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Aftershocks threaten Hokkaido island

A city official measures the rift on a wharf caused by Friday's strong earthquake as anglers do some fishing at a Kushiro port in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido yesterday. The magnitude-8 earthquake rocked northern Japan early Friday, injuring more than 500 people. PHOTO: AP

Four aftershocks measuring 5 or more on the Richter scale shook Japan's northern Hokkaido island yesterday, two days after nearly 600 people were injured by a powerful earthquake which severely rattled the region.

Officials said aftershocks were partly to blame for a fire which broke out at an oil storage tank in Tomakomai, a coastal city on the island.

Experts warned residents to not to let down their guard. "Aftershocks could cause damage," an official at Japan's Meteorological Agency said, but he admitted the immediate chance of another major earthquake was diminishing.

"The possibility of strong aftershocks hitting the region is expected to decline as time goes by," the official said.

But Friday's earthquake -- which at 8 on the Richter scale was more powerful than several previous, more deadly ones elsewhere in quake-prone Japan -- could still trigger tremors and landslides, it added.

"Because the scale of Friday's earthquake was so big we assume that it could set off more aftershocks," an official said.

A total of 37 aftershocks have been felt in the relatively sparsely populated region since Friday's quake. Police said at least 589 people had been injured.

Fire officials said an oil storage tank was ablaze inside a 140,000 barrel-per-day refinery owned by unlisted Idemitsu, Japan's third-largest oil company in terms of sales.

The fire broke out after tremors partially opened the lid of the tank, allowing some oil to spill out.

Friday's quake destroyed or damaged more than 100 buildings and forced around 13,000 people to evacuate their homes, police said.

Quake-generated waves of about 1m high also wounded the east coast of Hokkaido island, but no major damage was reported.

In 1993, a tsunami caused by a quake measuring 7.8 killed about 200 people on an island off western Hokkaido.

Japan lies in one of the world's most earthquake-prone areas, with seismic activity recorded nearly every five minutes.

Hokkaido -- which is about the size of Austria -- is the second largest of Japan's four main islands and has a population of more than five million. Its capital Sapporo hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics.

Memories are still strong in Japan of the earthquake in the western city of Kobe that killed more than 6,400 people eight years ago. That quake measured 7.2.

The great Kanto earthquake of 1923 measured 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in Tokyo and neighboring Yokohama.
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