A powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Japan late Monday. Thereafter, a tsunami of 50 cm was measured just south of Aomori along the coast.

A 7.6 magnitude quake is near the top of the Richter scale. Keep in mind the scale is logarithmic, meaning as you go up in magnitude, the strength increases substantially.

Japan is in the hot spot for earthquake activity as the country lies on many fault lines. It’s in a region called the “Ring of Fire”. This area extends from Japan to the west coast of the United States.

This zone is the most active seismically and volcanically in the world. In fact, roughly 90% of all earthquakes occur in the zone, and 75% of all active volcanoes are in the zone.

Faults are fractures in the Earth’s crust where rocks move.

A normal

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