A powerful magnitude-7.5 earthquake shook north-eastern Japan late on Monday, prompting evacuation orders for about 90,000 people and tsunami warnings that hours later were downgraded.The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) initially said a tsunami as high as three metres could hit Japan’s north-eastern coast after the earthquake struck off the coast at 11:15pm local time (1.15am AEDT).Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and tsunamis from 20 to 70 cm high were observed at several ports, JMA said.In the early hours of Tuesday, the JMA downgraded the warnings to advisories, meaning it now sees lower estimated wave heights and less risk of inundation.
The epicentre of the quake was 80km off the coast of Aomori prefecture, at a depth of 54 km, the agency added.
A tsunami warning is displayed on a television after a powerful earthquake struck north-eastern Japan on Monday night. Source: AP, Getty / Eugene Hoshiko
On Japan’s 1-7 scale of seismic intensity, the tremor registered as an “upper 6” in Hachinohe city, Aomori prefecture — a quake strong enough to make it impossible to keep standing or move without crawling.As of 2am local time, there was little information of major damage or casualties from public broadcaster NHK. It cited a hotel employee in Hachinohe as saying several people were injured and taken to hospital, but that all were conscious.“As of now, I am hearing that there have been seven injuries reported,” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters early on Tuesday morning.
East Japan Railway suspended some services in the area, which was also hit by the massive magnitude-9.0 quake in March 2011.
“There is a possibility that further powerful and stronger earthquakes could occur over the next several days,” a JMA official said at a briefing.Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes. Located in the “Ring of Fire” of volcanoes and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin, Japan accounts for about 20 per cent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater.The northeastern region suffered one of the country’s deadliest earthquakes on March 11, 2011, when a magnitude-9.0 tremor struck under the ocean off the coast of the northern city of Sendai. It was the most powerful ever recorded in Japan and set off a series of massive tsunamis that devastated a wide swathe of the Pacific coastline and killed nearly 20,000 people.
