7.0-magnitude earthquake shakes Japan
Posted January 1, 2012 4:13 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 jolted eastern and northeastern Japan on Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage and no tsunami warning was issued.
The earthquake, which was captured on Reuters Tokyo offices’ cameras, measured 4 in central Tokyo, Fukushima and the surrounding areas on the Japanese intensity scale which measures ground motion, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, which uses a different measuring system than the U.S. Geological Survey.
A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power said there were no reports of any abnormalities at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plan following the quake.
Some high-speed train services in northern Japan were suspended after the earthquake, but soon resumed operations, Kyodo news reported.
The 7.0 magnitude earthquake, at a depth of about 349 kilometres (nearly 217 miles), was recorded near the southern islands of Torishima some 1800 kilometres (1118 miles) southeast of Tokyo at 0527 GMT, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
The Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has not issued a tsunami warning following the earthquake located south-southwest of Hachijo-jima in the Izu islands.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
On March 11, 2011, the northeast coast was struck by a magnitude 9 earthquake, the strongest quake in Japan on record, and a massive tsunami, which triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years since Chernobyl. Up to 23,000 were killed or missing because of it.
