Tokyo, Jan 13 (IANS): A recent research found the powerful January 1 earthquake that rocked central Japan has caused ground upheavals as high as about 4 meters, local media reported on Saturday.

A group of researchers made the announcement after surveying areas around Kaiso Port in the hardest-hit city of Wajima, which lies in the northern part of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, public broadcaster NHK reported.

A ground upheaval of about 4 meters has been confirmed by comparing water levels before and after the massive earthquake that registered a maximum intensity of 7 on the country's seismic scale, Xinhua news agency quoted NHK as saying.

Group leader Masanobu Shishikura of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology said 4-meter ground upheavals are quite rare, noting that the Noto Peninsula was formed by powerful quakes, but it only occurs on this scale once every several thousand years.

As of Saturday, the death toll stood at 215, while a total of 26 people remained unaccounted for, according to local authorities.

The 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake is the first to kill more than 100 people in Japan since the 2016 Kumamoto quakes in the country's southwestern region that claimed 276 lives.