According to the USGS, a strong 7.5 earthquake struck central Japan on Monday, sparking tsunami warnings and orders for local residents to evacuate to higher ground.
The Noto region of Ishikawa prefecture felt an earthquake around 4:10 pm (0710 GMT), and national broadcaster NHK declared that “all residents must evacuate immediately to higher ground.”
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, located in Hawaii, stated that dangerous tsunami waves might occur up to 300 kilometers (190 miles) from the epicentre of the earthquake along the coast of Japan.
A tsunami of 1.2 metres was confirmed to have arrived in Wajima city in Ishikawa prefecture.
However, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) stated that a far larger tsunami—five meters—was predicted to reach Noto in the same area.
The main island of Japan, Honshu, is surrounded by the Sea of Japan. According to the JMA, a series of earthquakes struck the Noto region at 4:06 PM local time, with a magnitude of 5.7.
The following were the following: an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 at 4:10 pm, a 6.1 at 4:18 pm, a 4.5 at 4:23 pm, a 4.6 at 4:29 pm, and a 4.8 at 4:32 pm.
Another quake with a magnitude of 6.2 hit soon after, the US Geological Survey said.
The largest of the quakes prompted broadcasters to switch to special programming and make urgent calls for affected residents to leave for higher ground.
“We realise your home, your belongings are all precious to you, but your lives are important above everything else. Run to the highest ground possible,” a presenter on broadcaster NHK told viewers.
Japan regularly conducts emergency drills to get ready for a large shock and has tight construction laws designed to ensure buildings can withstand powerful earthquakes.
However, the nation is still plagued by the memory of the enormous underwater 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck northeastern Japan in March 2011 and caused a tsunami that killed or left about 18,500 people missing.
The Fukushima nuclear facility experienced the biggest post-war disaster in Japan and the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl as a result of the 2011 tsunami, which also caused three reactors to melt down.
Three people were killed after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Fukushima jolted a vast portion of eastern Japan in March 2022.
The capital Tokyo was devastated by a huge earthquake a century ago in 1923.