Tokyo has 70% chance another major earthquake will hit in next four years

Japanese scientists have announced there is a 70 percent probability of Tokyo experiencing a magnitude-7 earthquake in the next four years, a significant elevation of the threat to a city that is home to 8.9 million people.

The Japanese capital has historically been subjected to major earthquakes in cycles of approximately 60 years. The last major disaster struck in 1923, when The Great Kanto Earthquake caused the deaths of more than 105,000 people and flattened large parts of Tokyo, Yokohama and the surrounding Kanto region.

A model by the government has estimated that a magnitude 7.3 quake beneath Tokyo Bay would kill 5,600 people in the city and injure 145,000 people, of whom 22,000 would be seriously injured.

[link to www.telegraph.co.uk]