Earthquake News

A strong 7.3-magnitude earthquake shook the Fukushima prefecture on Japan's coast.

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan's Fukushima prefecture on Wednesday, cutting power to millions of homes and prompting a tsunami advisory. The quake, which struck at 6:02 a.m. (2102 GMT Tuesday), injured at least 11 people, caused widespread damage and left millions of households without electricity. This is the same area that was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2011.

The epicenter was in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Fukushima prefecture, approximately 130 miles (ca. 209 km) northeast of Tokyo and 6 miles (ca. 10 km) below the surface. Of that figure, more than 1 million homes were without power in Tokyo as well as 3 million in surrounding areas, a Tokyo Electric Power official told CNN. Nearly half of those homes have since had power restored. Earlier reports said at least three people died from the earthquake, but police later confirmed there were no casualties from the quake itself, Kyodo News reported. Japanese officials issued a tsunami advisory for waves of up to 1 meter high around Fukushima prefecture , where a 9-magnitude earthquake in March 2011 led to a tsunami and meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.  

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was badly damaged in 2011 when an earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused multiple meltdowns and widespread radiation contamination. Police in the city of Iwaki said they couldn't determine the extent of damage due to power outages, according to Kyodo News. Water was temporarily flowing over an embankment at the destroyed Daiichi nuclear station but had since stopped, said Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who also told reporters there was no risk of any additional damage from a nuclear plant being affected by Wednesday's quake. There were some injuries but no radiation leaks are reported following the earthquake near Fukushima.

 

 

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