A powerful magnitude 7.5 earthquake shook northeastern Japan late on Monday, prompting orders for about 90,000 residents to evacuate and tsunami warnings that hours later were downgraded to advisories.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said a tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after the earthquake struck at 11.15pm local time.
Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and tsunamis from 20 to 50cm (7 to 18 inches) high were observed at several ports, JMA said.
In the early hours of Tuesday the JMA downgraded the warnings to advisories, meaning it now sees lower estimated wave heights and less risk of inundation.
The epicentre of the earthquake was 80km (50 miles) off the coast of Aomori Prefecture, at a depth of 54km, the agency said.
On Japan’s 1-7 scale of seismic intensity, the tremor registered as an “upper 6” in Hachinohe city, Aomori prefecture – an earthquake strong enough to make it impossible to keep standing or move without crawling. In such tremors, most heavy furniture can collapse and wall tiles and windowpanes are damaged in many buildings.