Japan Hit By 7.3 Magnitude Earthquake; Tsunami Threat Alerted Residents

Many citizens were anxious and alarmed brought by the catastrophic phenomenon due to their previous experience over the past years. Japan is considered as one of the most affected by natural disasters such as tsunamis, typhoons, earthquakes, cyclones and volcanic eruptions, which bring losses in terms of economy, development and social.

Volcanologists stated that Japan sits atop the Ring of Fire and has 100 volcanoes occupying the mass of its land. According to the National Geographic, the Ring of Fire is a string of volcanoes and sites of seismic activity or earthquakes around the edges of the Pacific Ocean. In fact, approximately 90 percent of all earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire, and the ring is dotted with 75 percent of all active volcanoes on Earth.

The shape of the Ring of Fire is similarly like a 40,000-kilometer (25,000-mile) horseshoe and includes 452 volcanoes that extend from the southern tip of South America, up along the coast of North America, across the Bering Strait, down through Japan and then to New Zealand.

Furthermore, in SBS news, in the interview with Associate Professor Mark Quigley, who specializes in earthquake science at Melbourne University, he said that, "The Pacific plate is subducting. It's old, cold, ocean crust, so it's quite dense and heavy. When it counters other tectonic plates, it has the tendency to sink. It sinks down and melts in the mantle and the product of that melt rise up through the crust, that magma, and they erupt in volcanoes."

In addition, Professor Quigley emphasized that Japan was more frequently visited by disastrous event due to the location of the country that sits atop the Ring of Fire and the activity that takes place in the Pacific Plate. "The Pacific Plate is moving towards Japan every year, so it's subducting and melting and that's the sources of those volcanoes," Professor Quigley added.

Finally, Associate Professor Quigley incorporates the dreadful earthquake and the biggest that had occurred around the Ring of Fire is the magnitude 9.5 earthquake in Chile in the 1960s.