A magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan has been analyzed as a 'strike-slip' earthquake, similar to the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), the earthquake occurred at 4:27 p.m. on July 28, with a depth of approximately 9 kilometers. The highest intensity of 7 was recorded in Uki City and Hikawa Town in Kumamoto Prefecture.
Strike-slip earthquakes occur when fault lines shift horizontally under pressure. While the shaking from these quakes is generally more localized compared to subduction zone earthquakes like the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, their shallow depth can cause significant shaking in specific areas.
The Kumamoto earthquake in April 2016 also exhibited this type of fault mechanism, recording two magnitude 7 quakes. Kazushige Obara, a fellow at the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience, stated, "This relatively shallow earthquake at a depth of about 9 kilometers is similar in location and mechanism to the Kumamoto earthquake from ten years ago."
During the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, fault ruptures occurred to the north of the Hinagu fault, extending southwest toward Yatsushiro Bay from Mashiki Town in Kumamoto Prefecture.
Aitaro Gato, a professor at the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute, noted, "This earthquake occurred further south than the previous one, and there is a possibility of sequential fault ruptures occurring further south, which requires caution."
This is the first time since the Noto Peninsula earthquake in January 2024 that a magnitude 7 tremor has been observed in Japan, and it marks the first such occurrence in Kumamoto Prefecture in nearly a decade since the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake.
Meanwhile, the earthquake caused power outages in 50,000 households in Kumamoto, and fires were reported in some areas. Additionally, JR Kyushu, the local railway operator, suspended operations of the Shinkansen and other trains, while Kumamoto Airport's runway was closed, leading All Nippon Airways (ANA) to halt flight operations.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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