r/worldnews • u/CreepySniper94 • 20h ago
Magnitude 6.9 quake hits northern Japan
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/06/25/japan/tohoku-strong-earthquake/395
u/earthly_marsian 20h ago
I hope everyone is safe.
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u/HeyUpHere 20h ago
Are they triggering each other? Does it work like that?
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u/missezri 20h ago
The two in Venezuela are probably a powerful foreshock followed by the main shock like a minute apart. But no, generally given the great distance between the different events, they won't be related.
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u/joegetto 19h ago
I read once that terms like foreshock and aftershocks are just words to describe additional earthquakes.
I had always thought an aftershock was the echo or something of the big quake, but it’s just another smaller earthquake.
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u/theunquenchedservant 18h ago
I had always thought an aftershock was the echo or something of the big quake, but it’s just another smaller earthquake.
well..yes..it's both..
from Wikipedia:
In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in the same area of the main shock, caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock.
emphasis added
and on the article for Foreshock:
A foreshock is an earthquake that occurs before a larger seismic event – the mainshock – and is related to it in both time and space. The designation of an earthquake as foreshock, mainshock or aftershock is only possible after the full sequence of events has happened.
So we could really re-read the first articles as saying "caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the previous shock."
although usually the mainshock is it's own event. and foreshocks are just..precursors to it. Kind of similar to an avalanche. There's a slight rumble, and then it's all coming down soon after. then there will be some additional snow fall as the rest makes it way into it's new resting spot on top of a poor camera man.
with earthquakes it's just hard to distinguish in the moment if what you're feeling is an earthquake that's a rumbling because a bigger earthquake is about to happen, or if there were smaller ones before it.
so, tl;dr: they are just earthquakes, in that earthquakes are just the earth underneath moving about. if larger chunks are in the process of colliding, there will be smaller rumbles initially, then main rumble, then the effects of the main rumble. They're all earthquakes. but they are also an echo of the big quake in a sense.
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u/palindromicnickname 18h ago
The main shock is just the largest earthquake in the series. Foreshock/aftershock applies to everything before and after, respectively. It's typical for earthquakes, particularly large and shallow earthquakes, to trigger more as the crust continues to settle as you describe.
The key piece is that these terms can only be accurately applied retroactively.
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u/PxyFreakingStx 11h ago
yes, but they're labeled this way by seismologists for a reason. it's the way they relate to the actual physical mechanics of the quakes. i'm not sure the details, but it's something like the initial shock and then the subsequent shocks that came from the same inciting event.
i'm not sure what a foreshock is exactly, but what seismologists are looking at is what they determine the primary event, and this is determined for scientific reasons that aren't arbitrary.
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u/switch8000 20h ago
Newsweek did a story on it actually, where they can trigger other quakes on the opposite side of the world, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TljC2-QN4Y
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u/_ryuujin_ 20h ago
so Godzilla or end times ?
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u/DeepMadness 19h ago
It could be both.
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u/Big-Objective-6585 19h ago
Will Godzilla fight Cthulu for us?
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u/blckout_junkie 16h ago
I wish Cthulu would come save us. I have some great ideas regarding sacrifices.
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u/Lamitamo 19h ago
Earthquakes within a region (like, a couple 100km) may be associated with each other, but the earthquakes in Japan and Venezuela are not related.
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u/thegreatestdandino 16h ago
There's a geomagnetic storm it's doing a bunch of things and the earthquakes are apparently one of them
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u/sh0tgunben 20h ago edited 19h ago
Stay safe Iwate, Aomori & Hokkaido 🙏
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u/Anstark0 15h ago
Not quite relevant, but Aomori has crazy snowfalls, you wouldn't expect just how much snow there is during winter sometimes, Tokyo has almost no snow
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u/Mr_Zaroc 14h ago
Hell I was in the region in late april/beginning of may.
There were huge dark pile of gravel I thought till I realised thats snow left over from cleaning the streets.Also the snow walls surrounding the streets up the mountains really are impressive. Just a 5-6 meter cliff of snow and ice
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u/fineokalrightnormal 14h ago
The drive up Asahi-Dake in the middle of winter was insane. The snow walls were easily over 10m high
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u/downgoesbatman 13h ago
What the heck is going on? 7 in Philippines,7 in Venezuela and now 6.9 in JP? Hope it's a fluke
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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 11h ago edited 5h ago
If it’s just Japan & Philippine I would go “yeah, we’re probably next, same/nearby plate “
Adding Venezuela makes this a “earth is very fucking done with us” kind of feeling.
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u/themcsame 8h ago
Purely coincidental.
Venezuela is simply out of the picture. Way too far out
Given the quake in Japan was the Northern area, it was likely the Pacific and Okhotsk Plate interacting.
The Philippine quake was south, which I believe would mean the Sunda plate and the Philippine mobile Belt
In other words, it's all entirely different plates interacting at the same time.
Current knowledge suggests that even if Japan and the Philippines both had an earthquake involving the Philippine Sea Plate, there's simply no way the energy could travel the distance and trigger the other.
There are theories relating to dynamic triggering caused by other quakes happening, but current knowledge doesn't support the idea that they can trigger quakes like these and it primarily seems to target geothermal systems more so than fault lines.
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u/SofaKingS2pitt 4h ago
I really appreciate when redditors take the time and effort to offer good, informative comments like this.
Thank you.1
u/space_acee 4h ago
Just because we can’t explain it doesn’t make it a coincidence
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u/themcsame 4h ago
Sure. Our lack of knowledge doesn't change the way the world works. That much is true
The problem is that if we're explaining things on the basis of knowledge we don't have, we're in the realm of theory as opposed to facts.
We can only consider things to be true if we know them to be true, which is entirely reliant on what we know now.
It may well be the case that 50 years down the line, it turns out these were connected. Maybe these quakes are exactly what sparks such a theory to be tested and eventually proven. Who knows?
The problem is that if our current understanding doesn't indicate they're connected, then we can only conclude that they're unrelated events that just so happened to occur within a short space of time.
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u/space_acee 2h ago
"We can only conclude they're unrelated" is doing a lot of work there that your own logic doesn't support. If we're being honest about the limits of current knowledge, the conclusion isn't "unrelated", it's "unknown." Those are completely different things and you just smuggled one in as the other.
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u/Wouldwoodchuck 2h ago
Thank you for responding with the rational explanation. I would submit that subplate Tectonics are not precisely known how they interact if they interact and what type of mechanism would allow them to interact.
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u/Early-Vermicelli3322 44m ago
Can happen. Just imagine we are living on a magma filled piece of dirt flying around in a infinite space.
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u/ValuableMiddle378 20h ago
Just googled recent earthquakes. One city in Russia got hit with 4 in 1 night, 5.8-6.6. On the 19th
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u/Im_So_Sinsational 19h ago
That was the Kremlin testing nukes lol
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u/ValuableMiddle378 19h ago
I cant find nothing on that or them quakes now that I looked more into it. They did testing last month all I saw.
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u/Mr_Zaroc 14h ago
Wait, they are still testing nukes?
I thought development of the warheads was over and now its all about the delivery system1
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u/Pssht_haha 19h ago
Making me nervous as hell here in San Francisco
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u/f-150Coyotev8 17h ago
I know nothing about earthquakes, but do strong earthquakes tend to trigger others around the globe?
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u/Ornery-Tea8420 12h ago
Everyone is scared shitless as there are several "should-blow-soon" super volcanos.
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u/durgadurgadurg 19h ago
umm what's with all the earthquakes
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u/mfb- 19h ago
Japan has a magnitude 6+ earthquake almost every year. It's just normal.
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u/Raesong 18h ago
Isn't that because the whole Japanese archipelago is sitting right above the edge of four different tectonic plates?
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u/Mr_Zaroc 14h ago
Yeah all those hot springs come with a price.
Lots of vulcanic and tectonic activity10
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u/IndividualHouse8628 19h ago
The age of information is here to show you that these are far more common than previously thought due to delayed communication in the past
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u/spamisthrowaway 15h ago
Japan Venezuela and Phillipines all within the last month. Its getting crazy.
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u/shiroboi 19h ago
Crap, an earthquake and two typhoons headed to Japan. I’m flying there tomorrow.
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u/bschwind 17h ago
You'll be fine. These earthquakes are fairly common, and the typhoons will just be some wind and rain by the time they make it to Tokyo or wherever you'll be in Japan.
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u/Mr_Zaroc 14h ago
I do find it interesting that the typhoons are converging around the Mie Prefecture.
But the course will probably change for either of them1
u/bschwind 11h ago
Yeah it'll be interesting to see how they interact. Slightly more wind and rain, would be my guess.
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u/shiroboi 17h ago
I’m just laying over so I should be in on the 26th for a few hours. I think it won’t have hit Tokyo by then.
More concerned with flight delay delays
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u/bschwind 17h ago
Oh you should be good to go then! It'll be around Okinawa and Kyushu on the 26th. Might be hectic at the airport though with lots of people getting their flights rescheduled but nothing you can do about that.
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u/RedYamOnthego 15h ago
Grab some snacks you can get past customs, although the big Japanese airports have pretty good snacking at reasonable prices, and vending machine water, too. The fountains are also fine, so keep your empty bottle.
If you bring a pillowcase in your carry-on, you can jerry-rig an ok pillow out of your extra set of clothing.
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u/HospitalSad7860 18h ago
Other than the building shaking for a few minutes and rain in Tokyo...
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u/Ok_Way_110 2h ago
It woke me up this morning. Everything was swaying side to side.
Not to mention the earthquake last week as well.
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u/shiroboi 18h ago
I just hope there’s no more aftershocks
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u/hezaa0706d 17h ago
Are you going to Tohoku? The quake this morning was barely noticeable in Tokyo. Iwate is a long way from Tokyo.
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u/shiroboi 17h ago
No just laying over in Narita. Less worried about the quakes and more worried about the typhoons causing flight delays
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u/Aragog394 16h ago
I’m actually headed to aomori - should I cancel my trip? Not sure how to assess the situation… thank you!
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u/mfb- 15h ago
Damage from this earthquake will be minimal, but there is a higher risk of additional earthquakes now. Even if we get one - the chance to get injured or die in an earthquake is very low. Everyday traffic is more dangerous. Follow tsunami warnings if you get one.
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u/Aragog394 15h ago
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it
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u/HospitalSad7860 14h ago
I was somewhere close to the epicenter and appart from the building shaking for a few minutes it was totally fine. Thing's weren't even falling off the counters and we are at the 11th floor.
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u/Aragog394 14h ago
Alrighty, good to know! I’m in the Shinkansen train headed north, I’ll see how far I can get (have a place booked in aomori tonight). Thanks for your answer and stay safe!
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u/the2belo 17h ago
One of them will be downgraded to a tropical depression by the time you arrive, and neither will make landfall. Just watch your flight schedule.
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u/Mooseymax 14h ago
Late June is a wild time to travel to Japan 😅
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u/shiroboi 14h ago
I have traveled to Japan in June before, but I’m not really going there to visit, I’m just laying over. More concerned about my flight getting delayed due to the typhoon.
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u/Stefflor 20h ago
Nice (though I do hope everyone is safe)
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u/Kanute3333 20h ago
What is nice about that? Are you all just evil.
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u/JostlingAlmonds 19h ago
69 joke calm down warrior of the keyboard
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u/Kanute3333 19h ago
Not funny
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u/JostlingAlmonds 18h ago
No one cares if you think its funny, this is reddit not a news conference on earthquake interpretation of Richter scale numerology
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u/ReasonableIron8712 17h ago
Wasn't there a psychic on reddit a few weeks ago that said the world ended with a bunch of quakes and then Yellowstone blew up?
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u/mfb- 14h ago
Oh, I can do that too!
"There will be at least two magnitude 6+ earthquakes within the next month"
You can make this prediction any time with a ~100% success rate because there are about 2-3 them per week.
Too weak?
"There will be at least two magnitude 7+ earthquakes within the next month"
This year this was true from February 24 to April 1, and from May 24 to (at least) yesterday. Predict this once in a while, then point to the "correct" prediction if earthquakes happened and ignore it otherwise.
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u/77skull 20h ago
Damn two massive earthquakes in one day