Earthquake hits Japan, tsunami alert issued

Tokyo, Aug 19: An earth quake with 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the coast of northeastern Japan on Friday, Aug 19, prompting authorities to issue a limited tsunami warning message.

The earth quake hit northern Japan at 2.36 p.m. local time with epicentre at southeast of Sendai, the capital city of Miyagi. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reported that the fresh earthquake struck about 20 kilometers deep. The epicentre of this earth quake was also near to the region where the massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck on Mar 11.

According to United States Geological Survey (USGS), Friday earth quake marked 6.5 on the Richter scale and it affected nearly 2.8 million people with a moderate shake.

The JMA issued a tsunami advisory for Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. The advisory said that a small tsunami up to 0.5 meters in height could hit the coastline. Later after 30 minutes, JMA canceled the tsunami alert message.

OneIndia News