TOKYO — Japan on Thursday said the possibility of a huge earthquake over a wide swathe of central and western parts of the country has increased relative to normal conditions following a magnitude 7.1 temblor in Miyazaki Prefecture earlier in the day.
Following the afternoon quake, the Japan Meteorological Agency launched investigations into its possible relationship to a potential Nankai Trough earthquake, which experts have warned for years could cause huge loss of life and property across a wide swathe of central and western Japan.
The agency issued its Nankai Trough Earthquake Extra Information for the first time on Thursday evening. An accompanying government advisory said that the “possibility of a large-scale earthquake is considered to be relatively higher than under normal conditions.” According to the agency, the large earthquakes have taken place every 100 to 150 years in central and western areas of the country.
The agency said such a earthquake may be limited to the vicinity of Thursday’s quake or extend over the “entire Nankai Trough.”
Experts say a Nankai Trough earthquake could span from the island of Kyushu and Osaka and Aichi prefectures to areas farther east closer to Tokyo such as Shizuoka Prefecture — simultaneously or in succession at a magnitude of up to 9.
The quake could also lead to a tsunami of over 30 meters and together cause up to 320,000 deaths and economic losses of 220 trillion yen ($1.5 trillion), according to a government estimate in 2012.
It has been over 70 years since the last such disaster in the region, which experts say makes such an event ever more likely.
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