Local News

On Aug. 26 a government-sponsored expert panel on large-scale earthquakes along the Sea of Japan released its first tsunami height estimates for 16 prefectures from Hokkaido to Nagasaki. Mandated by the Act on Regional Development for Tsunami Disaster Prevention, which was enacted after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the tsunami predictions presume earthquakes of the largest class striking along 60 offshore fault lines. The panel ran 253 scenarios in total. In Kyushu, the biggest impact would be on the Nishiyama Fault that runs through the cities of Munakata and Asakura. A M7.6 earthquake could yield a 5.3m tsunami in Iki (Nagasaki Pref.), a 4.4m one in Munakata, and a 3.6m one in Kitakyushu and Karatsu (Saga Pref.). While the waves would be relatively smaller in Kyushu, the biggest tsunami, estimated at 23.4m, would hit Hokkaido.The prefectural governments will use these predictions as the basis for water submersion predictions and to demarcate high risk zones. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun 8/27