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Japan downgraded the highest tsunami warnings issued by the country in five years as the threat of a tsunami eased after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake off the northeastern coast near the Fukushima prefecture.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the quake hit on Tuesday morning at around 06:00 local time, with an estimated depth of around 10 km. The tremors temporarily triggered a cooling system for spent nuclear fuel at a Fukushima power plant to automatically shut down, but was restarted two days later.
Tsunami warnings were issued widely following the earthquake. A one 1m wave struck the coastline close to the Fukushima power plant. A tsunami warning was also issued for the Miyagi prefecture, where a 1.4m tsunami wave was observed.
The weather agency cautioned that aftershocks of same magnitude could occur in the following week, triggering more tsunamis, NHK reported. This was observed when a similar-sized tremor hit the region two days ahead of the March 2011 disaster that left 18,000 people dead.
Initially, the magnitude was set at 7.4 by the U.S. Geological Survey but was later downgraded to 6.9, lower than the figure issued by Japanese authorities.
