Japan was rattled by a magnitude-7.4 aftershock yesterday nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the northeastern coast.
Japan was rattled by a magnitude-7.4 aftershock yesterday nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the northeastern coast.
The strongest aftershock since the day of the magnitude-9.0 megaquake was a fresh blow to victims of that March 11 quake and subsequent tsunami that killed some 25,000 people, tore apart hundreds of thousands of homes and has sparked an ongoing crisis at a nuclear power plant.
A Japanese flag waves amid the wreckage of the March 11 tsunami in Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture
Damage and injuries from the aftershock were not immediately clear. The Japan meteorological agency briefly issued another tsunami warning last night, but later cancelled it.
Officials at the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant said there was no immediate sign of new problems caused by the aftershock. Japan's nuclear safety agency says workers there have retreated to a quake-resistant shelter in the complex. No one there was injured.
Officials say yesterday's aftershock hit 50 kilometers under the water and off the coast of Miyagi prefecture.
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The quake that preceded last month's tsunami was of a 9.0-magnitude. The US Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, later downgraded the quake to 7.1.
Tokyo shaken
Buildings as far away as Tokyo shook for about a minute.
In Ichinoseki, inland from Japan's eastern coast, buildings shook violently, toppling furniture, but there was no heavy damage to the buildings.
Immediately after the quake, all power was cut. The city went dark, but cars drove around normally and people assembled in the streets despite the late hour.
The quake struck at 11:32 pm local time.
Paul Caruso, a geophysicist at USGS, said it struck at about the same location and depth as last month's quake. It's the strongest of the 1,000 aftershocks that have been felt since, except for a 7.9 aftershock that day.
28,000: Number of people dead or missing since the March 11 tsunami
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