A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 struck southwest Japan on Monday, triggering public alerts to avoid coastal areas due to a tsunami warning, which was later canceled.
No damage was immediately reported. Residents in some coastal areas were asked to evacuate as a precaution.
A man was lightly injured in Kyushu after falling down some stairs, NHK television channel reported. Trains stopped running through Miyazaki Station, stranding passengers.
A tsunami with an estimated height of 1 ma reached land within 30 minutes of the quake, NHK reported. The waters detected in Miyazaki Port were 20 centimeters high, according to reports.
Tsunami warnings were issued in the south of the country for Miyazaki Prefecture, where the earthquake was centered, on the southwest island of Kyushu, as well as for neighboring Kochi Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, shortly after the earthquake, at 9:19 p.m., according to the agency. They were all canceled shortly before midnight.
People have been warned to stay away from water, including rivers. Shigeki Aoki, an official with the agency, told reporters to watch out for landslides and objects falling into homes.
Always electricity
Aftershocks may occur over the next week, particularly in the next two to three days, he added.
The earthquake, centered at a depth of 30 kilometers, shook a wide area of Kyushu, the southwestern main island, Japan’s weather agency said.
Japan is frequently hit by earthquakes due to its position along the “Ring of Fire”, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific basin.
Footage from broadcaster NHK shows moving vehicles and well-lit streets, meaning the electricity is still working. No problems were detected in the various monitoring stations of nuclear power plants in the region.
Experts from the meteorological agency met late Monday to assess the link between the latest tremor and the so-called Nankai Trench earthquakes, but they decided not to take extraordinary measures for now .
This term refers to a large region considered prone to periodic major earthquakes. In 1946, an earthquake in the Nankai Trench off the coast of Shikoku killed more than 1,300 people. The region was hit by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in August last year.
