A powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake shook northeastern Japan late on Monday, prompting orders for about 90,000 residents to evacuate and tsunami warnings that hours later were downgraded to advisories.
The Japan Meteorological Agency initially said a tsunami as high as 3 metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after the earthquake struck off the coast at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT).
Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and tsunamis from 20 to 70 cm (7 to 27 inches) high were observed at several ports, JMA said.
In the early hours of Tuesday the JMA downgraded the warnings to advisories, meaning it now sees lower estimated wave heights and less risk of inundation.
The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of Aomori prefecture, at a depth of 54 km, the agency added.
On Japan’s 1-7 scale of seismic intensity, the tremor registered as an “upper 6” in Hachinohe city, Aomori prefecture — a quake strong enough to make it impossible to keep standing or move without crawling. In such tremors, most heavy furniture can collapse and wall tiles and windowpanes are damaged in many buildings.
As of 1700 GMT, there was little information of major damage or casualties from public broadcaster NHK. It cited a hotel employee in Hachinohe as saying a number of people were injured and taken to hospital, but that all were conscious.
“As of now, I am hearing that there have been seven injuries reported,” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters early on Tuesday morning.
East Japan Railway suspended some services in the area, which was also hit by the massive 9.0-magnitude quake in March 2011.
“There is a possibility that further powerful and stronger earthquakes could occur over the next several days,” a JMA official said at a briefing.
Following the tremor, the JMA issued an advisory for a wide region from the northernmost island of Hokkaido down to Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, calling on residents to be on alert for the possibility of a powerful earthquake hitting again within a week.
No irregularities were reported at nuclear power plants in the region run by Tohoku Electric Power and Hokkaido Electric Power , the utilities said. Tohoku Electric initially said thousands of households had lost power but later lowered that number to the hundreds. (Reuters)
