The Japan Meteorological Agency
recorded a Magnitude 6.3 Earthquake at a depth of about 20 km, off the east coast of the Miyazaki Prefecture on Kyūshū Island,
slightly before 8.50 am Japan
Standard Time on Friday 10 May 2019 (slightly before 11.50 pm on Friday 9 May GMT).
The event was felt across much of western Japan, with the jolt being quite severe in the cities of Miyazaki and Miyakonojo, though only minor damage has been reported, with one person suffering non-life-threatening injuries.
A water suply pipe damaged by the 10 May 2019 Miyazaki Earthquake. Miyazaki City Waterworks and Sewerage Bureau/Kyodo News.
Japan has a complex tectonic environment with four plates underlying
parts of the Islands; in addition to the Pacific in the east and the
Othorsk in the North, there are the Philipine Plate to the south and the
Eurasian Plate to the West. Kyūshū Island lies at the northeast end of
the Ryukyu Island Arc, which sits on top of the boundary between the
Eurasian and Philippine Plates. The Philippine Plate is being subducted
beneath the Eurasian Plate, in the Ryukyo Trench, to the Southeast of
the Islands. This is not a smooth process, with the two plates
continuously sticking together then breaking apart as the pressure builds
up, leading to frequent Earthquakes in the region.
The movement of the Pacific and Philippine Plates beneath eastern Honshū. Laurent Jolivet/Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans/Sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement.
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