Unknown Snailfish sighted 8336 m beneath the surface is the deepest Fish ever recorded.

A team of Japanese and Australian scientists exploring the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, south of Japan, by Remote Operated Vehicle, has spotted an unknown species of Snailfish, Pseudoliparis sp., living at a depth of 8336 m, making it the deepest Fish ever recorded. This exceeds the previous record by 158 m, another Snailfish caught in a trap within the Japan Trench in 2017. A few days later the same team was able to trap two species of Belyaev's Snailfish, Pseudoliparis belyaevi, at a depth of 8022 m. Belyaev's Snailfish is an exclusively deep water species, having never been encountered at depths shallower than 7703 m.

Unknown Snailfish, Pseudoliparis sp., sighted at a depth of 8336 m in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, south of Japan. University of Western Australia.

The team, led by Alan Jamieson of the University of Western Australia, have been exploring the Izu-Ogasawara and Japan trenches for 15 years, finding a surprising number of Fish at depths in excess of 8000 m. Previous exploration of the mush deeper Mariana Trench has found very few Fish at these depths. The majority of these Fish are Snailfish, a group uniquely suited to surviving at such great depths. Snailfish lack swim-bladders and scales, have a very lightly calcified skeleton, and protect themselves with a layer of mucus, which gives them their name. Living at these depths they have very few natural predators, although food is also very scarce, largely comprising of carrion which has sunk from higher in the water column.

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Magnitude 5.5 Earthquake in Iwate Prefecture, Japan.

The Japan Meteorological Agency recorded a Magnitude 5.5 Earthquake at a depth of 90 km in eastern Iwate Prefecture on northern Honshū Island, Japan, slightly after 2.35 am Japan Standard Time on Sunday 15 June 2014 (slightly after 5.35 pm on Saturday 14 June GMT). There are no reports of any damage or casualties associated with this event, but it was felt across much of eastern Honshū and southern Hokkaido.

The approximate location of the 15 June 2014 Iwate Prefecture Earthquake. Google Maps.

Japan has a complex tectonic situation, with parts of the country on four different tectonic plates. To the east of northern Honshū lies the Japan Trench, along which the Pacific Plate is being subducted beneath the Okhotsk Plate which underlies northern Japan, passing under the island as it sinks into the Earth. This is not a smooth process, the two plates continuously stuck together then broke apart as the pressure built up, causing Earthquakes in the process. 

The movement of the Pacific and Philippine Plates beneath eastern Honshu. Laurent Jolivet/Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans/Sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement.

See also...

 Tokyo shaken by Magnitude 6.2 Earthquake.

The Japan Meteorological Agency recorded a Magnitude 6.2 Earthquake at a depth of 160 km, off the south coast of the Kantō...

 Japanese volcanic islands merge.

Niijima, a new volcanic island that appeared in November 2013, has merged with the neighbouring island of Nishinoshima, another volcanic island which last erupted in 1973, according to NASA. When the new island initially appeared it was 500 m from...

 Small eruption in the Aso Caldera, Japan.

On 20 December 2013 the Japan Meteorological Agency detected an increase in seismic activity beneath Aso (or Asosan) a volcanic caldera on central Kyūshū Island, Japan. This grew steadily for the next week, prompting the agency to raise the alert level on the...

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Magnitude 5.8 Earthquake in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

The Japan Meteorological Agency recorded a Magnitude 5.8 Earthquake at a depth of 20 km in the southeast of Fukushima Prefecture on Honshū Island, Japan, at 2.25 am Japan Standard Time on Friday 20 September 2013 (5.25 pm on Thursday 19 September, GMT). There are no reports of any damage or casualties arising from this quake, however it was felt across much of northern and eastern Honshū.

The approximate location of the 20 September 2013 Fukushima Earthquake. Google Maps.

Japan has a complex tectonic situation, with parts of the country on four different tectonic plates. To the east of northern Honshū lies the Japan Trench, along which the Pacific Plate is being subducted beneath the Okhotsk Plate which underlies northern Japan, passing under the island as it sinks into the Earth. This is not a smooth process, the two plates continuously stuck together then broke apart as the pressure built up, causing Earthquakes in the process. 

The epicenter of the Earthquake lies about 50 km to the southwest of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, which was destroyed by a tsunami following a Magnitude 9.0 Earthquake off the Japanese coast on 11 March 2013. The site has been leaking radioactive water into the sea since 7 August 2013, a leak which Japanese authorities are currently struggling to halt. While this quake does not appear to have made matters at the sight any worse, it does serve to emphasize that any long term solution to the site's problems must be able to cope with further Earthquakes.

See also Magnitude 6.9 Earthquake in the Izu Islands to the south of Japan, Japanese city covered in ash by eruption on Sakurajima Volcano, Eruptions on Sakurajima, Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake east of the Oshika Peninsula, Japan and Eruption on Suwanosejima.

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Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake east of the Oshika Peninsula, Japan.

A Magnitude 60. Earthquake occurred at a depth of 50 km, roughly 35 km off the Oshika Peninsula in northeast Honshu Island slightly after 12.30 pm local time (3.30 am GMT) on Sunday 4 August 2013, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Although this is a fairly deep quake and a fair way off shore, it was also large and caused some fairly intense shaking on the closest parts of the coast, though there are no reports of any damage or casualties and no tsunami warning has been issued.

Map showing the location of the quake (red cross) and the levels of shaking felt in different regions on the Japan Meteorological Agency's Seismic Intensity Scale. These  are Upper 5 (orange), shaking stops traffic and makes it hard to walk, likely to cause significant damage to non-quakeproofed buildings and cracks to quakeproofed buildings; Lower 5 (dark yellow), may make it hard to walk, likely to cause mild damage to non-quakeproofed buildings and some cracks to non-quakeproofed buildings; 4 (light yellow) may wake sleeping people, likely to cause cracks and minor damage to non-quakeproofed buildings but not to quakeproofed ones; and 3 (dark blue) strong shaking felt, but only a mild risk of minor damage to non-quakeproofed buildings. Japan Meteorological Agency.

Japan has a complex tectonic situation, with parts of the country on four different tectonic plates. To the east of northern Honshu lies the Japan Trench, along which the Pacific Plate is being subducted beneath the Okhotsk Plate which underlies northern Japan, passing under the island as it sinks into the Earth. This is not a smooth process, the two plates continuously stuck together then broke apart as the pressure built up, causing Earthquakes in the process. 

See also Eruption on Suwanosejima, Eruption on Tori-shima, Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake in southern Japan, Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake off the coast of Japan and Eruption on Ivan Grozny.

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Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake off the coast of Japan.

On Friday 7 December 2012, slightly before 5.20 pm local time (slightly before 8.20 am, GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency recorded a Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km, roughly 250 km off the east coast of Japan. This was followed 13 minutes later by a second, Magnitude 6.2 quake at roughly the same location, and a number of subsequent aftershocks have been recorded. No casualties or damage have been reported, but the quake was felt across much of eastern Japan and a tsunami warning was initially issued, though this was later withdrawn. 

The location of the 7 December 2012 quake, and the areas that felt the strongest shaking. Areas coloured the strongest yellow would have been shaken the most severely. Japan Meteorological Agency.

The quake took place on the Japan Trench, along which the Pacific Plate is being subducted beneath the Okhotsk Plate which underlies northern Japan. As the Pacific Plate sinks into the Earth the two plates continuously stuck together then broke apart as the pressure built up, causing Earthquakes in the process. 

The movement of the tectonic plates underlying Japan. Chubu Electric/Earthquake Research Committee.

This is particularly dangerous along a marine trench, as the overlying plate can be bent by the tectonic movement then snap back with the quake that releases the pressure; which causes some of the most severe tsunamis.

The sequence of events that can lead to major Earthquakes on a submarine trench. PennState University.

See also Volcanic activity on Mount Alaid, Eruption on Ivan Grozny, Massive deep Earthquake beneath the Sea of Okhotsk, Japan shaken by pair of major Earthquakes and Earthquakes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

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Japan shaken by pair of major Earthquakes.

At about 6.15 pm Japan Standard Time (9.15 am GMT) northeastern Japan was shaken by a quake 235 south of the coast of Hokkaido and 293 km east of Honshu. This was recorded as measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale at a depth of 10 km by the Japan Meteorological Agency and 6.9 on the Richter Scale at a depth of 26.6 km by the United States Geological Survey. This was sufficient to provoke a tsunami warning, though no hazardous wave was forthcoming; a 20 cm wave was recorded an hour after the quake in the port of Hachinohe in Aomori, with smaller waves recorded at other points on the coast; technically a tsunami, but far from hazardous.

The location of the 6.14 pm quake, and the areas that felt shaking. Higher numbers on key refer to more severe shaking. Japan Meteorological Agency.

At about 9.10 pm JST (12.10 pm GMT) a second large quake hit the same area, this one roughly 244 km south of Hokkaido and 279 km east of Honshu. This was measured as 6.1 on the Richter Scale by both the Japan Meteorological Agency and the United States Geological Survey, with the JMA placing it at a depth of 10 km and the USGS at 9.5 km. This quake did not cause a tsunami, but was felt across a much larger part of the country and caused Narita International Airport to close briefly.

The location of the 9.10 pm quake. United States Geological Survey.

Both these quakes occurred on the Japan Trench system, where the Pacific Plate is being subducted beneath the Othotsk Plate (an extension of the North American Plate) to the east of northern Japan. This was the same subduction zone that caused the devastating Tōhoku Earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011.

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 Sea Plate to the south and the Eurasian Plate to the West. This makes Japan extremely prone to Earthquakes, typically suffering dozens a week, and one-or-two larger quakes a month. This has made the country one of the world's best prepared for quakes, able to deal with quakes that would cause devastation in other parts of the world, though as the Tōhoku Earthquake demonstrated, truly large quakes can still cause Japan major problems.

The tectonic plates underlying Japan. Volcano Lovers.

See also Earthquake shakes Yamanashi Prefecture, Explosion on Suwanosejima, Massive, deep Earthquake, south of Japan, Hokkaido Earthquake and Earthquakes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.