Magnitude-5.1 earthquake shakes parts of Japan

Tokyo, Dec 30 (efe-epa).- An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Ritcher scale shook eastern Japan on Wednesday but there was no tsunami alert and the authorities did not report any human or material losses.

The earthquake shook the capital Tokyo at 9.35 am local time (0.35 GMT) with its epicenter in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, and about 60 km (37 miles) deep, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

The tremor reached level 4 on the Japanese scale of 7, which is more focused on the affected areas, in the prefectures of Ibaraki, Tochigi, and Chiba.

People were also jolted by the impact in the capital, where the intensity of level 3 was recorded.

The authorities did not report any material or human damage due to the earthquake.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) did not report any harm to its nuclear facilities in Ibaraki or at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Japan sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the world’s most seismically active areas.

As it suffers earthquakes with relative frequency, its infrastructure, including skyscrapers and bridges, is specially designed to withstand strong tremors.

The country earlier this year commemorated the 25th anniversary of the magnitude-7.3 earthquake in Kobe that killed more than 6,400 people and is considered one of the strongest and deadliest in the country’s recent history.

The earthquake shook the region early in the morning when many citizens were sleeping. It caused numerous landslides as well as hundreds of fires across the city.

The epicenter of the earthquake was about 17.6 km deep and located in the north of the island of Awaji, about 20 km from Kobe, which is the most populous city in the area (around 1.5 million inhabitants at the time) and was the worst affected. EFE-EPA

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