A devastating earthquake shook Noto Peninsula of Japan on January 1, 2024. The magnitude of the quake was 7.5 on the Richter Scale that claimed 213 lives and prompted 26,000 people to move to emergency shelters. At least 60,000 households still do not have a supply of fresh water, while 15,000 families have no electricity connection. What has come to be known after all these is quite surprising!
According to experts, the tremors were so strong that the sea receded. The satellite images of the event have revealed that the force of the earthquake was enough to shift Japan's coastline by 800km, raising two football pitches of new beach and leaving harbours dry! Nahel Belgherze, a French Electronic Technician who covers extreme weather events across the globe, has said: "The earthquake that struck Japan's Noto peninsula on Monday was so strong that the coastline has moved up to 250mt offshore due to significant land uplift."
Experts from the University of Tokyo, too, have claimed that they found evidence of coastal uplift in at least 10 locations along the northwest coast of the Noto Peninsula. The coastal uplift has also been caught in the images taken by the special artificial satellite Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
In a statement, the Japanese researchers have stressed: "During a field investigation along the northwest coast of the Noto Peninsula, we found evidence at 10 locations, from Kaiso to Akasaki sites, of coseismic coastal uplift related to the Noto Peninsula Earthquake (M7.6). The pattern of estimated coseismic coastal uplift appears to be decreasing southward from Kaiso to Akasaki."
US Silently Increases Its Areas
The US has silently included six areas of the Extended Continental Shelf (ECS). The US media recently reported that the country's area grew by 386,000 square miles, almost twice the size of Spain, after the inclusion of these territories. The ECS is the area of the continental shelf that is under shallow water, beyond 200 nautical miles.
In a statement, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has said that ECS is an important maritime zone, as it holds various resources and vital habitats for marine life. Apart from the newly included one, the US has six ECSs… The Atlantic east coast, the Pacific west coast, the Bering Sea, the Mariana Islands and two portions of the Gulf of Mexico. Experts are of the opinion that the US has been eyeing maritime resources for a long time.
Meanwhile, the US State Department has issued a statement, mentioning: "Like other countries, the US has rights under International Law to conserve and manage the resources and vital habitats on and under its ECS."
Wilson Centre, a Washington DC-based think tank, has claimed that the extension of ECS has major implications for the US' efforts to secure its territorial rights in the Arctic region. In a press release, the think tank stated: "It has long been clear that the US has major economic interests in undersea territory rich in oil, natural gas, minerals and sea life to which it has sovereign rights under the law of the sea as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention." According to the Wilson Centre, the US has the largest exclusive economic zone in the world, and the zone helps the country to safeguard its sovereign rights to areas submerged under water. "It is also an important milestone reflecting US engagement with the law of the sea as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and as an aspect of advancing major US interests in the Arctic and other regions," added the think tank.
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