![\"7.4](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2024-04\/dsol0vmg_taiwan-earthquake-_625x300_03_April_24.jpg?im=FaceCrop,algorithm=dnn,width=1200,height=738\"\/ "\\"7.4")
<\/div>\nJapan issues tsunami alert for its southern islands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Tokyo: <\/b><\/p>\n
A major earthquake hit Taiwan’s east shortly before 8:00 am (0000 GMT) local time Wednesday, prompting tsunami warnings for the self-ruled island as well as parts of southern Japan.<\/p>\n
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake had a magnitude of 7.4, with its epicentre 18 kilometres (11 miles) south of Taiwan’s Hualien City at a depth of 34.8 km.<\/p>\n
Japan’s Meteorological Agency put the magnitude at 7.5.<\/p>\n
Tsunami waves as high as three metres (10 feet) were expected immediately for remote Japanese islands in the region, including Miyakojima island, the agency said.<\/p>\n
“Evacuate!” said a banner on Japanese national broadcaster NHK.<\/p>\n
“Tsunami is coming. Please evacuate immediately,” an anchor on NHK said. “Do not stop. Do not go back.”<\/p>\n
Live TV footage from the Okinawa region’s ports, including Naha, showed vessels heading out to sea, possibly in efforts to protect their ships.<\/p>\n
Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes because the island lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.<\/p>\n
A 7.6-magnitude jolt hit Taiwan in September 1999, killing around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s history.<\/p>\n
Japan experiences around 1,500 jolts every year.<\/p>\n
The vast majority are mild, although the damage they cause varies according to the depth of the epicentre below the Earth’s surface and its location.<\/p>\n
The severity of tsunamis — vast and potentially destructive series of waves that can move at hundreds of miles (kilometres) per hour — also depends upon multiple factors.<\/p>\n
Even larger quakes usually cause little damage in Japan and Taiwan thanks to special construction techniques and strict building regulations.<\/p>\n
Japan has also developed sophisticated procedures and technology to alert and evacuate people when needed.<\/p>\n
Japan’s biggest earthquake on record was a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea jolt in March 2011 off Japan’s northeast coast, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.<\/p>\n
The 2011 catastrophe also sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing Japan’s worst post-war disaster and the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl.<\/p>\n
The total cost was estimated at 16.9 trillion yen ($112 billion), not including for the hazardous decommissioning of the Fukushima facility, which is expected to take decades.<\/p>\n
Despite stricter building guidelines, many structures, particularly outside major cities, but not only there, are old and vulnerable.<\/p>\n
This was brought home in the 7.5-magnitude New Year’s Day quake in 2024, which hit Noto Peninsula and killed more than 230 people, many of them when older buildings collapsed.<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n