A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck northern Japan on Friday, weather services said, days after a magnitude 7.5 quake in the same region injured at least 50 people. Reminder: Magnitude 7.6 earthquake injures at least 30 in Japan The Japan Meteorological Agency, revising upwards its initial estimate of 6.5, also warned that tsunami waves of up to one meter (three feet) could hit the northern Pacific coast. Japan is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of intense seismic activity. The archipelago, which is home to around 125 million inhabitants, records around 1,500 tremors per year. The vast majority are benign, although the damage caused varies depending on their location and depth below the earth’s surface. Earthquakes are extremely difficult to predict, but in January a government committee slightly increased its estimate of the probability of a significant temblor in the Nankai Trench, opposite the Japanese archipelago, over the next 30 years, to between 75% and 82%.
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