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Powerful Quake Rattles Northern Japan

Posted on: Thursday, 25 September 2003, 06:00 CDT

A strong quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.8 rocked the northern island of Hokkaido early Friday morning, knocking out power, reportedly derailing a train and touching off an industrial fire. At least seven people were reported injured.

The government warned residents to avoid coastal areas due to the possibility of tsunami, or ocean waves caused by seismic activity.

The quake, which struck at 4:50 a.m., was strong enough to rock buildings on the island and shake books and other objects off shelves. It was followed at about 6 a.m. by a powerful aftershock.

Hokkaido prefectural police official Kuniyoshi Omori said one person was injured when a local train carrying about 39 passenger derailed. Kyodo news agency reported that at least seven others were injured, none seriously, by falling shelves and other toppled objects.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported that a fire had broken out in the city of Tomakomai. Black plumes of smoke and flames could be seen leaping from a tank at an industrial area, and police said the plant belonged to Idemitsu Co. Streams of water were aimed at the flames.

Television footage showed an office in which books were knocked off shelves, and desks and computers swayed back and forth.

Japan's meteorological agency warned that waves of up to 3 feet were expected to hit coastal areas. The quake, which hit just before dawn, was focused off Hokkaido's eastern shore, 36 miles under the seabed, it said.

Waves of up to 3 feet were observed in some coastal cities, NHK reported.

"We are now trying to collect information on the extent of the damage," city official Sadayuki Kano said. "There are no reports of other major damage."

The U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, said the temblor had a preliminary magnitude of 8.

The quake struck in the Pacific Ocean, about 65 miles south-southwest of Kushiro and 495 miles north-northeast of Tokyo, said John Minsch, a geophysicist for the U.S. agency.

"That makes it more likely to be a tsunami, and there's most likely to be a great amount of damage," Minsch said.

A tsunami advisory also was issued for Hawaii and a warning was issued for parts of Alaska.

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. It sits atop four tectonic plates, slabs that move across the earth's surface.

In September 1923, a magnitude-8.3 quake hit Tokyo and Yokohama, killing at least 140,000 people. In January 1995, a magnitude-7.2 temblor in Kobe killed more than 6,000 people.

Hokkaido is the northernmost and most sparsely populated of Japan's major islands. Sapporo is the prefecture's capital.

Geophysicist Doug Given in Pasadena, California, said the region is "part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the zone of very large earthquakes and volcanoes that rings the Pacific Rim."

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said the earthquake generated a tsunami. A warning was in effect for Japan, Russia, Guam, the Northern Mariana islands and Wake Island.

A watch was in effect for Hawaii, Taiwan and the Philippines, the center said.

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