What Caused The Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake In Japan?

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What caused nan magnitude 6.8 earthquake successful Japan?

The quake, which has caused harm to respective roads and buildings, occurred on a strike-slip fault

By Andrea Thompson

A photograph looking down an alleyway wherever parts of a wall person collapsed onto nan sidewalk. People guidelines astir successful nan distance.

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A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck nan confederate Japanese land of Kyushu, southbound of nan metropolis of Kumamoto, connected Tuesday day section time. The earthquake has damaged roads and buildings, including a promenade wherever rescue workers are seeking to extract trapped people.

The earthquake occurred on a strike-slip fault, wherever nan 2 sides of a fracture successful Earth’s crust descent past 1 another. According to nan U.S. Geological Survey, nan earthquake happened connected a responsibility successful nan precocious Eurasia sheet and is successful an area wherever nan Philippine Sea sheet converges pinch nan Eurasia sheet astatine a complaint of astir 58 millimeters (2.3 inches) per year. The USGS estimates location is extensive, wide harm from nan earthquake.

Japan is simply a very tectonically progressive country, arsenic it sits on nan alleged Pacific Ring of Fire. It sits on a awesome subduction zone—earthquakes caused by subduction are awesome drivers of tsunamis, which was nan system down nan devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which was truthful powerful it shifted nan full country. A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck disconnected nan seashore of Honshu, Japan’s largest island, successful April.

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