BREAKING NEWS
Compiled from wire reports
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 jolted northeastern Japan on Tuesday and a tsunami warning was issued for the coastal region of Miyagi Prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The 11:46 a.m. quake registered lower 6 on the seven-point Japanese seismic intensity scale in southern Miyagi Prefecture, about 300 km northeast of Tokyo.
Many in the city of Sendai, the capital of Miyagi, were reported injured, according to the local fire department. Japan's Kyodo News reported that a roof fell in at a sports center in the city, injuring many.
The Japanese government has set up a task force at the crisis management center of the prime minister's office.
The quake, which also swayed high-rise buildings in Tokyo, originated about 20 km off the coast of the prefecture in the Pacific Ocean, the agency said.
The Onagawa nuclear power plant, located about 70 km north of Sendai, automatically shut down, Kyodo reported.
Bullet train services on the JR Tokaido, Tohoku, Joetsu, Nagano Shinkansen lines from Tokyo were temporarily suspended, the train operator said.
More up-to-date details will appear in tomorrow's edition of The Japan Times.
Updated Japan Earthquake news stories.
Sure appreciate being on your ping list. My son is in Japan.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Documents are scattered on the floor of the
Kyodo News Agency's bureau in Sendai in
Miyagi Prefecture shortly after a magnitude-6.8
earthquake hit northern Japan, shaking buildings
as far away as Tokyo.
(AP Photo/Kyodo News)
TOKYO (AP) - A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 struck the northeast coast of Japan on Tuesday, triggering a tsunami warning and shaking buildings more than 300 kilometres away in Tokyo, the Meteorological Agency said.
Eighty people were injured when the roof of an indoor pool collapsed in the coastal city of Sendai, the national broadcaster NHK reported. None of the injuries was critical, according to the Kyodo News Agency, which also reported two people injured in the neighbouring state of Iwata.
Bullet train service was suspended in northern Japan, while Tokyo's Haneda airport temporarily halted flights, Kyodo said.
A 10-centimetre tsunami reached the Japanese shore about 15 minutes after the quake struck, NHK said, with no major damage immediately reported. While a tsunami can rise to great heights when it arrives at the shore, such waves are often barely noticeable in the ocean.
The quake was centred nearly 20 kilometres beneath the ocean off the coast of Miyagi state in northeastern Japan, NHK said. The quake hit around 11:46 a.m. local time.
The U.S. Geological Survey registered the quake with a 7.2 magnitude.
Japan sits at the juncture of four tectonic plates - or moving slabs of the earth's outer crust - and is one of the world's most quake-prone regions.
Earlier in the day, a 4.9 magnitude earthquake shook Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. There was no danger of a tsunami in that one.
A magnitude-6.0 quake shook the Tokyo area July 23, injuring more than two dozen people and suspending flights and trains for hours. A magnitude-5 quake can damage homes and other buildings if it is centred in a heavily populated area.
A Dec. 26 earthquake with a magnitude estimated at 9.1 to 9.3 and the subsequent tsunami killed more than 131,000 people in Indonesia and left half a million homeless. Three months later, another strong temblor left more than 900 dead on Nias and smaller surrounding islands.
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For more information, go to http://neic.usgs.gov/ || Contacts The official magnitude for this earthquake is indicated at the top of this page. This was the best available estimate of the earthquake's size, at the time that this page was created. Other magnitudes associated with web pages linked from here are those determined at various times following the earthquake with different types of seismic data. Although, given the data used, they are legitimate estimates of magnitude, they are not considered the official magnitude.
FAQ about Earthquakes | Earthquake Preparedness The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program (EHP) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
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U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey |
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