A magnitude 6 earthquake has struck the west coast of central Japan. the same area hit by the devastating earthquake last week, without the tsunami warning being activated, and no significant damage has been reported at this time.
The earthquake struck at 5:59 p.m. local time (8:59 GMT) on Tuesday, with the epicenter at a depth of 10 kilometers off the coast of Niigata Prefecture, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
The quake reached a magnitude of 6 and the epicenter was discovered at a latitude close to the latitude of the May 1 earthquake. magnitude 7.6, leaving at least 202 people dead and 102 missing, most of them in Ishikawa Prefecture.
In Niigata, the earthquake reached a low level of 5 on Japan's closed scale of 7, which focuses on the quake's destructive power, while in neighboring Toyama Prefecture and Ishikawa it reached a level 4.
Local authorities have not currently reported any new damage caused by the quake in areas already affected by the quake on the 1st, although they have warned of the risk of new damage to buildings or infrastructure and land displacement.
Since this earthquake there have been numerous aftershocks, including several with a magnitude greater than 5, and according to the JMA, there is a risk of new earthquakes with a magnitude of at least 7.6 in the coming weeks.
28,000 people have been displaced since the first day of the earthquake
The natural disaster that occurred on New Year's Day 28,000 people are still homeless and thousands of houses have neither electricity nor running water.
Since recent days, snowfall in the region and damage to roads and access roads caused by the earthquake have made it difficult to transport relief supplies, which have to be delivered by drones or even rescue workers on foot from the armed forces. the self-defense (army) of Japan.
The first-day earthquake could surpass in destruction that of 2016 in Kumamoto Prefecture (which, according to official figures, killed 273 people) and is the first level 7 earthquake recorded in the country since 2018, when an earthquake struck level 7 on the island of Hokkaido.