The latest information from USGS shows that the earthquake has a depth of 54 kilometers (34 miles). CNN teams in Tokyo felt the quake.
A tsunami alert was issued earlier Saturday but has now been downgraded to a “tsunami forecast” of slight changes in sea level, a Japanese government website showed. The US tsunami warning system says there is no warning, advice, vigilance or threat of tsunami related to the earthquake in Japan.
Firefighters in the Miyagi jurisdiction, where Ishinomaki is located, have not been harmed by the earthquake, according to the Japan Times, an English-language Japanese daily, and nuclear reactors in eastern and northeastern Japan are safe.
Japan experienced a deadly earthquake a decade ago that caused the country’s worst nuclear disaster to date. More than 20,000 people died or went missing and a tsunami with 30-foot waves damaged several nuclear reactors in the area.
More than 100,000 people have been evacuated and authorities have spent the past ten years clearing the area – a major effort that experts say will take decades to complete.
According to the National Meteorological Agency, a powerful earthquake that struck Japan last month was a follow-up to the 2011 event.