Another earthquake could hit Japan within three days

The Japanese Meteorological Agency has concluded that there is a 70% probability of another earthquake of magnitude 7 or higher occurring within the next three days. This probability could potentially decrease. From March 16 to 18, it reportedly fell to 50%.

Japan, located at the confluence of four tectonic plates, experiences some of the strongest earthquakes recorded on Earth. It will be recalled that in 1995, an earthquake in Kobe caused more than 6,400 deaths. Several European countries, such as France and Germany, have already recommended that their citizens living in the Tokyo region leave the country if their presence is not necessary.

The Ring of Fire

Tokyo is located in a more complex seismic zone than the one hit by last Friday's earthquake. The Japanese archipelago lies at the heart of the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an alignment of volcanoes that coincides with a series of fault and tectonic plate boundaries.

Foreign experts and the meteorological agency said a fault line nearly 500 km long was cracked during the earthquake.

A 2.4 meter slide

According to USGS geophysicist Kenneth Hudnut, interviewed on CNN, "a GPS station moved 2.4 meters," which is consistent with the assessment made by the Japanese Geospatial Information Authority (GSI) that this movement corresponds to a land mass shift of the same magnitude.