From Osaka's and Chiyoda's (Tokyo) The Mainichi, March 3:
A research team from Tohoku University and other institutions has found evidence suggesting that enough energy may now be stored in the rock along the Kuril Trench off Hokkaido's Pacific coast to trigger another magnitude-9-class earthquake like one believed to have struck the region in the 17th century. The team says the recurrence of a megaquake and massive tsunami could be imminent. The Mainichi Shimbun answers some questions readers may have about these findings and what they mean.
Question: What kind of zone is the area off Hokkaido's Pacific coast?
Answer: It is an area where, according to the team, major earthquakes have likely occurred roughly every 400 years. Although the exact year is unknown, the previous event is believed to have occurred sometime between around 1611 and 1637 with a magnitude of about 8.8, sending a tsunami that inundated land 1 to 4 kilometers inland from the present coastline.
Q: What did the new research investigate?
A: From 2019 to 2024, scientists from Tohoku University, Hokkaido University and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) set up observation points at three sites on the seafloor off Nemuro, Hokkaido, where earlier quakes are thought to have occurred. Using acoustic data, they measured crustal movement and found that two observation points on the Pacific Plate near the trench and the overlying land plate are shifting west-northwestward at about 8 centimeters per year.
Q: What does that mean?....
....MUCH MORE
And via Japan Forward:
