Sedona Sweginnis | Newsroom Manager & Head Editor
December 17, 2025
A 7.5 earthquake struck just east of northern Japan on Monday, December 8th. Following notable damages from this initial tremor, including 51 people injured, multiple smaller earthquakes struck in similar locations around Japan, and a 5.7 magnitude quake emerged off of Japan’s northeast coast.
As earthquakes are not entirely uncommon in this area, a tremor of this magnitude, that has already caused significant damages in northern Japan, raises significant concerns that a greater earthquake will follow, resulting in even greater damages in addition to a possible tsunami.
While it is hopeful that the shaking is over and this quake was the largest one that will hit Japan for the foreseeable future, seismologists are concerned that this earthquake was a before-shock to a greater one to come, leading them to put 800 miles of the long island on the highest-level warning for a megaquake.
Earthquakes are known to be highly unpredictable, and the chance of a megaquake coming is only 1%, but seismologists have reason for concern. In 1963, when Japan was hit by a 8.5 magnitude quake, it was hit with a 7.0 tremor just 18 hours prior to the devastating shock. Similarly, in 2011, Japan was shaken up by a 7.3 quake, also off the coast of northeastern Japan, before it was hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake, measuring in at a catastrophic 9.1 on the Richter scale.
This devastating earthquake also resulted in a tsunami, which arrived on shore less than 30 minutes after the quake. The tsunami reached heights up to 130 feet in some areas and decimated cities with currents traveling as far as six miles inland. This devastating event took an immense toll on the nation, destroying buildings and resulting in a heartbreaking count of roughly 20,000 dead or missing. There are still over two thousand people unaccounted for, still missing from this natural disaster from nearly fifteen years ago.
The memory of this tragedy still fresh, it is reasonable to implement policies of excessive caution when dealing with this most recent quake. Concern over its close resemblance, in both location and magnitude, to the preshock in 2011 has resulted in extra precautions embedded into the megashock advisory in order to prevent such total damages.
Upon hearing about the earthquake, junior Karma Williamson expressed that she felt “empathy for everyone involved.” Especially with “the events of 2011” still so recent in everyone’s memory, her “heart goes out to them.” Additionally, Williamson noted that “even without a tsunami, it is still really scary to experience that.”
The world is keeping Japan in their thoughts and praying that these quakes were an isolated event and not an indicator for anything more.
Furthermore, freshman Alaina Dustin asserted that she hopes that “all of the people who were injured recover quickly,” and that the recovery process for this disaster is smooth. She continues to pray that “nothing like 2011 happens again.”
Thanks to the dedicated response teams and seismologists, the impacts of this tremor were reduced as far as possible under current resources and scientific developments. Although the nation is prepared to handle the worst, remaining in a state of high alert for a megaquake, recoveries and repairs seem to be going smoothly. Hearts from around the world go out to those affected and pray that the worst of it is in the past.
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