M7.4 quake strikes off Fukushima, triggering tsunami

Woke me up here in Shinjuku. Good morning!

That one went on for a while here in Hachioji

Another poster pointed out on an article about the New Zealand quake that the 2011 Tohoku earthquake occurred not too long after a quake in New Zealand.

Amazing coincidence.

The power went of for 30 seconds or so in northern Chiba.

Felt mild shake for long time near Chigasaki.

60cm tsunami observed offshore at Onahama as well as backwash going out from the port (actually first tsunami flowing into the port as of this post).

CyburneticTigerNOV. 22, 2016 - 06:51AM JST

Another poster pointed out on an article about the New Zealand quake that the 2011 Tohoku earthquake occurred not too long after a quake in New Zealand. Amazing coincidence.

It's no coincidence, they are both on the same tectonic plate fault line.

That was a shaky start to the morning in Sendai; it did last a surprisingly long time.

Longest earthquake I've ever felt. Shook for nearly a minute around Nerima.

Japan is not a safe place to live. Foreigners, pack your goods.

@igloobuyer

True, but hitting the same place again out of all the tens of thousands of miles along the fault line is pretty crazy.

Japan has some of the best earthquake preparedness in the world. I was recently there for 3 weeks and when an earthquake did strike (only once) the warning system and information provided were instantaneous and organized. One of the few places in the world that's actually ready for earthquakes.

Hopefully won't be any crazy tsunami's like last time.

May all be safe

Latest news via NHK: The cooling water supply to the spent nuclear fuel pool in the third reactor at Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant has stopped.

NHK is reporting the cooling system in the Fukushima plant that is storing the spent rods is shut down. Water temp is 28C with a critical level of 60C. They did not report the cause of the cooling failure.

Calculations of the rate of temperature increase are that it would take around 7 days for the reactor water to reach that critical level if cooling water supply is not restored.

Woke me up in Aichi - it went on for a long time. I hope all is well.

Had just pressed the snooze button on my alarm. No snooze at all. this one woke me up like a Drill Sergeant.

NHK is reporting the cooling system in the Fukushima plant that is storing the spent rods is shut down. Water temp is 28C with a critical level of 60C. They did not report the cause of the cooling failure.

scary.

NHK reports that the cooling system has restarted

Relatively small earthquake in Kochi yesterday morning (compared to near Fukushima). But today's action is not in Kochi.

Something a bit surreal about watching a Tohoku tsunami on TV, again. Hope they have all gotten to safety there.

Had just started to do the laundry in Tokyo and lost all water pressure for about 20 min. I'm wondering if that's normal. Stay safe along the coast everyone!!

Wow. I thought there would some fatalities up north if it was this big in Tokyo. All are OK.

This literally should be a wake up call in terms of planning to restart some of the reactors.

Don't worry, everything is under control.

This announcement is not to fan people's worry, though we haven't checked if it's safe.

And we won't.

by Jp Government

Here in Miyagi, strongest quake since 2011, for sure. Meh. Big deal. Just for the record, this was 1/100 the power of the 2011 quake. The power did not go off. Nothing even knocked off of shelves here.

We will see if the tsunami causes major damage. I bet some stuff along the coast will get wet.

I also noted at the time of the recent Christchurch quake that we could be looking at a large quake soon in Tohoku. Kind of funny how that worked out. The odd thing is that this was a slip and not a strike, so although it is a large quake, nothing snapped to create huge tsunami waves.

wtfux says 6.9 on ABC news here, which one is it???

Wasn't Tohoku also hit by a 7.3 a few days before the big one? Now I don't want to fear-monger but perhaps its time to prepare those emergency kits, like now.

A lot of quakes these days! Take care people!!

My video offering prayers to all those in Japan going through hard times, and especially those affected by this earthquake. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfLalrRQAx8&t=16s

You can get through this. This is a hard time for you, but be strong. Our prayers are with you.

Wonder if Japan is really safe country for 2020 Olympics and coming international events. Some scientists said the real big earthquakes would hit Kanto area (Tokyo) anytime by probability of 70% of next 10, 20, 30 years.

papaguilo,

Wasn't Tohoku also hit by a 7.3 a few days before the big one? Now I don't want to fear-monger but perhaps its time to prepare those emergency kits, like now.

No, the big one came out of the blue. We had a large aftershock a month later though, which is probably what you are thinking about.

You know, playing the "eerie parallel" game, I have to take my hat off to papagiulio.

In 2011, there was a strong quake in Christchurch NZ about a month before the quake on 3.11. But there were also TWO rather strong quakes that preceded the 3.11 quake that occurred out in the ocean and kind of "walked in" to the eventual epicenter of the 3.11 quake.

And Papagiulio makes the point that we should get our earthquake kits ready. It is great advice. ESPECIALLY because we are heading into winter. After the 3.11 quake, more or less suburban areas were without electricity for days, without water for a week or so, without food for two weeks, and without gasoline for a month. So plan accordingly. Be ready to have some way of warming your home or a shelter. Definitely have access to a shelter of some kind. Get some water bottled up or keep water in your ofuro. Keep your vehicles fueled up. Maybe keep cash ready. And shop a little bit ahead. Milk and eggs were hard to get ahold of. Get some soy milk and put it on a shelf. Eggs will keep fine in cold weather.

And for heaven 's sake, get to know your neighbors.

Who writes these stories ? It's always about Tokyo Tokyo Tokyo .... I live here in Iwaki city .... On the coast .... Fukushima Fukushima Fukushima ??? Come on editors .... Anyone have a clue the area of land mass in Fukushima prefecture ???? This is like all stories always imply poor Tokyo and just the name Fukushima .... Get an education and be more specific instead of telling us here near the epicenter about precious Tokyo ....

This reminds a 7.2 mb tremor in october2013&Typhoon hitting Tokyo.Amzing coincidence with New Zealand quake few weeks back. shripad phatak. Thanks God No loss of life&mild Tsunami....!

In 2011, there was a strong quake in Christchurch NZ about a month before the quake on 3.11

There was a 5.5 earthquake just right now in NZ.

All Japan’s nuclear power plants on the coast threatened by the tsunami are shut down in the wake of the March 2011 disaster, which knocked out Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO’s) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, spilling radiation into the air and sea.

This is not true! You cannot simply 'shutdown' a nuclear reactor. They were taken offline. They are still boiling pots of highly irradiated water waiting to be swamped in the next tsunami.

Does anyone know if Sendai was badly affected? My Aunt lives there and the news said they are having 4.6 aftershocks. Thank you!

Good on you Steven. I like to think of Tokyo as my "canary in a coalmine." If the trains stop, people rush out to buy toilet paper. What a bunch of losers. The world's press reported 3.11 from Singapore. One would think that some intrepid journalist could hop on a freaking train and report from Fukushima city at least... it would only take an hour to get there... but no. Reporters don't get out of bed before 10 am these days. They can file a story without getting out of their pajamas. For people in Tokyo, Fukushima is only useful if you are an anti-nuclear protester or a school bully.

Anyhoo. Forewarned is forearmed, so I want to share something that I saw from some Koreans last year or the year before. People should consider it. If you are in a bad quake in winter and your residence is still safe, consider pitching a tent INSIDE your home. Conserving heat will be very important, and heating a large room will be almost impossible without electricity to run a fan heater or space heater. It is far more efficient to heat a tent INSIDE your residence. Be very careful about ventilation, of course, and safety, but a good sized candle can produce a lot of heat inside a tent.

Even for people in an apartment building, you will have to heat the walls of your place, but the surrounding units might be at freezing or below, which will make it impossible to heat your unit. Think about making a tent with a table and blankets or sheets to conserve heat in a small space. Don't forget a mat or rug because the floor will get cold too.

Good luck. 3.11 was cold and snowy, but not as bad as a December quake would be. Staying warm will be a priority.

Steven, Tokyo is precious. If something happens in Iwaki, then nary a person alive bats an eyelid. If something happens in Tokyo, well, that's a biggie.

And don't worry about storing food and water and what have you. The conbinis will distribute necessary stuff for free, and the vending machines are designed to dispense drinks for free if there's a big shake. We also got the American military ready to make air drops of supplies. And if the U.S. is your friend, then hey, no problemo...

@KTdid

News reports only 5 people with injuries but only from Fukushima or Miyazaki, so i think its safe to say your aunt is okay. Don't you have a phonenumber or email to reach out?

One hotel in Ofunato, also badly hit by the 2011 quake, initially told guests to stay in the facility...

Haven't they learned anything?!

"but only from Fukushima or Miyazaki"

Miyazaki is on Kyushu, so if someone was injured there, it must have been some quake.

KTdid's aunt is fine. As far as I know, the power did not even go out in Miyagi. There was a lot of shaking, but you know, this is not ... some third world country like Italy. Buildings are built to code and they don't just fall down unless you get up to .. oh... 9 point something on the Richter scale. There are aftershocks, but it is just nothing. I feel aftershocks right now. We had about a thousand of these 5 years ago, so.... Ktdid's aunt is fine.

@CyburneticTiger THANK YOU!

The ring of fire!

Looks like they better change their roll to honeybun.

And don't worry about storing food and water and what have you. The conbinis will distribute necessary stuff for free, and the vending machines are designed to dispense drinks for free if there's a big shake. We also got the American military ready to make air drops of supplies. And if the U.S. is your friend, then hey, no problemo...

Please dont listen to this advice. When 3/11 happened literally all the vending machine bottled water sold out. Rapidly. I could not find any bottled water in the machines. If Tokyo cops a big one the combinis will shut. And they will suffer shutter damage and broken glass all over the stores. You will not get in and distribution to the stores will be blocked. The American military, as with the JAL crash in Gunma, with Fukushima, with Kumamoto etc will not be permitted to do anything. Air drops for 20 million people? Thats an awful lot of sorties. Buy an emergency backpack instead and keep it refreshed.

@papigiulio

Thank you so much for the update! I have my Aunt's phone number but I cannot speak Japanese, so I enlisted the help of a Japanese interpreter to call her on my behalf. As of now, no one is home so I came here to inquire. I am in the US.

Once again, I'm amazed by Japanese swift reaction to the earthquake.

From "swaying" buildings to nimble alertness, they seem to be prepared 24/7 resulting in little to no casualties. Yes, the 2011 earthquake did cause tremendous amount of damage but that was a special case.

7 magnitude is no laughing matter and had this happened to other countries, the damage would've been enormous.

Besides sounding of a police alarm at station next door, felt nothing here in Kyoto,

Sad to see this happening again must be a warning to shift or close nuclear Facilities in this Area and use the rods in another operating unit in a more stable area.

Don't be a nerd and mark YOURSELF safe on FB if you live in Tokyo. Even I slept through (after a brief moment of AWAKENING) here in Narashino, Chiba.

We were just about to step out of the house to go to the station when we felt what seemed like several minutes (actually only seconds) of movement here in Yokohama. As my son said : "At least we're ready to get out if it gets any worse !" There seems to have been quite a lot of "movement" recently - from Kumamoto to Fukushima and back... Scary !

@5SpeedRacer5

Thank you for your feedback. My Aunt's house was pretty badly affected last time - wall fractures, but the scale of the quake was considerable compared to this one. . Her house is old and didn't seem very sturdy when I visited in in the '90s.

Well I thought it's just another earthquake

I woke up just as it started. It is my regular wake up time anyway. It was around 4 in northern chiba, but because it went on for so long I knew somewhere else had really copped it. I had my own little personal tsunami to deal with. The water in my fish tank sloshes out all over the floor. I guess now we will have the 'experts' telling us if this was the main quake or if we can expect more. I felt a few of the aftershocks, but they weren't very strong where I'm located.

I was amazed to see English, Chinese and Korean information on hnk!

Japanese are used to these shocks so shocks are no shocks at all there, great Japanese, Kudos.

Japanese are used to these shocks so shocks are no shocks at all there, great Japanese, Kudos

Sorry. This kind of false praise is a waste of time.

I mean... what about the 70+ children who died at Okawa Elementary School in 2011.

Is it kudos for the people in charge there, too?

The parents just won a court case against them.