A preliminary magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Iwate Prefecture in northeastern Japan on Monday afternoon, prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to issue tsunami warnings for three northern prefectures and order millions of residents to evacuate immediately.
The quake hit at 4:53 p.m. local time at a depth of 10 kilometers in the Pacific Ocean, the JMA said. Authorities warned of tsunami waves reaching up to 3 meters along the coastlines of Iwate, Aomori, and Hokkaido prefectures.
The tremor registered an upper 5 on Japan’s shindo seismic intensity scale — a level strong enough to make movement difficult — and shaking reached as far south as Tokyo, where buildings swayed for several minutes.
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NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, immediately activated emergency protocols, urging coastal residents to seek higher ground and move away from rivers and shorelines. The network flashed “Tsunami! Evacuate! Don’t turn back” in English for non-Japanese-speaking viewers. Anchors invoked the March 11, 2011 disaster — a 9.1-magnitude earthquake and catastrophic tsunami that devastated Japan’s northeastern coast — as a stark warning of what coastal inundation can do.
The JMA also issued an Earthquake Early Warning for the event. No casualties or confirmed wave arrivals had been reported as of publication.
This is a developing story. Updates to follow.
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