Representational image of a seismograph recording an earthquake.
| Photo Credit: via Reuters

A magnitude-6.0 earthquake struck off northeastern Japan’s Fukushima region on Thursday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, but no tsunami warning was issued.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries after the earthquake, whose epicentre had a depth of 40 kilometres (25 miles) and which was also felt in Tokyo.

TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, said “no abnormalities” had been detected at the stricken plant or others in the region.

Japan, one of the world’s most tectonically active countries, has strict building standards designed to ensure structures can withstand even the most powerful earthquakes.

The archipelago, home to around 125 million people, experiences around 1,500 jolts every year, the vast majority of which are mild.

The United States Geological Survey put the magnitude of Thursday’s quake at 6.1, with a depth of 40.1 kilometres.

It comes a day after at least nine people were killed and more than 1,000 injured by a powerful earthquake in Taiwan.

Wednesday’s magnitude-7.4 quake damaged dozens of buildings in Taiwan and prompted tsunami warnings as far as Japan and the Philippines.

Japan’s biggest earthquake on record was a massive magnitude-9.0 undersea jolt in March 2011 off Japan’s northeast coast, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.

The 2011 catastrophe also sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing Japan’s worst post-war disaster and the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

The total cost was estimated at 16.9 trillion yen ($112 billion), not including the hazardous decommissioning of the Fukushima facility, which is expected to take decades.

New Delhi:

A massive earthquake hit Taiwan today, killing four people and injuring at least 60, and triggering tsunami warnings in Japan and the Philippines. Dramatic visuals on social media show buildings shaking, bridges swaying and people scrambling for cover.

According to news agency AFP, the earthquake, 7.4 on the Richter scale, is the strongest quake to hit the island in 25 years, with officials warning of more tremors in the days ahead. Taiwanese officials report that it is the strongest earthquake since the 7.6 magnitude quake that struck the nation in 1999, killing 2,400 people. 

Taiwan was struck by its strongest earthquake in 25 years few minutes ago when a 7.4 magnitude tremor struck the island’s eastern coast, prompting tsunami warnings across the region.

A rooftop swimming pool during the Taiwan earthquake.pic.twitter.com/mepqSLuCIM

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 3, 2024

Videos that have surfaced online show several buildings swaying due to the tremors. Another video shows people stuck on a bridge while it appears to swing because of the massive quake. According to AFP, multi-storey structures in Hualien and elsewhere tilted after the quakes ended, while a warehouse in New Taipei City was reduced to dust. 

台湾の地震のやばすぎ pic.twitter.com/NvcB177RYg

— CP LV.100 (@ssbuBanjo) April 3, 2024

Among the four who died, three were part of a group of seven who were out on a morning hike through the hills that surround Taipei city. The were crushed to death after a landslide sent massive boulders their way. The fourth person killed was reportedly a truck driver whose vehicle was hit by a landslide as he was nearing a tunnel.

If you were terrified of bridges after the Baltimore Key bridge collapse, this footage from the earthquake in Taiwan should calm ya down. pic.twitter.com/vUllK41n7R

— Ｎｅｒｄｙ (@Nerdy_Addict) April 3, 2024

Local Taiwanese TV channels showed bulldozers clearing rocks along roads to Hualien, a mountain-ringed coastal city of around 100,000 people that was cut off by landslides.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen called for local and central government agencies to coordinate with each other, and said that the national army would also be providing support.

In Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines, authorities initially issued a tsunami warning but by around 10 am (0200 GMT), the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the threat had “largely passed”.

In the capital, the metro briefly stopped running but resumed within an hour, while residents received warnings from their local borough chiefs to check for any gas leaks.

Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as the island lies near the junction of two tectonic plates, while nearby Japan experiences around 1,500 jolts every year.

At least four people were killed and nearly 60 injured on April 3 by a powerful earthquake in Taiwan that damaged dozens of buildings and prompted tsunami warnings that extended to Japan and the Philippines before being lifted.

Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as the island lies near the junction of two tectonic plates, while nearby Japan experiences around 1,500 jolts every year.

The quake was the strongest since a 7.6-magnitude struck in September 1999, killing around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s history.

(Inputs from agencies)

Tokyo:

A major 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan’s east on Wednesday morning, prompting tsunami warnings for the self-ruled island as well as parts of southern Japan and the Philippines.

The quake hit just before 8:00am local time (0000 GMT), with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) putting the epicentre 18 kilometres (11 miles) south of Taiwan’s Hualien City, at a depth of 34.8 km.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency issued a warning for tsunami waves as high as three metres (10 feet) for remote Japanese islands in the region, including Miyakojima island. 

In Taiwan, authorities issued a tsunami warning via text message “to remind people in coastal areas to be vigilant and take strict precautions and pay attention to the dangers caused by sudden surges in waves”. 

The initial earthquake was felt across Taiwan, with AFP reporters from the southern Pingtung county to the north in Taipei reporting strong shaking sensations. 

The aftershocks — which included a 6.5-magnitude earthquake near Hualien according to Taipei’s weather agency — were also felt in Taipei. 

In the capital, the metro briefly stopped running but appeared to have resumed within an hour, while residents received warnings from their local borough chiefs to check for any gas leaks. 

“I wanted to run out but I wasn’t dressed. That was so strong,” said Kelvin Hwang, a guest at a downtown hotel who sought shelter in the lift lobby on the ninth floor.

Officials said the earthquake was the strongest felt on the island in decades.

“The earthquake is close to land and it’s shallow. It’s felt all over Taiwan and offshore islands,” said Wu Chien-fu, director of Taipei’s Central Weather Administration’s Seismology Center.

“It’s the strongest in 25 years since the (1999) earthquake,” he told reporters. 

A 7.6-magnitude quake hit Taiwan in September 1999, killing around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s history.

Wu warned that authorities are not ruling out that “there will be earthquakes with magnitude of 6.5 to 7 in three days which will be relatively close to the land”.

“The public should pay attention to relevant warnings and messages and be prepared for earthquake evacuation.”

Earthquake territory

Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as the island lies near the junction of two tectonic plates, while nearby Japan experiences around 1,500 jolts every year. 

To Taiwan’s west, the Philippines also issued a tsunami warning and called for the evacuation of coastal areas. 

Coastal areas in the northern provinces of Batanes, Cagayan, Illocos Norte and Isabela “are expected to experience high tsunami waves” based on tsunami wave models, the state seismological agency said. 

In Japan, a banner on national broadcaster NHK said “Evacuate!”

“Tsunami is coming. Please evacuate immediately,” an anchor on NHK said. “Do not stop. Do not go back.”

Live TV footage from the Okinawa region’s ports, including Naha, showed vessels heading out to sea, possibly in efforts to protect their ships.

Flights were suspended at Okinawa’s main airport as a precautionary measure, a transport ministry official told AFP.

The vast majority of quakes around the area are mild, although the damage they cause varies according to the depth of the epicentre below the Earth’s surface and its location.

The severity of tsunamis — vast and potentially destructive series of waves that can move at hundreds of miles (kilometres) per hour — also depends upon multiple factors.

Japan’s biggest earthquake on record was a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea jolt in March 2011 off Japan’s northeast coast, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.

The 2011 catastrophe also sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing Japan’s worst post-war disaster and the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Japan saw a major quake on New Year’s Day this year, when a 7.5-magnitude earthquake hit Noto Peninsula and killed more than 230 people, many of them when older buildings collapsed.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

This aerial view shows the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, northern Japan, on Aug. 24, 2023, shortly after its operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings TEPCO began releasing its first batch of treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. Japan on Monday, March 11, 2024, marked 13 years since a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the country’s northern coasts.
| Photo Credit: AP

The release of wastewater from Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant was temporarily suspended on Friday following an earthquake, its operator said.

A 5.8-magnitude jolt struck off the coast of the northeastern Fukushima region, home to the plant wrecked by a tsunami in 2011, at 00:14 a.m. Friday (1514 GMT Thursday), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

“We have confirmed remotely that there were no abnormalities on ALPS treated water dilution/discharge facility, etc.,” Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said on X, formerly Twitter, referring to the water release process.

But “to be on the safe side, we have suspended the operations of the facilities in accordance with the pre-defined operational procedures”, it said in the early hours of Friday.

Several hours later TEPCO said in a statement that “no abnormalities were detected” and a spokesman told AFP that the water release would resume later on Friday.

No leak of radiation was detected after TEPCO finished necessary checks while “readings from monitoring posts remain normal”, he added.

Japan’s nuclear regulatory authority also said shortly after the quake that no abnormalities were detected at either the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi plant, or its sister plant Fukushima Daini.

Last August, TEPCO began releasing into the Pacific Ocean around 540 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of wastewater that has collected at Fukushima Daiichi since the 2011 accident, one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.

The operation has been endorsed by the UN atomic agency, and TEPCO says all radioactive elements have been filtered out except for tritium, levels of which are within safe limits.

But China and Russia have criticised the release into the Pacific and banned Japanese seafood imports, saying that Japan is polluting the environment.

Japan experiences hundreds of earthquakes every year and the vast majority cause no damage.

There were no immediate reports of injuries from the latest jolt and there was no tsunami warning.

People throw leaves with messages written on them into the sea for the victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disasters in Japan.
| Photo Credit: AFP

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 hit eastern Japan early on March 15 (Japan local time), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The epicentre of the earthquake was off the coast of Fukushima prefecture, where strong tremors were recorded, the agency said, adding that a tsunami warning had not been issued.

There were no immediate reports of damage.

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck Japan’s Izu islands on Oct. 6, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.

The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), EMSC said.

An aerial view shows the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan. File photo
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Japan issued a tsunami advisory Thursday. October 5, 2023, after a strong earthquake struck near its outlying islands in the Pacific Ocean, but lifted it about two hours later. No damage was reported.

The advisory, the second-lowest of a four-stage warning system, asked people on islands in the Izu chain, which stretches south from the Tokyo region, to stay away from the coast and river mouths.

The U.S. Geological Survey said a series of offshore earthquakes hit the area on Thursday morning. The strongest measured magnitude 6.1 and was located at a depth of 10 km, it said.

The quake was not felt on the islands or in the Tokyo region, but the Japan Meteorological Agency warned that a tsunami as high as 1 meter (3.2 feet) could hit the coasts of the islands. A small tsunami measuring about 30 centimeters (1 foot) was observed at Yaene on Hachijo island, the agency said.

No damage was reported and the agency lifted the tsunami advisory about two hours later.

Japan is one of the most earthquake prone places on Earth.

A massive magnitude 9.0 quake in 2011 triggered a tsunami that destroyed swaths of northern Japan and caused three reactors to melt at the Fukushima nuclear plant.