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The Japan Meteorological Agency said the epicentre of the earthquake was off the coast of Fukushima prefecture with a depth of 60km (36 miles). The earthquake hit at 11:08 pm local time (1408 GMT) and shook buildings in the capital of Tokyo. But the agency said a tsunami warning had not been issued.
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As a precaution, residents close to coastal areas have been advised to move to higher ground.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement: "An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude 7.1 occurred near the coast of Honshu, Japan at 14:07 UTC on Saturday February 13, 2021.
"Based on all available data, there is no tsunami threat from this earthquake."
The Volcano Discovery website reported the earthquake has occurred near where the devastating Tohoku earthquake struck in March 2011.
Gohomeyurdrunk on February 13rd, 2021 at 16:20 UTC »
The article says it’s possible that’s it’s a late aftershock from 2011, since it occurred in almost the exact same spot. Which sounds crazy to someone not very familiar with earthquakes. How much later can aftershocks occur? An indefinite amount of time?
Kumachan77 on February 13rd, 2021 at 15:28 UTC »
It was the longest earthquake I experienced in the 5 years living in Tokyo. Hopefully that’s it for tonight. Back to bed.
Craminit on February 13rd, 2021 at 14:59 UTC »
I live in Tochigi prefecture just below Fukushima. The earthquake felt like it went on forever and another aftershock just happened right now. Seeing a lot of people on Japanese Twitter mention how 3/11 had some big precursor earthquakes two days before the big one happened. Hoping this isn’t the same.