A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck in the Pacific off the eastern coast of Honshu on the evening of Friday 6 November, at about 7.39pm Japan time, according to figures from the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and the US Geological Survey (USGS) as relayed by the outlet ColombiaOne. Both agencies put the magnitude at 6.1 and the depth at about 10 kilometres, which the JMA classed as shallow.
The JMA gave the epicentre as 35.0°N, 142.2°E, while the USGS placed it roughly 156 kilometres south-east of Hasaki, near Choshi in Chiba Prefecture. The JMA recorded a maximum seismic intensity of 3 in parts of Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures, including around Ishinomaki, Koriyama and Hitachi. On Japan’s scale that level is felt by most people indoors, and it is well below the threshold at which damage is usual.
No tsunami warning or advisory was issued. At 7.53pm the JMA forecast slight sea-level changes of under 0.2 metres along the Kujukuri and Sotobo coasts of Chiba, lasting two to three hours, and said damaging waves were not expected. According to the report, initial accounts mentioned no injuries or structural damage.
Reporting note: This account relies on a single secondary outlet quoting the JMA and USGS. We did not check the agencies’ own pages, and early reports of “no damage” may be updated. Japan sits on several converging tectonic plates and records earthquakes of this size regularly.
Photo: Aspere / CC0 / Wikimedia Commons
