- The Meteorological Agency registers two 40 centimeter long tsunami waves.
- Tsunami expected to hit Japan’s Pacific coast, meteorologists say.
- Footage shows broken glass fragments scattered across the roads.
A major earthquake shook Japan’s northern coast on Monday, with the country’s meteorological agency recording two 40-centimeter-long tsunami waves and local media reporting damage.
The United States Geological Survey said the 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck at 1415 GMT off Misawa on Japan’s Pacific coast at a depth of 53 kilometers (33 miles).
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning with the first wave hitting a port in the northern region of Aomori, where Misawa is located, at 10 p.m. 11:43 (1443 GMT).
At 11:50 p.m., another wave reached the city of Urakawa in the Hokkaido region, the agency said.
Both waves measured 40 centimeters (16 inches), it added.
Public broadcaster NHK quoted a hotel employee in the town of Hachinohe in Aomori as saying there had been some damage, with live footage showing broken glass fragments scattered across the roads.
The tremor was also felt in the northern center of Sapporo, where alarms rang on smartphones to warn residents.
A reporter for NHK in Hokkaido described a horizontal shaking of about 30 seconds that left him unable to stand when the earthquake struck.
The meteorological agency has previously warned that a tsunami of up to three meters (10 feet) is expected to hit Japan’s Pacific coast.
Japan sits atop four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire” and is one of the world’s most tectonically active countries.
The archipelago, home to about 125 million people, experiences about 1,500 shocks each year.
The vast majority are mild, although the damage they cause varies according to their location and depth below the earth’s surface.
