A major magnitude 7.3 offshore earthquake rattled Japan yesterday, swaying Tokyo buildings, triggering a small tsunami and reminding the nation of the ever-present threat of seismic disaster.
Police reported no casualties or property damage, and operators of nuclear power plants and Shinkansen bullet trains quickly gave the all-clear, while the wave hitting the Pacific coast measured just 60cm.
The tremor struck in the late morning about 160km offshore and 430km northeast of Tokyo, at a shallow depth of 10km beneath the Pacific seafloor, authorities said.
In greater Tokyo, the earthquake and a succession of tremors that quickly followed were uncomfortably felt as they shook buildings.
The state Meteorological Agency issued a coastal tsunami advisory just a few minutes after the quake, but lifted it three hours later.
Television channels immediately canceled their programming to transmit information on the quake and the tsunami alert.
It soon became clear the quake had left Japan unscathed, but it was yet another uncomfortable reminder that the threat of “the Big One” is a reality of daily life.
Japan is located on the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” with Tokyo in one of its most dangerous areas. The city sits on the intersection of three continental plates which are grinding against each other, building up enormous seismic pressure.
The government’s Earthquake Research Committee warns there is a 70 percent chance that a magnitude-eight quake will strike within the next 30 years in the Kanto plains, home to Tokyo’s urban sprawl.
The last time a “Big One” hit Tokyo was in 1923, when the Great Kanto Earthquake claimed more than 140,000 lives, many of them in fires.
More recently, the 1995 earthquake in the city of Kobe killed more than 6,400 people.
Small quakes are felt every day somewhere in Japan and people take part in regular drills to prepare for a calamity.
Earthquake alerts can be sent via mobile phones and parks and schools are signposted as quake shelters.
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