The exterior wall of a shop is seen collapsed in an earthquake, in Kumamoto City on July 28, 2026.
Photo by JIJI Press / AFP via Getty Images
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A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, south of the city of Kumamoto, on Tuesday afternoon local time. The earthquake has damaged roads and buildings, including a mall where rescue workers are seeking to extract trapped people.
The earthquake occurred along a strike-slip fault, where the two sides of a fracture in Earth’s crust slide past one another. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake happened on a fault in the upper Eurasia plate and is in an area where the Philippine Sea plate converges with the Eurasia plate at a rate of about 58 millimeters (2.3 inches) per year. The USGS estimates there is extensive, widespread damage from the earthquake.
Japan is a very tectonically active country, as it sits along the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire. It sits along a major subduction zone—earthquakes caused by subduction are major drivers of tsunamis, which was the mechanism behind the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which was so powerful it shifted the entire country. A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Honshu, Japan’s largest island, in April.
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