On Thursday, April 7 (11:32pm local time) a magnitude Mw7.1 earthquake occurred offshore the east coast of Honshu, Japan – a powerful aftershock of the Mw9.0 earthquake on Friday, March 11.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has reported a fixed focal depth of 30.4 miles and an epicentral location around 40 miles east of the epicenter of the Mw9.0 earthquake, and 41 miles east of Sendai, Japan, the area worst affected by the Mw9.0 earthquake. Shaking from the earthquake was felt as far away as Tokyo, 205 miles south-southwest of the Mw7.1 aftershock.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency issued a local tsunami warning for Miyagi Prefecture with an expected wave height of up to 2m, though the advisory was lifted 90 minutes later and no earthquake generated waves were reported along the east coast of Japan.
There are initial reports of several buildings being destroyed and power outages to over 3.5 million homes. Three fatalities have been attributed to this aftershock. Workers at the damaged Fukushima nuclear power station temporarily evacuated the plant, though quickly resumed efforts to stabilize the reactors damaged from the Mw9.0 earthquake. No new leaks or damage has been reported from any of the nuclear facilities impacted by this latest aftershock.
The RMS reconnaissance team is currently in Japan surveying the damage from the Mw9.0 earthquake.
Source : RMS Press Release
