Tokyo The Meteorological Agency of Japan reported Monday that a powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 has struck southwestern Japan, cautioning the public to avoid coastal areas due to the possibility of tsunamis.
Shortly after the quake struck at 9:19 p.m. local time, the agency issued tsunami advisories for nearby Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku island and Miyazaki Prefecture in the southwestern island of Kyushu, where the tremor was centered.
Reports of damage were not immediately available. As a precaution, residents in a few coastal districts were ordered to leave. According to NHK, a guy in Kyushu suffered minor injuries after tumbling down some stairs. Passengers were left stranded at Miyazaki Station as trains ceased operations.
According to public broadcaster NHK TV, a tsunami that was up to 3.2 feet high made landfall within 30 minutes of the earthquake. According to the reports, the waters found in Miyazaki Port were 0.7 feet high.
According to Japan’s Meteorological Agency, the earthquake, which was 18.6 miles deep at its center, rocked a large portion of Kyushu, the largest island in the southwest.
Because Japan is situated along the Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin, earthquakes frequently strike the country.
Electric power was still operational, as evidenced by the well-lit streets and moving cars in the NHK TV clip. There were no issues found at any of the local nuclear plant monitoring sites.
To determine how the most recent temblor might be connected to the so-called Nankai Trough quakes, meteorological agency experts were gathering late Monday.
The phrase describes a broad area thought to be vulnerable to frequent, significant earthquakes. More than 1,300 people were killed in the 1946 Nankai Trough earthquake off Shikoku. In August of last year, an earthquake of a magnitude of 7.1 struck the region.
The Associated Press
