TOKYO – An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 hit the southwestern Japan prefectures of Kumamoto and Oita on Tuesday, with the country’s weather agency warning the public to remain on alert for about a week for possible similar or stronger quakes.
No tsunami warning was issued, after the quake occurred shortly after 6 p.m. and originated in Kumamoto’s Aso area. The quake registered upper 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Ubuyama, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Upper 5 is defined as a level at which many people find it difficult to walk.
The quake registered lower 5 in Kumamoto’s Aso and was also felt in Oita’s Taketa, where a lower 5 was registered, the agency said.
A woman was slightly injured in Aso after falling in her home, local authorities said.
The latest quake occurred in an area of Kyushu, one of Japan’s four main islands, where a pair of massive quakes struck in 2016.
The agency, which initially reported the quake’s magnitude at 5.7, also revised the depth of the focus from about 10 kilometers to 9 km.
Despite the quake, JR Kyushu said services on the Kyushu Shinkansen bullet train line operated normally.
No abnormalities were detected at the Genkai nuclear power station in Saga Prefecture, in the northern part of the island, and the Sendai power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, in its south, according to its operator Kyushu Electric Power Co.
The agency also said there were no changes detected in active volcanoes such as Mt. Aso and ruled out any link between the quake and volcanic activity.
According to a local meteorological observatory, the last time a quake with an intensity of upper 5 was observed in Kumamoto was in January 2019.
AloJapan.com