A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 rocked central Japan on Monday, prompting a tsunami warning for a broad swath of the country’s western coast.
The tsunami warning urged people to quickly leave coastal areas of Ishikawa, Niigata, Toyama and Yamagata prefectures, with over 1.2 meter waves reaching the Noto Peninsula’s Wajima Port in Ishikawa — where a rare major tsunami warning had been issued — around 4:21 p.m..
Warnings of tsunami of up to 3 meters were issued across the Sea of Japan coast all the way from Hokkaido to Nagasaki.
Those warnings were punctuated by several aftershocks following the initial quake, which registered an estimated magnitude of 7.4, struck the Noto Peninsula, with waves as high as 5 meters predicted to hit the area. The Noto area experienced seven earthquakes, while 11 had been registered across all of Japan as of 5 p.m.
Waves of 80 cm reached Toyama Prefecture around 4:35 p.m and waves of 40 meters also reached Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, at 4:36 p.m. It also reached Niigata’s Sado Island at 4:10 p.m.
The tsunami was also expected to hit Yamagata and Hyogo prefectures.
Japan is haunted by the memory of a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake off northeastern Japan in March 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing. In March 2022, a 7.4-magnitude quake off the coast of Fukushima shook large areas of eastern Japan, killing three people. The capital Tokyo was devastated by a huge earthquake a century ago in 1923.
Authorities have urged people to flee to high land or the top of a nearby building as quickly as possible.
A Japanese government spokesperson has warned residents to prepare for possible further quakes, according to Reuters.
