TOKYO, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) — The likelihood of a large earthquake in Japan’s Nankai Trough occurring inside the subsequent 30 years has been revised from the earlier estimate of 70 % to 80 % to roughly 80 %, based on the federal government’s earthquake investigation panel.
Since the panel started calculating possibilities for the area in 2013, estimates have steadily risen from 60 % to 70 % in 2013 to 70 % in 2014, and later to 70 % to 80 % in 2018.
The newest adjustment displays the passage of time for the reason that final main earthquake within the space, reasonably than being influenced by latest seismic exercise, the panel famous.
The Nankai Trough is a serious ocean-floor trench stretching alongside Japan’s Pacific coast, mendacity on the convergence of the Eurasian and Philippine Sea tectonic plates the place intense geological exercise happens.
The panel pressured that the likelihood rounding from 70 % to 80 % to 80 % doesn’t point out a 10-percent enhance, but it surely reaffirms {that a} main earthquake might happen at any time.
Japan’s climate company had beforehand issued a Nankai Trough megaquake alert that remained in place for one week after a magnitude 7.1 quake struck off the coast of Kyushu in August 2024.