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Tsunami hits coast of north-eastern Japan

by Staff Reporter
25 Oct 2013 at 19:02hrs | Views
Tokyo - Tsunami waves of up to 1m high have hit the coast of north-eastern Japan after a powerful earthquake, the Meteorological Agency said on Saturday.

A magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan's Fukushima region at 02:10 (1710 GMT on Friday), it said, adding that the damaged nuclear power plant there had not been affected.

The tremor's epicentre was located off Fukushima at a depth of 10km, the agency said. It had initially measured the earthquake at magnitude 6.8.

The US Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 7.3 in the Pacific Ocean about 300km from Fukushima's coast.

No abnormalities were detected at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, where three nuclear reactors suffered meltdowns, after a tsunami swept through the plant in March 2011.

Radiation levels in a drainage channel at the nuclear plant more than doubled this week.

The spike was probably caused after a recent heavy downpour washed radiation-contaminated soil into the ditch.

Source - Sapa
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