Small tsunami waves reached the Pacific coast of northern Japan yesterday after a major quake hit the region heavily damaged by the March earthquake and tsunami, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The port towns of Soma and Ofunato saw 10cm tsunami waves triggered by the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that struck off the main island of Honshu at 9:57am, the agency said.
No damage has been reported from either the tsunamis or the quake, which was strong enough to sway skyscrapers in Tokyo, some 400km from the epicenter.
The Japanese agency and the US Geological Survey originally estimated the quake’s magnitude at 7.1, hitting the same general area as the magnitude 9.0 quake of March 11.
While Japan upgraded the quake to 7.3, the US agency revised it down to 7.0, centered 212km east of Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, at a depth of 34.9km.
The Japanese agency lifted its tsunami advisory at 11:45am.
“Changes in sea level may occur for the next few hours. Please use caution when conducting activities near the ocean, such as swimming and surf fishing,” a Japanese weather agency official told a news briefing.
Television footage of Ofunato and Soma did not show any visible sign of the tsunami, with the water surface seemingly calm and flat.
Tokyo Electric Power Co said the latest quake did not cause fresh problems at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and the nearby Fukushima Dai-ni nuclear power plant.
“We have received reports that there has been no significant impact at the Fukushima Dai-ichi and the Fukushima Dai-ni nuclear plants,” a company spokesman told a news conference.
Cooling of crippled reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi continued, although the company told work crews near the water to seek higher ground during the tsunami advisory.
The Japanese weather agency originally expected a small tsunami of up to 50cm along the affected region.
Communities along the Pacific coast issued warnings and advisories for residents to seek higher ground or to leave areas near the water.
“For a second, I thought maybe another big one will come,” a middle-aged man in coastal Kesennuma, Miyagi, told national broadcaster NHK.
The March 11 and tsunami left about 22,000 people dead or missing and triggered a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.
TAIWAN IMPACT
Meanwhile, the Central Weather Bureau said that unlike March’s massive quake that caused a tsunami threat to Taiwan, yesterday’s quake in Japan had no impact on Taiwan and the tsunami alert mainly applied to Japan.
However, the bureau did detect three earthquakes between 12am and 9am yesterday, ranging from magnitude 3.3 to magnitude 3.7, which it categorized as regional earthquakes.
The first tremblor occurred off the coast of Taitung at 12:11am and had a magnitude of 3.7. The other two occurred simultaneously off the coast of Hualien at 8:28am and had magnitudes 3.3 and 3.6.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY SHAN
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