Powerful earthquake strikes off Japan, no damage

Powerful earthquake strikes off Japan, no damage

2010-11-30 16:17:15 GMT+7 (ICT)

TOKYO (BNO NEWS) -- A powerful but deep earthquake struck under the seabed of the Pacific Ocean on early Tuesday afternoon, seismologists said, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.

The 6.9-magnitude earthquake at 1.24 p.m. local time was centered west-northwest of the Bonin Islands, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) south of Tokyo. It struck about 480 kilometers (298 miles) deep, making it a deep earthquake, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

Light shaking could be felt in Tokyo and other parts of Japan, but there were no reports of damage or casualties as a result of the earthquake.

Both JMA and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that, due to the earthquake's depth, there was no tsunami threat. "A destructive tsunami was not generated based on earthquake and historical tsunami data," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin.

The tsunami warning center measured the strength of the earthquake at 7.2 on the Richter scale, considerably stronger than JMA's estimate.

Japan is on the so-called 'Pacific Ring of Fire', an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent and large earthquakes. Volcanic eruptions also occur frequently in the region.

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