M 7.5 - 2024 Noto Peninsula, Japan Earthquake

 Noto Peninsula, Japan Earthquake, 2024

    On January 1st, 2024, at 4:10 p.m. local time, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the Ishikawa Prefecture on the Noto Peninsula, about 150 miles north of Nagoya, Japan. The epicenter was located on the northern Noto Peninsula, or about 30km ENE of Wajima, Ishikawa, at a depth of about 16 km (Carpenter, 2024). The temblor triggered a tsunami along the Japan Sea coast, with waves reaching more than 120 centimeters at Wajima, 90 centimeters at Kanazawa, 80 centimeters in the prefectures of Yamagata and Toyama, and 40 centimeters in Niigata Prefecture (N/A, 2024). 

    Since the start of the disaster, 1,035 aftershocks of intensity 1 or higher have been observed, which was noted on January 5th, six of which with an intensity of five or higher (Itatani et al. 2024). Damage to infrastructure ignited fires that burned through communities. Heavy snow that fell after the quake complicated emergency response efforts, making it difficult for aid to reach some communities (NOAA, 2024). The Noto Earthquake was the result of a long (150+ km) and shallow (<10 km) reverse fault with moderate dip slipping as much as 3.5 meters (Carpenter, 2024). Some areas of the Noto Peninsula experienced ground uplift by up to 4 meters vertically and 1 meter horizontally.

    The Noto Earthquake resulted in 281 deaths, a reported 83,980 homes were damaged, and some 34,000 residents were forced to evacuate their homes as of 6 months after the disaster (N/A, 2024). As previously stated, the damage to the infrastructure ignited fires, notably in Wajima City, which can be seen in the video below; this only shows the aftermath, not the process. Two reactors at the Shika nuclear power plant on the Noto peninsula survived but experienced temporary power outages due to damage (CDP, 2024). 

The delay in the restoration from the earthquake is mainly due to the geographical characteristics of the Noto peninsula and the Ishikawa Prefecture. Ishikawa Prefecture has a long and narrow topography running north to south with only a few major roads to connect the northern and southern parts of the peninsula, as compared to the Tohoku Earthquake of 2011, which allowed for comb-like patterns of rapid recovery efforts to spread (Itatani et al. 2024). Lessons from the 2011 earthquake of Tohoku may have been applied during this disaster, as an analysis of smartphone location data during the 2024 quake shows that about half of users began to evacuate within six to seven minutes of the initial earthquake, while in 201 residents took twice as long to evacuate (CDP, 2024).

Noto Peninsula, Japan ShakeMap (USGS, 2024)
M 7.5 - 2024 Noto Peninsula, Japan Earthquake. Earthquake hazards program. (2024). https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us6000m0xl/shakemap/intensity

Damage in the coastal town of Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture, January 2 (Taylor, 2024)
Taylor, A. (2024, January 3). Photos: The aftermath of Japan’s January 1 earthquake. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2024/01/photos-the-aftermath-of-japans-earthquake/677003/#img09 

Damages to roads in Noto, Ishikawa, Japan (Regan, 2024)

Regan, H. (2024, January 2). “battle against time” to find quake survivors as Japan lifts tsunami warnings and death toll rises. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/02/asia/japan-earthquake-tsunami-warnings-tuesday-intl-hnk/index.html

   Japan Earthquake: Wajima City (Sky News, 2024)

The above video showcases the aftermath of the earthquake and its devastating effects. The video also contains interviews with a few people, some detailing the events and some explaining the relief efforts.

SkyNews. (2024, January 4). Japan earthquake: Wajima City unrecognisable as window for finding survivors narrows. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXPaVZ5DpTw&ab_channel=SkyNews 

2024 Japan earthquake. Center for Disaster Philanthropy. (2024, April 26). https://disasterphilanthropy.org/disasters/2024-japan-earthquake/  

Itatani, T., Kojima, M., Tanaka, J., & Horike, R. (2024, January 29). Field report of the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake ... https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377784087_Field_Report_of_the_2024_Noto_Peninsula_Earthquake-Current_Status_and_Challenges_of_Evacuation_Centers_in_Wajima_City   

NASA. (n.d.). Earthquake lifts the Noto Peninsula. NASA. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152350/earthquake-lifts-the-noto-peninsula 

Post Event Report: Noto Peninsula Japan Earthquake. Post event report: Noto peninsula japan earthquake. (2024). https://www.guycarp.com/insights/2024/01/noto-peninsula-japan-earthquake.html 

Six months on: The state of recovery on the Noto Peninsula. nippon.com. (2024, July 2). https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h02041/