A 50 cm tsunami was recorded in Hachijojima’s Yaene on Tuesday morning after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck about 100 kilometers north of the volcanic Torishima Island, according to the Meteorological Agency.
A tsunami advisory, warning of waves of up to 1 meter, was issued for the Izu and Ogasawara islands after the quake, but it was lifted at 11 a.m. A lower level notice about the possibility of slight changes in sea level remained in place for the islands, as well as in areas along the Pacific Coast from Chiba Prefecture to Okinawa.
The quake struck at 8:14 a.m. at a depth of 10 km, but no areas recorded shaking of shindo 1 or higher on Japan’s seismic intensity scale. The Meteorological Agency's Shigeki Aoki, speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, said this is likely due to the relatively lower magnitude and the epicenter’s distance from land.
In addition to the tsunami recorded in Hachijojima, a 20 cm tsunami reached Kozu Island’s Kozu Port, and 10 cm waves were reported in Miyake Island’s Tsubota and Ako, as well as Izu-Oshima’s Okada.
Later Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the government has not received any reports of damage from the quake or tsunami.
It remains unclear whether Tuesday’s earthquake was related to the Sept. 19 eruption of Smith Island, in the Izu Island chain, the agency said.
Earthquakes around magnitude 6.0 have frequently occurred near Torishima Island, including a magnitude 6.5 quake in 2023.
“Usually, if the magnitude is 5.9, it isn’t on a scale that would cause a tsunami,” the agency's Aoki said.
“But it is very close to Smith Island,” where quakes of such magnitude have triggered tsunamis in the past, he added.
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