According to information from the China Earthquake Network, at 16:10 local time on January 1 (15:10 Beijing time on January 1), an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 on the Richter scale occurred off the coast of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, on the west coast of Honshu, Japan, with an epicenter at a depth of 30 kilometers and an epicenter at 37.50 degrees north latitude and 137.20 degrees east longitude.
According to the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK), at around 16:06 pm local time on January 1, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake occurred near the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, with an epicenter depth of 10 kilometers.
Just 4 minutes after the 5.7 magnitude earthquake occurred (16:10), another 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck almost at the same place.
The earthquake was felt almost universally throughout Japan, and was also felt strongly in the capital city of Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya.
Because the earthquake occurred in the sea and was of a large magnitude, it also triggered a tsunami 5 meters high.
The local tsunami warning level is a large tsunami warning. NHK and other media outlets reported on the earthquake and tsunami and called on people to evacuate from dangerous areas immediately.
As of 17:00 local time on the 1st, a tsunami several meters high was observed in many places on the western side of the Japanese archipelago, and a tsunami about 5 meters high was observed on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, near the epicenter.
Videos taken by local netizens showed cars swept away by the sea, ships washed up in the streets, and homes in some areas hit by the tsunami.
At around 16:18 eight minutes after the 7.4 magnitude earthquake, another 6.1 magnitude earthquake occurred near the epicenter, with an epicenter depth of 10 kilometers.
Before these three earthquakes, at around 3:12 p.m. local time on January 1, the Ontake Crater on Suwa no Se Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, erupted, and the Mt. Ontake in the center of the island was 799 meters above sea level, and the volcanic ash smoke column was more than 1,000 meters high. Less than an hour after the eruption, a major earthquake struck Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan, but the distance between the two is more than 1,000 kilometers, and it is uncertain whether the two are necessarily connected.
In the aftermath of the 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Japan, roads and houses were damaged in Ishikawa Prefecture in the country, and some buildings caught fire, and the raging fire in Wajima City destroyed several buildings.
According to the official website of Japan's Hokuriku Electric Power Company, as of 17:15 local time on January 1, about 32,800 households in Ishikawa Prefecture were without power, and about 90 households in Toyama Prefecture, which is adjacent to Ishikawa Prefecture, were without power.
The local disaster prevention department said that as of 18:50 local time on the same day, at least 10 incidents of people being buried under collapsed buildings had been reported, and information such as the number of injured people could not be obtained at present. Japan's Nuclear Regulation Agency said it had not found any abnormalities in nuclear power facilities.
Ishikawa Prefecture and its vicinity in Japan are famous for the country's cluster earthquake burst area, that is to say, earthquakes usually appear in clusters, once an earthquake occurs, it is a large and small earthquake continuous group earthquake, so there will be three earthquakes in a row within 12 minutes (16:06 ~ 18 minutes).
Because mass earthquakes usually last for a long time, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued an announcement at 18:10 local time on the 1st to once again call on the people in the tsunami warning area to evacuate immediately, and reminded the people in the earthquake area to pay attention to the possibility of another large-scale earthquake in the next week, especially in the next two or three days.
Sources:
"China Earthquake Network Quick Report" reported on January 1, 2024 that "a 7.4-magnitude earthquake occurred off the west coast of Honshu, Japan"
On January 1, 2024, the Mainichi Keizai Shimbun reported that "At least 2 people have been injured in a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Japan!' 'Large-scale' fire in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture, erupts on Suwa's Lazy Island volcano"