A strong earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan, injuring more than 100 people, was an aftershock of the devastating 2011 quake that sparked the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, the nation’s meteorological agency has said.
Saturday night’s earthquake had a 7.3 magnitude and struck off the coast of Fukushima prefecture at a depth of 60km (36 miles). It triggered widespread power outages, but there appeared to be no major damage and no tsunami warning was issued.
It hit just weeks before the 10-year anniversary of Japan’s triple disaster, on 11 March 2011, when the strongest recorded earthquake in Japan’s history triggered a tsunami that laid waste to entire towns and villages and caused a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. More than 18,000 people died in the tsunami.
Kenji Satake, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s earthquake research institute, told the Kyodo news agency: “Because [the 2011 quake] was an enormous one with a magnitude of 9.0, it’s not surprising to have an aftershock of this scale 10 years later.”
In Saturday’s quake, more than 100 people were injured in Miyagi, Fukushima and several other prefectures, according to a tally by Kyodo, as aftershocks reaching 4.7 magnitude continued in the hours after. Houses and offices in Tokyo, hundreds of kilometres away, also swayed and shook.
Some 950,000 households were initially without power, government spokesman Katsunobu Kato told a briefing carried on public broadcaster NHK. The blackouts appeared to be concentrated in north-east Japan, including Fukushima and neighbouring prefectures.
Fukushima fishermen concerned for future over release of radioactive water
Read more
There were no irregularities at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants, or at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, owner Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said. The utility also said there was no change in the radiation levels around its plants. Kato said there were no irregularities at the Onagawa nuclear facility.
A Reuters cameraman on location in Fukushima said his 10th floor hotel room shook for some time. One man at the hotel was taken to hospital after falling and hitting his head on a door, the cameraman said. Although injured, the man was still able to walk, the cameraman said.
Television footage also showed broken glass from shop fronts.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, which is on the Pacific ring of fire, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. Japan accounts for about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
Свежие комментарии