The Pacific coast of Japan was hit early this Sunday by a tsunami after the eruption of an underwater volcano in Tonga that led the Japanese authorities to issue an alert and urge the evacuation of thousands of people.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) predicts that the tsunami waves could reach 3 meters in the Amami and Tokara (southwest) and Iwate (northeast) islands, and up to one meter on the east coast.
The highest height recorded so far was observed on the island of Amami Oshima shortly before midnight, at 1.2 meters. Images recorded by neighbors and shared on social networks showed traffic jams on the island’s local roads on their way to evacuate to higher places, where they finally headed on foot.
At the moment no injuries or major damage have been reported although, according to testimonies collected by the public channel NHK, in the city of Muroto (Kochi, west), where a tsunami of up to 80 centimeters was recorded, several boats were dragged by the tide.
Dozens of tsunamis of up to 90 centimeters have been observed along Japan’s Pacific coasts, from the southern island of Kyushu to the northern island of Hokkaido, and authorities have issued precautionary evacuation orders affecting more than 165,000 people over 03:00 local time (18:00 GMT on Saturday).
Most of the orders were concentrated in the prefectures of Miyagi and Iwate, in the northeast of the archipelago.
The tsunami reached the Japanese coast hours after the violent eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga, in the South Pacific, caused a tsunami on Saturday that has hit the coasts of this island nation and has also set off alarms in other countries. region of.
In a press conference held about two hours after midnight, when it issued the initial alert, the JMA warned of the difficulty in predicting the tsunami, given its differences with the phenomenon caused by earthquakes, and asked to remain alert to potential damage to coasts and riverbanks.
The agency explained that, although changes in sea levels had been observed during the afternoon, they did not think that they were causing the eruption. It was not until night when they observed changes that exceeded one meter in height and they chose to activate the alert and warnings throughout the east coast, as a precaution.
The meteorological agency warned of the risk of repeated tsunami waves hitting the same area in later hours, even higher than the initial one, although it will not be until morning when the impact of the tsunami can begin to be assessed.
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