A magnitude of 7.1 struck Fukushima region of Japan Saturday in the morning (October 26), large earthquake triggered small waves that hit three cities along 200-mile stretch of the east coast that was briefly under a tsunami advisory.
The operator of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant said, “there was no damage or spike in radiation levels at the station after a large earthquake.”
The three cities that was hit by the first waves were Soma, Kamaishi, and Ishinomaki-shi Ayukama, but none topped 3 feet, the threshold for issuing stronger waring, Japan’s Meteorological Agency which cancelled the advisory said.
There were no reports of damage or serious injuries from the quake, which the agency said was an aftershock of the deadly March 2011 disaster that killed 19,000 and devastated one of the Fukushima nuclear plants.
The epicenter of the 2:10 a.m. quake was located 231 miles east of Japan’s Honshu Island at a depth of 6 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Service. The tremor was felt 300 miles away in Tokyo.
The USGS, which initially reported the quake at a magnitude of 7.3, later downgraded it to 7.1. The meteorological agency revised its initial estimate from magnitude 7.1 to 6.8.
The quake prompted the tsunami advisory for an area stretching from the northern edge of Iwate Prefecture to the southern tip of Chiba Prefecture. Three aftershocks occurred during the next four hours, the strongest registering magnitude 5.5.