Japan Lifts Megaquake Warning

Japan on Thursday ended its call for higher-than-usual risks of a major earthquake, one week after a strong tremor on the edge of the Nankai Trough seabed zone caused the government to issue its first-ever megaquake advisory. Citizens can now return to normal life as no abnormalities were observed in the seismic activity of the Nankai Trough located along Japan's Pacific coast in the past week, said Yoshifumi Matsumura, the state minister for disaster management. A Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) expert panel on Aug. 8 released an advisory that there was a "relatively higher chance" of a Nankai Trough megaquake as powerful as magnitude 9, after a magnitude-7.1 quake hit the country's southwest. While the advisory was not a definitive prediction, the government asked residents of a wide range of western and central regions to review evacuation procedures in case of severe earthquake and tsunami disasters. On Aug. 9, a magnitude-5.3 earthquake hit eastern Japan near Tokyo, but its epicentre was located ou tside of the Nankai Trough zone where the JMA signalled the chance of a megaquake, and the damage was small as only three mild injuries were reported. Source: Qatar News Agency