An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 hit southern Japan late on Wednesday, stated the Japan Meteorological Agency, with out issuing a tsunami warning.
The epicentre was the Bungo Channel, a strait separating the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, the company stated.
Ehime and Kochi prefectures had been hit by the quake with an depth of 6 on Japan’s 1-7 scale, the JMA stated.
Some water pipes burst, however no main harm has been reported, native media stated.
Shikoku Electric Power’s Ikata nuclear plant in Ehime prefecture, the place one reactor is in operation, reported no irregularities, Japan’s authorities spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi informed reporters.
Hayashi additionally warned of an opportunity of different earthquakes with decrease six on the Japanese seismic scale.
Earthquakes are frequent in Japan, one of many world’s most seismically lively areas. Japan accounts for about one-fifth of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or better.
On March 11, 2011, the northeast coast was struck by a magnitude 9 earthquake, the strongest in Japan on report, and a large tsunami. Those occasions triggered the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 1 / 4 of a century earlier.
Source: www.indiatoday.in
