The Niigata prefecture government says the quake took place at 22.22 yesterday. The victims are resident in the prefectures of Miyagi, Yamagata, Niigata and Ishikawa. The administration issued a tsunami warning, lifted around midnight. After the quake, 9,232 houses remained without electricity. Shinkansen high-speed train stops.
Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Last night a 6.7 magnitude earthquake shook the earth off the coast of the prefecture of Yamagata, in northwestern Japan: at least 26 people were injured, many buildings were damaged and power supplies interrupted for thousands of citizens. The authorities did not report any victims and the electricity was restored in the early hours of dawn.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency declares that the wounded are resident in the northern prefectures of Miyagi, Yamagata, Niigata and Ishikawa. The Niigata prefecture states that the quake took place at 22.22; in the locality of Murakami it reached the level six on the seven of the scale of intensity adopted in Japan. The administration issued a tsunami warning, lifted around midnight. Structural damage to homes and public facilities is reported over a wide area.
According to the Tohoku Electric Power Co., 9,232 houses in Yamagata and Niigata prefectures have remained without electricity since the earthquake; all services were restored around 6.44 am. High-speed Shinkansen train rides in northern Japan have been temporarily suspended. Officials from the East Japan Railway Co. report that the Tohoku, Yamagata, Akita, Joetsu and Hokuriku lines have returned to normal since the first routes in the morning.
The epicenter of the earthquake is in an area that has generated many major tremors in the past and could produce more in the near future. It serves as a border between the North American plate, on which Hokkaido and the Tohoku region lie, and the Eurasian plate to the west. The border extends from the west coast of Hokkaido to an area around the island of Sado, in the prefecture of Niigata. The frequent collisions between the Eurasian and North American plates generate crustal deformations that can trigger seismic events