10 Dangerous Earthquakes in Japan

In this article, we will discuss the 10 dangerous earthquakes in Japan.

An earthquake may be defined as the sudden shock of the earth that emits the energy in the earth’s lithosphere causing the formation of seismic waves.

The earthquake can be caused due to volcanic eruption, moving of tectonic plates, formation of the cave in a small area, or due to explosions. It is determined with the help of a seismograph by Seismometers and is measured on the Richter Magnitude Scale.

  1. 10 Dangerous Earthquakes in Japan  

The list of the 10 biggest earthquakes in japan is prepared depending on the magnitude and destruction of the earthquake. The top 10 biggest earthquakes in Japan are as follows:

10. Great Kanto earthquake, 1923

In 1923, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit the Kanto plain on the island of Honshu on the morning on the date of Sept. 1, 1923. The movement extended up to 10 minutes in a few locations. The earthquake destroyed Tokyo, then home to about 2 million people, and caused extensive damage to the whole of the Kanto region.

During this earthquake around 142,800 people lost their lives, making it one of the most dangerous of all time.

9. Genroku earthquake, 1703

Japan had faced two earthquakes with a shocking death value of more than 100,000 people. The Genroku earthquake in 1703 was only a magnitude of 8.0, but along with its tsunami, the number of death went to 108,000 people.

Genroku terms to the Japanese era spanning from 1688 to 1704. The earthquake actually hit Sagami Bay, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo. It fractured in the middle of a tectonic plate, different from Japan’s latest earthquake, which hit where two plates ram together.

8. Nankaido earthquake, 1946

On the period of World War II, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake hit Nankaido, Japan, on the date of Dec. 20, 1946. The earthquake was experienced from Northern Honshu Japan’s largest island and home to around 100 million people to the southernmost island of Kyushu. Due to this earthquake, 1,362 people lost their lives.

This earthquake fractured in the Nankai Trough, a subduction zone where one tectonic plate moves beneath another plate. Earthquakes have been fracturing here every 100 to 200 years since the 7th century.

7. Aomori earthquake, 1968

This magnitude of 8.2 earthquake hit the east coast of Honshu, near Misawa, Japan, and was obeyed by a large tsunami, 52 people lost their lives. The intensity of the earthquake can be experienced in Shindo 5 in Aomori, Aomori, and Hakodate, Hokkaido.

6. Kuril Islands earthquake, 2006

Not all big earthquakes are dangerous it depends on the area. In 2006, a magnitude 8.4 quake took place a tsunami to struck Japan’s northern coast. No lives were lost on the sparsely populated islands, which are home to around 19,000 people.

The earthquake fractured about 19 miles (30 km) depth and activated a tsunami that made one person injured in Waikiki, Hawaii. The tsunami also destroyed docks in Crescent City, Calif., which was struck strongly by last month’s tsunami.

4. Ansei-Nankai earthquake, 1854

Japan has been struck by many other 8.4 magnitude earthquakes. The Ansei-Nankai earthquake was a destructive one that took the lives of 10,000 people on the island of Kyushu, resulting in it the danger of its size. At the time, the earthquake was criticized by a giant catfish, called Namazu to understand more about it you need to check the history of the earthquake.

Ansei is the term for the Japanese era period from 1854 to 1860. Nankai is the trough where the earthquake fractured, south of Honshu.

This earthquake struck just one day after a similarly sized Ansei-Tokai earthquake, this earthquake took almost 2,000 people’s lives. One year later, the Ansei Edo earthquake, a 6.9 magnitude, would take the lives of 6,600 people.

3. Meiji-Sanriku earthquake, 1896

The magnitude of this earthquake was 8.5 earthquake that took the lives of more than 27,000 people in Sanriku, closely the similar place as the 1933 earthquake. The earthquake was very dangerous in itself and was too far deep to cause much destruction, but it set off a huge tsunami. The tsunami moved across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii and California. The earthquake was obeyed by 76 aftershocks of magnitude higher than 5.0.

2. Hoei earthquake, 1707

In the early 1700s, many earthquakes were felt. Just some years after the Genroku earthquake, a magnitude of 8.6 earthquakes took the lives of 5,000 people in the Nankaido and Tokai regions, on the islands of Honshu and Shikoku.

The earthquake fractured all sections of the Nankai fault, the only earthquake known to have performed so. It also activated an eruption of Mount Fuji 50 days later.

1. Tohoku earthquake, 2011

The Tohoku earthquake happened at the time of 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on the date 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (Mw) undersea megathrust earthquake, made an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, 72 km (45 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku area, and remained accurately for six minutes, causing a tsunami. It is also known as the “Great East Japan Earthquake” in japan.