The Japan Meteorological Agency recorded a Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake at a depth of about 10 km, beneath Kumamoto Prefecture on Kyūshū Island, slightly before 4.30 pm Japan Standard Time (slightly before 7.30 am GMT) on Tuesday 28 July 2026. At least 34 people have died following this event, and many more are still missing, most of them within a shopping centre which collapsed during the Earthquake, and where an explosion occurred about an hour later, probably due to a broken gas main. The Earthquake was felt across western Japan, and more than 100 aftershocks have been recorded since the original event.
Around 30 000 households lost power following the event, and around 80 000 have lost water supplies. More than 1000 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters, while civil engineers make safe their residences. Managing this evacuation is proving to be particularly difficult, as many evacuation centres have also lost electricity and water suppliers. The area is currently also suffering from a heatwave, with temperatures reaching as high as 39°C, and around 30% of those evacuated have been described as elderly and vulnerable to the heat.
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.
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