Earthquake shakes northern Japan

Kenya News.Net
Wednesday 23rd July, 2008

A powerful earthquake shook northern Japan early Thursday, injuring at least 90 people.

The force of the earthquake shattered windows and set off fires in an area hit by a large shock just a month ago.

The powerful June 14th earthquake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, killed at least 13 people and left 10 others missing.

Thursday’s earthquake, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, struck the north of the main Japanese island of Honshu as most people were asleep and cut off power to around 10,000 homes.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said no tsunami warnings were issued.

There was no damage reported to nuclear power plants in Miyagi province, which continued to operate.

The agency said the quake's epicentre was located about 120 km under the sea basin off the northeastern coast of Iwate province.

The government set up an emergency office to handle the impact of the quake, which was strong enough to shake buildings in the heart of the capital some 500 kilometres to the south.

An earthquake last year caused a small leak in the world's largest nuclear power plant in Niigata prefecture northwest of Tokyo.

Email this story to a friend

Have your say on this story

Your name/nickname	(optional)
Message
Image verification	(enter the verification code from the image above)