On the first day of the New Year, Japan was hit with a magnitude 7.6 earthquake and dozens of aftershocks that left over 200 dead and over 100 unaccounted for. On only the first day of the year, we already have the first big natural disaster of 2024. Japan has experienced many earthquakes and tsunamis in the past due to the country’s placement in the Ring of Fire, and has many precautions set up around it. January 1st, the earthquake hit the Nota Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, and light shaking was felt all the way in Tokyo. As people visited temples for the New Year, many stone statues were toppling. Even with Japan’s architectural safety measures, many houses collapsed and street tiles shook.
As earthquakes are an important part of the Earth Science curriculum at our own Hidden Valley High School, we interviewed Carmen Oakes (Earth Science Teacher) on the topic. Ms. Oakes says that she had heard about the earthquake before, sharing that she heard that it was about a 7.6 with there being a lot of damage done and a lot of buildings collapsed. Going on to share her expertise in the field of Earth Science saying that “Even thought that was a really big earthquake, the aftershocks for an earthquake that big are also gonna be pretty substantial” and that “The more people they could have got out as quickly as possible that were still survivors before aftershocks hit, that would be good. With buildings already collapsed the aftershocks can create even more of a mess.”
