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Al Jazeera
A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Japan on Wednesday in the same region devastated by a major quake and tsunami in 2011. Authorities said there was no risk of tsunami.
The quake struck at 6:12 a.m. at a depth of 29 miles off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and 6.6 according to public broadcaster NHK. USGS originally reported the earthquake as 6.9 magnitude.
It shook a wide swath of northern Japan and was felt in Tokyo, 260 miles to the southwest. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Meteorological agency official Yohei Hasegawa said at a news conference on Wednesday that the earthquake was an aftershock of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that killed more than 18,000 people in March 2011.
Japan's meteorological agency said there was no immediate tsunami threat from the earthquake.
Wednesday's earthquake did not damage any of the nuclear reactors in the region, including those at the crippled Fukushima facility, Japan's public broadcaster NHK said.
All of Japan's reactors have been off-line since the Fukushima disaster.
Train services in the region, including Shinkansen bullet train operations, were temporarily suspended for safety checks following the quake, officials said.
Japan is located at the juncture of several tectonic plates and experience a number of relatively violent quakes every year.
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