A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the Japanese coast on Saturday, geologists said, shaking buildings in Tokyo and setting off car alarms.
Despite the huge power of the quake, there was no risk of tsunami because the quake was 676 kilometres beneath the earth's surface, The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre reported.
Residential buildings swayed for around a minute as the quake built in intensity at around 8.30pm local time. The public broadcaster NHK said there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The temblor was powerful enough to rattle most of the country from the southern islands of Okinawa to Hokkaido in the north. Buildings swayed in Tokyo and disrupted some train services in the city. About 400 houses in Saitama prefecture, just north of Tokyo, were without power, according to the Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The quake took place 676 kilometres below the Earth's surface. The epicentre was off Ogasawara Island, a remore spot in the Pacific Ocean around 870 kilometres south of Tokyo, the US Geological Survey said.
Yoshiyuki Sasamoto, who runs a guesthouse on Chichijima, one of the closest inhabited places to the epicentre, told NHK that the shaking had been violent.
"Initially a weaker quake hit and it stopped. Then the big one came. It was so strong that I couldn't stand still and couldn't walk," he said.
Both runways at Narita Airport, the main international gateway to Tokyo, were temporarily closed while inspections were carried out.
It was the second sizable shake Tokyo has had this week, after a much less powerful — but far shallower — quake hit close to the capital on Monday.
There were no reported abnormalities at any of the region's mothballed nuclear power plants.
Japan sits at the meeting place of four tectonic plates and experiences around 20% of the world's most powerful earthquakes every year.
On Friday a volcano in the far south of Japan erupted, spewing a huge column of ash high into the sky and forcing authorities to evacuate the island on which it sits.
The eruption caused no injuries and no damage was reported, but it served as yet another reminder of the volatile geology of the country.
(Bangkok Post) Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com