Japan: Tsunami warning lifted after 7.1 earthquake

 The CA's Roland Buerk described how the quake felt in Hanamaki in north-east Japan.

  

A tsunami warning issued for north-eastern Japan after an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 has now been lifted, Japanese NHK TV says. 

Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant damaged in last month's quake and tsunami were evacuated.
However, officials at the plant said there was no detectable effect there or at other nuclear plants in the region.
The Japanese authorities ordered a general evacuation from the warning zone.
"Based on all available data, a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said on its website.
But it warned: "Earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within 100km of the earthquake epicentre."
There was no threat to Hawaii, it added.

Aftershocks

The quake struck at 2332 local time (1432 GMT) on Thursday, 118km (78 miles) north of Fukushima, 40km offshore.

First reports said it had a magnitude of 7.4 but that has now been revised downwards to 7.1, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
It struck at a depth of 49km. Last month's earthquake had a magnitude of 9.0 and struck at 32km deep.

USGS geophysicist Paul Caruso said Thursday's quake struck at about the same location and depth as the 11 March quake, the AP news agency reported.
Efforts to cool down three of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are continuing in a stable manner, reports NHK.
The quake was strong enough to shake buildings in Tokyo, 265km to the south.
"The earthquake was moving in a up and down motion," Miri Gono in Tokyo told the CA by email. It started off with small shakes, then shook bigger. I was alone in my house with my brother and we were so scared... We took our bottles of water and hid under the table."
Japan's meteorological agency issued tsunami warnings and advisories for a stretch of coast 420km long, from Aomori prefecture in the north to Ibaraki prefecture in central Japan, just north of Tokyo.
Hundreds of aftershocks have shaken north-eastern Japan in the wake of the earlier earthquake, but few have measured higher than 7.0.
About 28,000 people are dead or missing, and hundreds of thousands were left homeless after the tsunami which ripped through north-eastern Japan.