Japan's meteorological agency says it has lifted a tsunami warning for the northeastern coast 90 minutes after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck offshore.
The quake hit about 11:30 p.m. Thursday Japan time. It has rattled nerves nearly a month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that flattened the northeastern coast.
April 7 - An earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale hit the sea near Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan at 23:32 p.m. (1432 GMT) local Time Thursday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.Tsunami warnings have been lifted so far, the agency said.
The focus of the quake was located some 40 km under the sea off the northeastern prefecture ,said the agency.Xinhua's office building in Tokyo swayed for a while when the quake occurred.
The quake has not brought any major problems to the nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture so far, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co.The weather agency considered the quake as the aftershock of the devastating March 11 quake.
According to Kyodo news reports, blackouts were seen all over Aomori, Iwate and Akita prefectures as well as several parts of Miyagi and Yamagata prefectures, according to the nuclear regulator.
The quake struck at 11:32 p.m. local time.
Paul Caruso, a geophysicist at USGS, said it struck at about the same location and depth as last month's hug quake. It's the strongest of the more than 1,000 aftershocks that have been felt since, except for a 7.9 aftershock that day.
Another USGS geophysicist, Don Blakeman, said it was the strongest aftershock since March 11, although several aftershocks on that day were bigger.
The USGS said the aftershock struck off the eastern coast 65 kilometres from Sendai and 115 kilometres from Fukushima. It was about 330 kilometres from Tokyo.
A Pacific Tsunami Warning Center evaluation of the quake said an oceanwide tsunami was not expected. However, it noted quakes of that strength can cause waves that are destructive locally.
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