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M5.5 quake strikes off Japan's east coast; no tsunami alert

12 Comments

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, but no tsunami warning was issued.

The quake hit at a depth of 26 kilometers at 3:13 a.m., about 324 kilometers east of the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture,the USGS said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue an alert.

A powerful 7.1-magnitude undersea quake off the east coast two days ago triggered a small tsunami, which was recorded as being as high as 55 centimeters in one place.

Workers were evacuated from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Saturday but there were no reports of any damage. Japan's meteorological agency said the quake was an aftershock of the disastrous March 2011 tremor.

© (c) 2013 AFP

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12 Comments
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No it isn't, we've had thousands of similar earthquakes since 3/11, that was just another small aftershock. I have no idea why yet another 5.5 earthquake in that area is suddenly considered newsworthy.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

I wonder if they are aftershocks .. or foreshocks to something bigger?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It's considered by the experts to be another aftershock of the 3/11 quake. Every so often we get little swarms of them. Just because one quake happens to make the news doesn't mean it's any more important than any of the many, many other quakes of similar magnitude that have happened in that area in the last 2.5 years, it just means that the news agencies happened to pick it up. I saw a headline in an overseas paper today saying "M5.5 quake rattles Japan's east coast"- what rubbish, it was barely felt on the mainland, if at all.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I love how some JT posters see themselves as more knowledgeable than the experts...

1 ( +2 / -1 )

didn't feel it at all, and hardy felt the 7.1 here in hachioji.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Japan should adopt the motto of Paris : "Fluctuat Nec Mergitur" in the hopes it holds true !

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Time the big one is 2020. Make it a Year of Remembrance for the Olympic Games. No Secrets Act is going to be able to hide the truth and it will go down in history as to how the Olympic Committee could have allowed Shinzo Abe to lull them to decide to pick Tokyo as the venue. Or, was that at the cost of millions of dollars paid for by the people of Japan?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It certainly could be considered an aftershock:

The Japanese Meteorological Agency said that the earthquake(11 March) may have ruptured the fault zone from Iwate to Ibaraki with a length of 500 km (310 mi) and a width of 200 km (120 mi).

0 ( +0 / -0 )

same general location....good luck!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

When is the biggie coming.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

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