MINAMI-ASO VILLAGE, Japan (Reuters) -A drone operated by Japan’s Geospatial Information Authority (GSI) captured dramatic footage over the weekend (April 16 and 17) of the extent of some of the landslides triggered by powerful earthquakes in southern Japan, as well as cracks in the ground revealing seismic fault lines.
In one video, a landslide carrying large amounts of mud and water is seen running through a neighbourhood, swallowing a nearby public road.
Long cracks in the ground can also be seen, revealing the fault lines that triggered the two massive earthquakes, one on Thursday (April 14) and one on Saturday (April 16). Japanese media quoted experts as saying the fault lines moved as much as three metres (3.2 yards) apart in places.
There have been more than 230 aftershocks of at least level 1 on the Japanese scale since Thursday’s quake, said Japan’s meteorological agency.
Thirty three people have been confirmed dead in Saturday’s quake and nine in the smaller tremor a little more than 24 hours earlier. The government said about 190 of the injured were in serious condition and some 110,000 people had been displaced. Nine people are still missing.
Quakes are common in Japan, part of the seismically active “Ring of Fire” which sweeps from the South Pacific islands, up through Indonesia and Japan, across to Alaska and down the west coast of the United States and Central and South America.
GSI is part of Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.