Japan hit by minor tsunami waves after magnitude 7.2 earthquake

Authored by dw.com and submitted by schnorkel
image for Japan hit by minor tsunami waves after magnitude 7.2 earthquake

Authorities issued a tsunami warning for Japan on Saturday after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck off the coast of Miyagi prefecture.

Tsunami waves of up to 1 meter (3.2 feet) hit land shortly after the earthquake, local television channel NHK reported.

As a precaution, nearly 7,000 residents of the town of Watari were evacuated.

Officials said that there were no immediate reports of major damage. However, two elderly women were injured.

At least 200 households were left without electricity and local rail services were suspended.

About an hour after the quake, the tsunami alerts were lifted, broadcaster NHK said.

However, the public was warned not to go near the shore.

The earthquake hit offshore from Miyagi prefecture

Japan's Meteorological Agency (JMA) said that the quake hit at 6:09 p.m. local time (09:09 GMT/UTC) at a depth of 60 kilometers (37 miles) in the Pacific water just off the coast of Miyagi prefecture.

A video shared by NHK showed how the earthquake was felt in Sendai city in Miyagi prefecture.

Tremors were also felt in the capital, Tokyo.

The Tohoku Electric Power Co reportedly shut down its Onagawa nuclear plant as it checked for any irregularities, while the Tokyo Electric Power checked on the condition of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi power station, which was wrecked by the 2011 quake.

There were no reports of irregularities, the country's nuclear regulator told Reuters in an email.

Several train services in the region were also suspended as a precautionary measure.

The US Consulate in Sapporo told people in the area to "seek higher ground."

Saturday's earthquake came not long after the country marked 10 years since the deadly 9.0-magnitude quake on March 11, 2011, also affecting the Miyagi region.

The event a decade ago led to a catastrophic triple disaster as a disastrous tsunami was unleashed and the Fukushima nuclear plant went into meltdown.

Many people were injured last month when another strong earthquake struck.

Japan is on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an area along the edge of the Pacific ocean which is characterized by strong seismic activity.

Construction regulations in Japan mean that buildings must be built to withstand frequent earthquakes.

Nukemarine on March 20th, 2021 at 10:10 UTC »

Felt the quake in Yokosuka. It was fairly weak here, but it lasted about sixty seconds

parasoja on March 20th, 2021 at 09:57 UTC »

I happened to be watching jquake when this went down. Lots of scary colors.

Their channel already has a replay up [JP].

throwaway425315 on March 20th, 2021 at 09:33 UTC »

This one was really long. Felt like it wouldn't stop shaking.

Basically the same place and overall strength as the one in February, but the energy was spread out more, so I don't expect many injuries or larger damage anywhere. japantimes reports one injured person and 200 homes without electricity. We'll get a few more reports but that's the scale of what happened.