There are a slew of geological reasons why Japan is prone to sudden earthquakes. Earthquakes often occur due to the stresses caused by the movement of tectonic plates that comprise the Earth’s crust. Japan is situated along the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, where it lies across three tectonic plates, including the Pacific Plate under the Pacific Ocean and the Philippine Sea Plate.
Earthquakes can also occur within a single tectonic plate, thus occurring on land rather than at sea. Since earthquakes displace large sections of the seabed, sending shockwaves through the water and creating waves, the dangers of tsunamis are extremely high. Beyond that, underwater volcanic eruptions can displace water with explosive force, triggering tsunamis.
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What is the Pacific Ring of Fire?
The ring refers to an imaginary horseshoe-shaped zone that follows the rim of the Pacific Ocean, where many of the world's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. Roughly 905 of the earthquakes occur along the ring of fire it has close to 75% of all active volcanoes.
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The ring of Fire is not quite a circular ring; it's shaped more like a 40,000 horseshoe. It has a string of 452 volcanoes that stretch from the southern tip of South America across the Bering Strait and down through Japan, and into New Zealand. Several active and dormant volcanoes in Antarctica help close the ring.
The Ring of Fore is not a single geological structure. It was created by the subduction of different tectonic plates at convergent boundaries around the Pacific Ocean. The boundaries goes through places such as the Antartic, Nazca and Cocos plates subducting beneath the South Amaerican Plate. The Pacific and teh Juan De Fuca plates benetah the Noth American plates, the Phillipine plate beneath the Eurasian plate, and a complex boundary between the Pacific and Australian plate. The interactions of all these plates have led to the creation of trenches, volcanic arcs, back arc basins and volcanic belts.
Earthquake in Japan
A massive 7.6-magnitude earthquake rocked Japan, triggering tsunami alert with high tides up to three metres which created panic among citizens, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.
According to Reuters, a tsunami alert was also issued in parts of Hokkaido and nearby regions. The earthquake shook the north and east parts of the country at 11:15pm (local time). The JMA said its epicentre was located about 50 kilometres below sea level off the coast near Aomori city.
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