6.9-magnitude earthquake strikes off Japan

A tsunami advisory is in effect for Japan’s Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures after a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck off Honshu just before 6am on Tuesday (local time).

Japanese authorities urged residents in those northeast coastal areas to leave immediately for higher ground and not return until warnings had been lifted.

The earthquake struck in the same area as the devastating 9.0-magnitude earthquake in 2011 - one of the worst ever to hit Japan - which killed more than 20,000 people and triggered a meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Tuesday’s quake struck 37 kilometers (23 miles) east-southeast of Namie at a depth of 11.4 kilometers (7 miles). Four aftershocks of at least magnitude 4.8 were recorded within one hour of the initial quake.

The site of the 6.9-magnitude earthquake on November 22, which triggered a tsunami warning near Fukushima.
Tsunami warnings were immediately issued for waves of 1 to 3 meters (3 to 10 feet), and soon after some were spotted off the coast, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency.

Of prime concern was the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A cooling pump system was temporarily stopped after the quake but soon resumed operation, a spokesman for the Tokyo Electric Power Company Inc. (TEPCO) told CNN. No abnormalities or change in radiation levels were reported.

‘Residents in the region are still struggling to recover from the 2011 event resulting in compound socio-psychological impacts on survivors,’ University of Sydney Disaster Risk Management Expert Dale Dominey-Howes said in a statement. ‘Aftershocks will continue in the region for days to weeks to come.’

Source: CNN