Strong earthquake hits western Japan, unrelated to major 8.9 jolt

2011-03-12 03:12:25 GMT+7 (ICT)

TOKYO (BNO NEWS) -- A strong earthquake struck western Japan on early Saturday morning, seismologists said, but the earthquake was not an aftershock to Friday's massive jolt that devastated the country.

The 6.6-magnitude earthquake at 03.59 a.m. local time (1859 GMT Friday) was centered in Niigata Prefecture in northern Japan, causing buildings as far away as in Tokyo to sway. It was centered about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, ccording to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

A seismologist at the United States Geological Survey said the earthquake was not an aftershock to the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck off northeastern Japan on Friday, unleashing a huge tsunami that devastated the nation. He could not say if the earthquake was triggered by the 8.9 quake, however.

Soon after the earthquake, a strong 5.8-magnitude aftershock jolted western Japan. It was later followed by a 6.4 quake off the northwestern coast of Japan.

No new tsunami warnings were issued as a result of the new earthquake, and it could not be determined if the quake caused new casualties in the tsunami-hit region.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-03-12

Does anyone have a good link to lower atmosphere wind currents? Japan's small release venting nuclear radiation is a down-winder's life sentence.

Edited March 11, 201115 yr by ding

Saturday, March 12, 2011 04:27 +0900 (JST)

Strong earth quake in Nagano

A strong earthquake jolted the prefectures of Nagano and Nigata in central Japan on Saturday.

Tremors with intensities of 6-plus on the Japanese scale of 0 to 7 were registered in northern Nagano at around 3:59AM local time.

Jolts with intensities of 6-minus were recorded in Nigata prefecture.

Japan's Meteorological Agency estimates the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.7, with its focus at a depth of 8 kilometers in Niigata's Chuetsu region.

The Agency says it is not clear whether this earthquake is related to the big tremor that shook northeastern Japan on Friday.

From:

http://www3.nhk.or.j...lish/12_17.html

LaoPo