A magnitude 6 earthquake shook a wide area of eastern Japan on Thursday, with its epicenter off the coast of Fukushima, without triggering a tsunami alert or causing any reported damage so far. The event occurred just hours after the 7.2 earthquake in Taiwan.
Earthquake in Fukushima
The quake occurred at 12:16 local time today with its epicenter 40 kilometers deep off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, east of the country, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). The tremor reached level 4 on the Japanese seismic scale (out of 7 levels, focused on measuring surface agitation and potential damage) and the same level in the neighboring prefectures of Iwate and Miyagi.
The operator of the troubled Fukushima plant, TEPCO, said it is checking for any problems following the quake, NHK state television reported, while the JR East railway suspended operations of the Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train, which connects Tokyo with Sendai, due to a power outage. According to Tohoku Electric Power Company, no anomalies were detected at the Miyagi Ongawa nuclear power plant or in radiation levels in nearby areas.
Thursday’s earthquake in Japan comes after a strong earthquake struck Taiwan the day before, leaving nearly a dozen dead and hundreds injured and prompting a tsunami alert to be issued for the islands of the Okinawa archipelago southwest of Japan. Japan sits on the so-called Ring of Fire, one of the most seismically active zones in the world, and experiences earthquakes relatively frequently, so its infrastructure is specially designed to withstand tremors.
Earthquake in Fukushima: What Is the Ring of Fire?
Japan is located in what is known as the Ring of Fire of seismic activity. The “Ring of Fire” is a geographical region that surrounds the coasts of the Pacific Ocean and is known for its high seismic and volcanic activity. This ring extends from South America, through North America, to Asia and Oceania. Seismic and volcanic activity in this region is due to the subduction of tectonic plates, where an oceanic plate moves beneath another oceanic or continental plate, causing a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
This ring concentrates more than 75% of the active volcanoes and a large percentage of the earthquakes recorded in the world. Some of the countries that are part of this region are Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, the United States (Alaska), Canada, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and New Zealand, among others.
This story was written in Spanish by Miguel Fernandez in Cultura Colectiva.
