A study of the relationship between earthquakes near New Zealand and those that occurred in Japan.

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YamakenBlog is a mostly hobby blog about architecture, urban planning, and real estate that provides useful trivia for business.

This article summarizes the relationship between earthquakes that occur in the east of Japan (off the Pacific Ocean) and those that occur near New Zealand.
It will be updated whenever a major earthquake occurs.

The Relationship between Vanuatu and Japan

Recently, I read on Twitter in Japan that there is a connection between earthquakes near New Zealand and earthquakes in Japan.
There was a tweet that said, “When there is a big earthquake near New Zealand, there will be a big earthquake in Japan too!

In fact, on February 22, 2011, a few weeks before the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, New Zealand was hit by a M6.3 earthquake (Canterbury Earthquake) that killed 185 people, including 28 Japanese.

Most recently, on February 10, 2021, a M7.7 earthquake occurred in northern New Zealand (south-east of the Loyalty Islands) (where a tsunami of up to 64 cm was observed), and three days later, a M7.3 earthquake occurred off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, with a maximum seismic intensity of 6.0 on the Richter scale in Miyagi Prefecture.

So I got scared and looked it up. Then I found out that in the Japanese Twitter world, it is called ”Vanuatu’s Law”. It seems that it has been reported in newspapers in the past, but I didn’t know because I don’t read Japanese newspapers.

This is a list of major earthquakes that have occurred between 2019 and 2021 (the date of this article).
Near New Zealand (for reference, I’ve also included Papua New Guinea, which is roughly halfway between Japan and New Zealand and is connected by the Pacific Plate)

Relationship with earthquakes 2019 to present

＊Source：tenki.jp、PTWC

Conclusion and supplementary information

There seems to be a correlation, doesn’t it?
However, in fact, in addition to the earthquakes mentioned above, small to medium-sized earthquakes occur every day on the Pacific Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate.

The above table is just a tally of magnitudes 6 and above that have occurred near New Zealand.

However, it is an undeniable fact that when a relatively large earthquake occurs in the vicinity of New Zealand, a large trench-type earthquake also occurs in Japan a few days to a few weeks later.
It may be that we just don’t have the evidence to say for sure that there is a correlation.

So, that’s it for the article.

The website of the Japan Meteorological Agency shows that earthquakes are always occurring in the seas around Japan.
It is advisable to be vigilant against earthquakes on a daily basis.