported tsunami waves up to 4.5 meters high.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake had a very shallow depth, which generally makes earthquakes more dangerous. Initial reports from authorities in Ishikawa Prefecture suggested no major damage had been caused to “important facilities,” but the fire department said it was still confirming damage to residential buildings and other structures.

The earthquake came as Japan continues to grapple with the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from towns and farming villages around the factory after the 2011 earthquake, and some have not returned. The cleanup of the area around the Fukushima plant is still in its early stages and last summer the government announced it would dump treated radioactive wastewater into the ocean, alarming China and South Korea.

An official from Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency said there were no signs of abnormalities at radioactivity monitoring stations at the Shika nuclear power plant in Ishikawa, on Japan’s west coast, after Monday’s earthquake.

The earthquake trapped people under collapsed buildings and also disrupted electricity for tens of thousands of people in Ishikawa Prefecture. Medical workers in the port city of Wajima treated patients in a hospital parking lot, NHK reported.

Residents were warned that there was still a risk of landslides and building collapses due to aftershocks. The government said it had already recorded 19 earthquakes on the Noto Peninsula.

Mr. Hayashi, the Cabinet Secretary, said at a news conference that the governor of Ishikawa had requested that Japan’s Self-Defense Forces be sent to the region, and that all branches of the military were on standby to assist in rescue operations.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, bullet trains were halted and part of a highway closed. Japanese airline ANA turned back four planes heading to airports in the affected region, and Japan Airlines canceled most of its flight service to Ishikawa and Niigata.

Due to the frequency of its earthquakes, Japan has made its buildings some of the most resilient in the world over the past century. They are able to withstand large earthquakes and remain functional even in their immediate aftermath.

Through investments, government mandates, and an engineering culture finely tuned to seismic risks, Japan has managed to reduce the death toll from even devastating earthquakes.

An earthquake in the provinces of Mino and Owari in the late 19th century, and the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 that killed more than 140,000 people, prompted research into sturdier buildings and the introduction of new building standards. In the decades that followed, each major earthquake in Japan led to steps to further improve practices and regulations.

Reporting was contributed by Emma Bubola, Shashank Bengali, Hisako UenoAnd Jin Yu Young.