Saturday, March 29, 2025
Friday, December 12, 2025 — Japan and Fiji experienced earthquakes almost simultaneously early Friday morning, adding to the ongoing seismic activity in both regions. The tremors came just three days after Japan was struck by a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake.
Blue flashes lighting up the night sky in rural Japan during the 7.6 Aomori earthquake
A rare phenomenon known as earthquake lights, created when seismic stress builds electric charge and ionizes the air pic.twitter.com/CZXFWvuzQV
— Potato (@MrLaalpotato) December 9, 2025
Magnitude: 5.1 on the Richter scale
Location: Near Tokyo (approximately 680 km north-northeast of the capital)
Time: 3:39 AM IST, Friday
Depth: 62 km
Magnitude: 5.1 on the Richter scale
Location: 356 km east of the capital city, Suva
Time: 3:38 AM IST, Friday
Depth: 553 km
Both events occurred within a minute of each other, though they were unrelated due to the vast distance and different tectonic settings.
On Wednesday night, just moments before the 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori region, residents witnessed a bright blue flash illuminating the sky. The unusual phenomenon was widely recorded on mobile phone cameras and shared across social media, surprising many viewers.
Experts say this rare event, known as Earthquake Lights (EQL), occurs when intense seismic stress in the Earth’s crust creates electrical charges within rock layers. These charges travel upward and ionize the air above the ground, producing brief flashes of light in the sky.
Although rare, such lights have been documented in several major earthquakes worldwide.
