Strong quake hits Japan

TOKYO - Buildings in Tokyo shook Tuesday as a strong quake hit Japan, AFP reporters in the city said, but there was no immediate risk of a tsunami and no damage was reported.

Seismologists said the epicentre was around 44 kilometres north-northeast of the Japanese capital and was located around 50 kilometres (30 miles) below the surface.

The US Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 5.6. Their Japanese counterparts said there was no danger of a tsunami from the tremor, the effects of which could be felt in buildings for more than a minute after the initial shaking began.

The operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was battered by a tsunami after a powerful undersea quake in 2011, said nothing unusual had been noted at the still-fragile site.

"There was no abnormality in our monitoring at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the earthquake. Also, we have not received any reports of damage from the latest quake," spokesman Keisuke Murakami said.

The Japan Atomic Power Co. said the Tokai No.2 Power Station, which was nearest to the epicentre of the quake, showed no signs of any problems.

An official at the Ibaraki prefectural government said checks were ongoing, but that so far there appeared to be nothing amiss in the wider area.

"We have not received any reports of damage, injuries or casualties following the earthquake. We are still checking if the quake could result in damage," he said.

Japan is hit by around a fifth of the world’s powerful quakes every year and sits at the conjunction of several tectonic plates.

Building codes are rigorous and regular disaster drills are held, helping to ensure that despite their frequency and their violence, quakes usually pass without loss of life or significant damage to property in Japan.

However, the 9.0 magnitude undersea quake of March 2011 sparked a huge tsunami that smashed into the country’s northeast coast, killing around 18,000 people and creating the world’s worst nuclear emergency in a generation.
AFP

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Strong-quake-hits-Japan-30243373.html


-- The Nation 2014-09-16

Give me break...5.6 strong...not on your life...a good shake is all. I am from Southern California so I'd know.

ditto....5.6 strong? Well, I guess it depends on the depth of the quake.

In Bali I experienced a 5.4 that felt really strong and then a 5.8 that felt less than the 5.4. The 6.1 was another story....:-(

2x magnitude of 5.6 within an hour of each other. One in Japan and the other in PNG.

Just a warning tremor for the Big One

The question is that this quake is man-made or natural. Many people believe that the big quake in Japan 3 years ago was man-made.

We will see what they find out.

i used to live in shizuoka. A 5.6 on the Shindo scale is nothing in Japan (though remember its about 1 larger than the richter scale if i recall). You get one or two of those somewhere in the country just about every month.

Fortunately its North of Tokyo. If it was suraga bay area then its panic stations. In case you dont know... no one was expecting that earthquake off sendai. But japan HAS been bracing itself for its own "big one". It comes pretty regularly every 150 or so years. And its now overdue by about 12 years. Laughably there was a nuclear power plant almost right on top of the expected epicenter called Hamaoka. Japan is very good with earthquake safety. Indeed the one takeaway from the 2011 disaster was just how well buildings had stood up to the quake prior to the tsunami. However, around 2006 there was a massive scandal about earthquake safety documents being falsified around atami area. Likely it was shizuoka wide. Any building built before 1990 may be culpable to the expected earthquake. And as someone who lived on the 6th floor of an 8 floor danchi apartment built mainly for Brazilian workers in the 70s, the slightest tremor had me convinced i was about to die

Anyways, want some fun reading go look up "Tokai Earthquake" and impress your friends when you successfully predict it as one of the next big earthquakes in our lifetime.