Tsunami alert after an earthquake of over 7 degrees

Tsunami alert. A 7.4-magnitude undersea earthquake shook the area near Taiwan on Wednesday night shortly before midnight GMT, triggering tsunami warnings for both Taiwan and Japan’s Okinawa islands and the Philippines.

Waves of up to three meters are expected in Okinawa, with strong evacuation advice to higher ground, as pointed out by a presenter on Japan’s national broadcaster NHK. Authorities in Taiwan have also issued a tsunami alert for its coastal areas.

The epicenter of the earthquake was located near the east coast of Taiwan just before 8:00 a.m. local time (9:00 a.m. in Japan, 00:00 GMT).

Tsunami alert for Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines

Seismic monitoring agencies reported different magnitudes: the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) recorded a magnitude of 7.5, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported 7.4, and the Taiwan Meteorological Agency (CWA) estimated a magnitude of 7.2.

The director of the Taipei Seismological Center, Wu Chien-fu, noted that this earthquake is the most intense in the past 25 years on the island, recalling the devastating 1999 earthquake of magnitude 7.6, which caused the death of 2,400 people.

The Philippines also issued warnings of “large tsunami waves” and called for the immediate evacuation of certain coastal areas on Wednesday.

“Residents in coastal areas in the following provinces are strongly advised to immediately evacuate to higher ground or move further inland,” the national seismological institute said in an advisory covering 23 provinces.

Following the earthquake, two buildings collapsed in Hualien, Taiwan, a city located near the epicenter of the earthquake.

“Two buildings collapsed and people could be trapped under the debris. We don’t have any more information at this time,” said an official from the Hualien Fire Department.

The tsunami risk has been “largely passed,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, a regional observatory based in Hawaii, said.

The underwater earthquake struck shortly before 00:00 GMT and triggered tsunami warnings in Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) downgraded the tsunami alert to “warning” for the Japanese islands of Okinawa. According to JMA, which had previously warned about a tsunami of up to three meters, it is likely that now the waves will not exceed one meter.