5.6 magnitude quake shakes Japan, no tsunami risk

TIL Desk/World/Tokyo-A 5.6-magnitude earthquake shook northeast Japan early today, the US Geological Survey said, two days after a powerful tremor triggered a tsunami near the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant. There were no risks of seismic waves or immediate reports of damage from today’s quake, which struck at 6:23 am (local time) off Fukushima prefecture some 210 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, Japanese authorities said.

The quake did not cause any fresh problems at the Fukushima facilities, the plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power as saying.  The early-morning jolt followed Tuesday’s powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake which sparked panic and triggered a tsunami including a one-metre (three-foot) wave that crashed ashore at the Fukushima plant.

Japan sits at the junction of four tectonic plates and experiences a number of relatively violent quakes every year.  A massive undersea quake that hit in March 2011 sent a tsunami barrelling into Japan’s northeast coast, leaving more than 18,000 people dead or missing, and sending three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.