Japan's Noto Peninsula has newly exposed beaches due to the earthquake that struck Monday.The quake raised land along the coast, extending the coastline by up to 820 feet in some places.Locals who were fishing at the time, reported the entire coastline uplifted when the quake hit.

According to satellite imagery, Japan's Noto Peninsula was rattled and slightly enlarged when a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck on January 1.

Preliminary satellite analysis and on-the-ground surveys have found that the earthquake raised land along the coast — a process called uplift — by as much as 4 meters, roughly 13 feet.

Muck on the side of structures at Kaiso Fishing Port shows where they used to be underwater, after the earthquake uplifted the land. Newly exposed sea floor is visible beside the platform.




Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo

That means the sea floor along the coast has now risen above the water in many places on the Noto Peninsula, creating newly exposed beaches.

A region of the western Noto Peninsula in June 2023 (left) and January 2024 (right) showing coastal expansion after the earthquake.




Geospatial Information Authority of Japan/JAXA

In some places, the earthquake extended the coastline by as much as 250 meters, or about 820 feet, according to a statement from the University of Tokyo. That's about the length of 2.2 American football fields.

A gif shows how the coastline changed using two satellite images, one from June 2023 and the other from January 2024, due to uplift from the earthquake.




Geospatial Information Authority of Japan/JAXA

Locals fishing in a bay on the peninsula reported that "the entire coastline was uplifted at the time of the earthquake, that the uplift in the bay occurred at the same time as the earthquake, and that the tsunami in the bay did not run up to the raised port," the university's statement said, according to a Google translation from Japanese to English.

An area where the coastline has moved forward due to the earthquake, east of Kaiso Fishing Port, was photographed two days after the quake.




Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo

The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan published a preliminary satellite analysis of the Noto Peninsula. Comparing satellite images from June 2023 with images from the days after the earthquake, the agency identified multiple regions where new coastline has emerged.

The university said its investigation along the coast was ongoing.