A massive earthquake in Tokyo on Monday rocked the city, rattling windows and buildings. Fortunately, damage was not reported to be major, and there were only a few injuries.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the quake hit at 5:18 am local time and had a magnitude of 6.0. It was centered 160 kilometers (99 miles) under the seabed near Izu Oshima island south of Tokyo.
The Tokyo earthquake was felt further afield than just the the city though, and was registered at its strongest in the center of the city. Even though details weren’t immediately available, the Tokyo Fire Department reported that four people were injured as a result of the earthquake.
Monday’s earthquake was the strongest to hit the area since the massive mag 9 earthquake and tsunami back in March 2011 off the northeastern coast. Over 18,000 people were reported dead or missing as a result of that tsunami.
Thankfullyl, this time around the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, which was crippled in the 2011 disasters, was undamaged and even though under observation, isn’t thought to be a big concern at this time.
Reuters reported that elsewhere in the pacific a magnitude 6.6 earthquake was registered deep in the ocean, about 328 miles south of Suva, Fiji.
A second quake followed ten minutes after the first at a depth of 379 miles. No tsunami warning was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.
In other earthquake news, some smaller, relatively minor aftershocks were felt in Northern Alaska and earthquakes some miles northeast of the Noatak community, which has 500 residents, were also reported.
According to officials from the Alaska Earthquake Information Center , this round of quakes is unusual in that they occurred in a region of Alaska which isn’t seismically active.
It’s fortunate that the damage and loss to human life wasn’t worse as a result of the latest Tokyo earthquake. Authorities are keeping a close eye on the situation, hoping another large quake is not on its way.
