Panel: Risk Remains For Huge Quake Off Tohoku
A Japanese government panel of experts warns that there is a possibility that powerful earthquakes will occur off the northeastern part of the country for years to come.
The Earthquake Research Committee on Tuesday gave its assessment of seismic activities off the Pacific coast of the Tohoku region over the decade since a massive quake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
The committee says 208 quakes with a magnitude of 4 or higher occurred in the aftershock area since March last year. That's less than one-25th of the number recorded in the year immediately after the disaster.
But the experts say quakes are occurring more frequently than the pre-disaster average along the Pacific coast of Tohoku and near the Japan Trench that lies along the coast of Tohoku to Kanto.
Observations by a global positioning system found that crustal movements are continuing in wide areas of Tohoku and eastern Japan as an aftereffect of the 2011 quake.
The committee concludes there remains a risk that large earthquakes and tsunami will occur over a long period of time, and that people should stay on the alert.