The region is part of northern Japan that was devastated by a deadly 9.0 quake and tsunami 11 years ago that also caused nuclear plant meltdowns.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no longer a tsunami threat though the Japan Meteorological Agency kept its low risk advisory in place. NHK national television said tsunami waves of 8 inches already reached shore in one area.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which operates the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant where the cooling systems failed after the 2011 disaster, said workers found no abnormalities at the site, which was in the process of being decommissioned.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that there were also no abnormalities at two other nuclear power plants in the area.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake hit at 11:36 p.m. at a depth of 36 miles below the sea.

Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force said it dispatched fighter jets from the Hyakuri base in Ibaraki prefecture, just south of Fukushima, for information gathering and damage assessment.

NHK said there were reports of fire, damage to buildings and falling rocks in Iitate town in Fukushima. There was no word on any casualties.

More than 2 million homes were without electricity in the Tokyo region serviced by TEPCO due to the quake, the utility said on its website. The quake shook large parts of eastern Japan, including Tokyo, where buildings swayed violently.

East Japan Railway Co. said most of its train services were suspended for safety checks.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that the government was assessing the extent of damage and promised to do its utmost for rescue and relief operations.

“Please first take action to save your life,” Kishida tweeted.

Matsuno said there were a number of emergency calls and local authorities were scrambling to assess damage.

“We are doing our utmost in rescue operations and putting people’s lives first,” he said.

He urged residents in the affected areas to use extra caution for possible major aftershocks for about a week.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/03/16/1086939902/japan-earthquake-fukushima

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The earthquake, which struck at 11:20 a.m. local time on Tuesday, was centered in the Flores Sea, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Maumere, one of the largest towns on Flores Island, which is west of Timor-Leste (East Timor).

Indonesia’s seismological agency BMKG put the preliminary magnitude for Tuesday’s quake at 7.4. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), however, put the magnitude at 7.3, down from an earlier reading of 7.6. Both said the earthquake struck at a shallow depth of 12 to 18 kilometers (7 to 11 miles).

Tsunami warnings were immediately issued for nearby coastlines, prompting scores of people to flee to higher ground. The warnings were later downgraded to tsunami advisories, which were canceled at 1:25 p.m. after only small tsunami waves had been recorded.

The USGS estimates that up to 21 million people could have felt Tuesday’s earthquake, of which 347,000 people may have felt “moderate” shaking and “strong” shaking for about 2,000 people. Homes were reportedly damaged on Selayar Island, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Indonesia is on the so-called ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’, an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent and large earthquakes.

A 9.1-magnitude earthquake, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded, struck off the west coast of Sumatra in December 2004, causing a massive tsunami that struck countries across the Pacific Ocean. At least 227,898 people were killed.

Source: https://bnonews.com/index.php/2021/12/powerful-quake-southern-indonesia-tsunami-alert-canceled/

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