Strong earthquake jolts northeast Japan, no damage

[News_Editor]

Strong earthquake jolts northeast Japan, no damage

2011-07-25 08:35:20 GMT+7 (ICT)

TOKYO (BNO NEWS) -- A strong earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan on early Monday morning, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The 6.2-magnitude earthquake at 3.51 a.m. local time (1851 GMT) was centered about 79 kilometers (49 miles) southeast of Sendai, the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture. It struck about 40 kilometers (24 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that some 2.3 million people in the region may have felt moderate shaking, which would unlikely result in damage. Another 4.2 million people may have felt light shaking. No tsunami alert was issued by neither JMA nor the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company said the earthquake had no effect on operations at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Other nuclear power plants did also not report any problems.

Japan, which is on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, is still recovering from an enormous 9.0-magnitude earthquake which struck off the coast of northeastern Japan on March 11, generating a large tsunami. The earthquake and resulting tsunami left at least 15,597 people killed while 4,980 others remain missing and feared dead.

On early Saturday afternoon, a strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) southeast of Ofunato, a coastal city located in Iwate Prefecture. There were no reports of damage or casualties from Saturday's earthquake.

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