Tokyo, Dec 13: Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a tsunami advisory for northern Japan’s Pacific coast on Friday after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck off Aomori Prefecture. The tremor occurred at 11:44 a.m. local time at a depth of 20 km, with the strongest areas registering a 4 on Japan’s seismic scale of 7.
The advisory affects coastal regions of Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, and Miyagi prefectures, where waves of up to 1 metre are expected. The quake’s epicentre was recorded at 40.9°N latitude and 143.0°E longitude. The JMA revised the magnitude from an initial 6.5 to 6.7.
This event follows a 7.5-magnitude quake in the same region late Monday night, which prompted previous tsunami warnings for parts of Iwate, Hokkaido, and Aomori prefectures. The Nuclear Regulation Authority reported no immediate abnormalities at local nuclear facilities.
The JMA had previously issued a rare special advisory warning that additional quakes of similar or larger magnitude were possible in the coming week. The advisory includes the Sanriku area on the northeastern tip of Honshu and northern Hokkaido along the Pacific coast.
The region remains highly sensitive to seismic activity due to the 2011 undersea earthquake and tsunami, which claimed around 18,500 lives. Japan, located on the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” experiences roughly 1,500 earthquakes annually, with severity and damage varying based on location and depth.