Why Japan issued its first-ever mega-earthquake alert

On August 8, the Japanese Meteorological Agency issued its first-ever “megaquake alert,” after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked the Miyazaki prefecture in southern Japan earlier that day. The Miyazaki quake injured at least 16 people and generated minor tsunamis up to 50 centimeters tall that reached the country’s coastline about half an hour later.

The Miyazaki quake’s point of origin, or hypocenter, was located offshore and about 25 kilometers underground, near a seafloor depression called the Nankai Trough. A large fault zone sits beneath the trough, and experts are concerned that the Miyazaki temblor may have altered the distribution of stress along it, potentially paving the way for a

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