Earthquake swarms are fueling fear of the ‘big one’ in Japan

More than 1,300 earthquakes hit the Tokara islands of Japan within two weeks and he was evacuated in dozens of calm from the distant archipelago at the southern end of the country.

Although no major damage was reported and no tsunami warning is given, the Japan Meteorological Agency warned that Japan can continue to tremble as much as “lower 6 ında at a seven-stage seven-stage sey-stage seismic density.

The sub -6 shows an intensity that can make it difficult for people to stand without stable support.

“Seismic activity remains dynamic, JM JMA official Ayataka Ebita said at a press conference on Sunday – and this is a Megaquake fears.

Temblorlar coincided with viral panic, caused by the reconstruction of a comic book that many of them now interpreted as a prudent estimate of a great earthquake. “Real disaster will come in July 2025,” read the cover of Manga artist Ryo Tatsuki’s “The Future I SEE”. In the graphic novel, which investigates Tatsuki’s dreams, it contains a panel that says, “The ocean base between Japan and the Philippines will crack”.

In recent months, this prediction has become the subject of intensive online speculation. He even spread to nearby countries like Hong Kong, where he was accused of a dive to Japan in tourism.

Last month, Hong Kong Airlines suspended all flights to the southern Japanese provinces of Kagoshima and Kumamoto and showed low demand.

In South Korea, the earthquake panic in South Korea was mentioned as a reason for the cheapness of flights to Japan compared to last year, but industrial experts said there were other factors: a more powerful competition between airlines and a stronger yen that reduces the purchasing power of South Korean tourists.

On Saturday, South Korean singer Taemin, a Shinee group in Japan for a concert, referred to Tatsuki’s estimation in a live stream and said that he was safe to his fans and that he could make a joke -oriented earthquake performance “cool”.

However, he faced the reaction for the light of a natural disaster, and later issued an apology in Japanese and Korean.

There is a reason for the scientifically unquestionable estimation of a comic book to gain so much traction at the moment: Tatsuki just before (a genre). The first edition of the graphic novel published in 1999 refers to a “great disaster ve in March 2011 and contained lines: ım I dreamed of a great disaster.

A California Highway Patrol Officer, the upper deck of the Gulf Bridge, controls the damage given to the falling cars when it collapsed on the lower deck after the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco on 17 October 1989.

(George Nikitin / Associated Press)

This estimate looked gigantic 2011 Tohoku EarthquakeHe killed more than 19,000 people and triggered the tsunami, which led to a nuclear disaster. An estimated earthquake of 360 billion dollars in economic damage continues to be one of the most expensive natural disasters in history. He recorded 9.0 at the Richter scale that measures the magnitude of the earthquake. Shindo, which is Japan’s seismic density scale, measures density in a certain place.

Coincidence threw Tatsuki into fame and made his manga best selling.

However, in recent weeks, Tatsuki said in a statement published through the publisher.

“I believe everyone should be free to make their own comments,” he said to Japan’s Mainichi newspaper in May. “However, I think it is important to not be overly sweeping in the process and acting appropriately by taking into consideration the expert opinion.”

Japanese government officials and scientists suffered to refute theories, and emphasized that it was scientifically impossible to estimate earthquakes with this accuracy.

“This is definitely a coincidence. There is no causal connection, Eb Ebita said on Saturday. “Earthquakes in Japan may be at any time. Please always be prepared.”

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Considering its position in the Pacific Fire Ring, which is a seismic and volcanic hot spots of 25,000 miles, which returned to the Pacific Ocean, including the western coast of the United States, is one of the world’s most earthquake -prone countries.

Approximately one -fifth of the country’s sum of approximately 1,500 earthquakes or worlds per year, and earthquake evacuation exercises are regularly implemented by state institutions and public schools.

On the New Year Day last year, a 7.5 -magnitude earthquake on the Noto Peninsula in the center of Japan led to more than 500 deaths and destroyed at least 37,000 houses or damaged.

Since two tectonic plates on top of each other are sitting on the assistant, the clasp islands have long been tending to seismic activity like “earthquake herds ,, which is a relatively small earthquake burst that can last up to a few months. (Southern California is another common site of earthquake herds, but many of them Very little ones are barely perceived.)

The archipelago covers 12 individual candidates, only seven united 660 or more calm, and the current herd of earthquakes has been the most important since 1995.

Although it is not clear why the current herd is much larger than these examples, an earthquake expert in Kyoto University’s Disaster Prevention Research Institute Takuya Nishimura says that the volcanic activity may be a result of the volcanic activity.

Orum I suspect that the under -surface movement of the magma causes serious earthquake activity, ”he said. “A few studies in the past show the submarine volcanoes around the herd area, which shows the presence of magma under the ground.”

On January 2, 2024, a building collapses in the town of Ishikawa Anamizu. An earthquake of 7.4 magnitude, in the center of Japan, the previous day about 16:10 Ishikawa province hit the Noto region of the province.

(Noboru Hosono / Associated Press)

Despite the existing viral interest around the flock herd, experts such as Nishimura are more interested in another, much more reliable earthquake estimate that appeared on the country for years.

Earlier this year, a government panel estimated that the size of 8 to 9 megaquakes at the Richter scale that occurred during the next 30 years during the Nankai gutter of Japan was 80%.

A 559 -mile -long fault line on the Pacific Coast of Japan, a tectonic plate forced to another, nankai gutter 90 to 200 years produced destructive earthquakes. The last one occurred in 1946.

Under the worst scenario of the government, the next Nankai Megathrust earthquake is expected to kill approximately 300,000 people-most of the tsunamis are likely to reach 100 feet-causing damage to $ 1.8 trillion.

In contrast, the death burden for the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the 1994 Northridge earthquake – the last of the last history of California was the two biggest seismic events – 63 and 57. In the meantime, experts are examining the southern end of the San Andreas error that is not a depiake. 7 or larger For a while between 1721 and 1731.

“A major Nankai earthquake in the future is definitely the most anticipated earthquake in history-the original definition of the big one ” written Geologists Kyle Bradley and Judith A. Hubbard in 2024.

At the beginning of this month, the Japanese government explained a number of counter -measures aimed at reducing the number of deaths, including 80% and 50% of the structural damage, including making buildings more earthquake resistant and healing evacuation protocols.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, “Nation, municipalities, companies and non -profit organizations should come together and take precautions to save as much lives as possible,” he said.

However, the earthquake expert Nishimura says that more should be done to meet these ambitious goals.

“Although the decrease in structural damage due to a limited budget may be difficult, it can be achieved by more soft -type measures such as training and evacuation exercises,” he said.