Chronological Scientific Tables

• The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
  National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
  The is an astronomical research organisation comprising several facilities in Japan, as well as an observatory in Hawaii. It was established in 1988 as an amalgamation of three existing research organizations - the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory of the University of Tokyo, International Latitude...
  
   published the Rika-Nenpyō　or Chronological Scientific Tables, and according to it, the epicenter was 40 km south south east of Ishigaki Island, and magnitude was 7.4. However, these data cannot explain the violent tsunami.

View of the Mamoru Nakamura Laboratory, University of the Ryukyus

• He thought that the earthquake was due to the activity of the Fault (geology) east of Ishigaki and estimated that the magnitude was 7.5. Further simulation led to the activity of Fault (geology) in the Ryukyu Oceanic trench
  Oceanic trench
  The oceanic trenches are hemispheric-scale long but narrow topographic depressions of the sea floor. They are also the deepest parts of the ocean floor....
  
   and the magnitude was 8. The depth was 6 kilometres (3.7 mi).

The earthquake

• By the Plate tectonics
  Plate tectonics
  Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere...
  
  , this earthquake is believed to be an oceanic trench
  Oceanic trench
  The oceanic trenches are hemispheric-scale long but narrow topographic depressions of the sea floor. They are also the deepest parts of the ocean floor....
  
   type of earthquake occurring between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate
  Eurasian Plate
  The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate which includes most of the continent of Eurasia , with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the Chersky Range in East Siberia...
  
  .

Another great tsunami

Damage

• The dead and missing amounted to 12,000, and the destroyed houses to more than 2000 in Ishigaki and Miyakojima. Agriculture was severely damaged because of sea water invasion and the population in the Meiji era decreased to about one third of what it had been before the earthquake. On Ishigaki island, the wave was 40 meters high and the wave reached a height of 80 meters. There are many huge rocks believed to be left by the earthquake. There was a legend that an islet disappeared, but this has never been verified.