The powerful and numerous earthquakes which struck central Japan on Monday left at least six dead according to local police, as well as significant material damage, while a tsunami that arrived in the aftermath remained of small magnitude.
The largest of these earthquakes, which occurred Monday shortly after 4:00 p.m. (07:00 GMT) in the Ishikawa department, was recorded at a magnitude of 7.5 by the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS) and at 7.6 by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
This violent shock, clearly felt as far away as Tokyo, more than 300 km away as the crow flies, led to a tsunami on Monday on the coast of the Sea of Japan, forcing many residents to run and seek refuge in higher ground as quickly as possible. . The waves fortunately remained low, despite a maximum alert level initially issued by the JMA: they were measured at 1.2 meters in the port of Wajima, in the Noto peninsula, at the northern tip of the department of Ishikawa.
The tsunami risk level was then downgraded and then definitively lifted on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. (01:00 GMT) by the JMA.
The Ishikawa department was shaken by 155 earthquakes between Monday 4:00 p.m. and Tuesday 9:00 a.m. (Tuesday 00:00 GMT), most with a magnitude greater than 3.0, the same agency recorded.
The earthquakes caused “numerous casualties” and significant material damage, with collapsed buildings and fires, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday. “We must race against time” to save lives, he added.