Strong Quake Hits Hokkaido, Northern Japan
Date: 29-Nov-04
Country: JAPAN
Author: Linda Sieg
Public broadcaster NHK said at least eight people were injured but there were no reports of widespread casualties or serious damage from the quake, which hit at 3:32 a.m. (18:32 GMT).
"This is considered a major earthquake. It has the potential to cause damage and casualties," said US Geological Survey spokesman John Bellini.
But he said because the quake hit a relatively sparsely populated area there would not be a lot of damage expected.
One tsunami wave of 10 cm hit around 4 a.m. (1900 GMT), JAM said. The agency urged people along the coast to stay on guard.
Masahiro Yamamoto, a JMA official, told a news conference the area has been hit by earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 or stronger every 10 years or so.
"We believe there is no unusual seismic activity," he said, adding minor aftershocks had hit the area and there would likely be more.
The focus of the earthquake was about 50 km (31 miles) under the surface of the Pacific Ocean of southeastern Hokkaido about 800 km (497 miles) north of Tokyo, NHK said.
Trains were halted in the eastern part of the island and more than 600 homes suffered power outages, NHK said. But power began to be restored within about an hour.
Masaaki Ohta, an official at the Rausu town office on the eastern coast of Hokkaido, told NHK: "There was a strong jolt from side to side but nothing fell off the shelves."
The magnitude was measured according to a Japanese scale which resembles the open-ended Richter scale.
Japan is one of the world's most seismically active areas, accounting for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude six or greater.
On Oct 23, a 6.8 magnitude quake hit the Niigata region, 250 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, killing at least 40 people.
Memories are still vivid of the earthquake in the western city of Kobe which killed more than 6,400 people in 1995, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The last quake of 8.0 or higher in Japan was in 1994.
