A 7.4 earthquake has struck off Japan, and a tsunami alert was declared, although it has since been lifted, in the north-east where the crippled Fukushima-1 is located.
Before the tsunami alert was lifted, the authorities recommended that the population evacuate to higher areas, as the tsunami was expected to reach a height of one-meter.Japanese officials said there was no immediate sign that the aftershock had caused any new problems at the partly destroyed Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, according to AP reports. However, the plant’s operator, TEPCO, said it had evacuated two workers from the damaged plant and seven more from Fukushima-2 to the south.The quake has reportedly caused blackouts in several prefectures in northern Honshu, including Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata and Iwate, according to Kyodo News.Officials say Thursday's aftershock hit 16 miles (25 km) under the water and off the coast of Miyagi prefecture. The quake that preceded last month's tsunami was a 9.0-magnitude.According to the USGS data, the aftershock struck off the eastern coast of the main island Honshu, 41 miles (66 km) east of Sendai and 73 miles (118 km) from Fukushima. Buildings in the country’s capital Tokyo shook for about a minute.The new quake struck while Japan has not yet recovered from the mid-March earthquake, which left many thousands dead and missing, and caused devastation on a dramatic scale.Dr. Tim Wright, an earthquake expert from the University of Leeds in the UK, believes that Fukushima-1 and other nuclear power plants in Japan were not threatened by the latest earthquake and are safe since the tsunami warning has been lifted.“Most of the nuclear power stations in Japan are quite well equipped to cope with a shaking. And Fukushima didn’t fall down because of the shaking. It was really damaged by the tsunami,” he told RT. “My instinct is that, probably, the other nuclear power stations are going to be safe.”