Tokyo: A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.1 has struck the Kumamoto prefecture on Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu.
Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reported that the epicenter of the tremors was at a depth of 10 kilometers below the sea surface, as reported by NDTV.
A tsunami warning has been issued, with waves of up to one meter (3.28 feet) expected. Residents in coastal areas have been urged to move to higher ground and follow official evacuation instructions.
Waves of up to that level may already have been recorded, broadcaster NHK has said.
Emergency earthquake warnings have been issued by the government for Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Saga, Oita, and Miyazaki prefectures, all on Japan’s southern Kyushu island.
This was the second earthquake of the week in the country. A temblor of magnitude 7.2 had hit northern Japan on June 25 but caused no deaths or major damage.
Sitting atop four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, Japan is one of the world’s most seismically active countries,
Home to around 125 million people, the archipelago typically experiences hundreds of jolts every year and accounts for about 18 percent of the world’s earthquakes.
Fortunately, a vast majority of these quakes are mild, although the damage they cause varies according to their location and the depth below the Earth’s surface at which they strike.
The country is haunted by the memory of a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that killed or left missing around 18,500 people and wrecked the Fukushima nuclear plant.