Japan issued an evacuation advisory for the coastal areas near the southern prefecture of Okinawa after a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami warning.
A tsunami of up to 3 meters was expected to reach Japan’s southwestern coast around 10 a.m. (0100 GMT), according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The warning came after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 struck in the ocean near Taiwan.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. Japan accounts for about one-fifth of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
剛剛台灣朋友發來的視頻，地震引起的滑坡 pic.twitter.com/L8zatofR72
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A 30 cm tsunami reached Yonaguni Island at 9:18 a.m. (0018 GMT), JMA said.
Japan was rocked by its deadliest quake in eight years on New Year’s Day when a 7.6 magnitude temblor struck in Ishikawa prefecture, on the western coast. More than 230 people died in the quake that left 44,000 homes fully or partially destroyed.
On March 11, 2011, the northeast coast was struck by a magnitude 9 earthquake, the strongest quake in Japan on record, and a massive tsunami. Those events triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl a quarter of a century earlier.
Earthquake in Taiwan
An earthquake offshore Taiwan with a magnitude of 7.2 rocked Taipei, the capital, on Wednesday morning, knocking out power in several parts of the city and sparking a tsunami warning for the islands of southern Japan and the Philippines.
Taiwan’s fire department said on Wednesday that so far one person had died and more than 50 were injured after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the island’s east coast.
Buildings shook briefly in Taiwan’s capital Taipei on Wednesday as an aftershock from a powerful earthquake earlier in the day hit the city.
Taiwan television stations showed footage of some collapsed buildings in Hualien, near the quake’s epicentre, and media reported some people were trapped.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing 2330.TW evacuated factory areas after a major earthquake rocked Taiwan, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
The quake could be felt as far as Shanghai, according to a Reuters witness.
The epicentre was just off the coast of eastern county of Hualien, in waters off eastern coastline of Taiwan Island, the Taiwan central weather administration said.
Japan issued an evacuation advisory for the coastal areas of the southern prefecture of Okinawa. Tsunami waves of up to 3 metres were expected to reach large areas of Japan’s southwestern coast, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, which put the quake magnitude at 7.5.
The Philippines Seismology Agency also issued a warning for residents in coastal areas of several provinces, urging them to evacuate to higher ground.
The quake was felt in Fuzhou, Xiamen, Quanzhou and Ningde in China’s Fujian province, according to Chinese state media.
The Taipei city government has not received any reports of damage and the city’s MRT was up and running soon after.
Southern Taiwan Science Park, where semiconductor giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co 2330.TW has a plant, said companies were operating without impact.
Taiwan’s official central news agency said the quake was the biggest to hit the island since 1999 when a 7.6 magnitude tremor killed around 2,400 people.
Philippines warns of tsunami following strong Taiwan quake
The Philippines’ seismology agency on Wednesday issued a tsunami warning following a strong Taiwan quake, with Philippine coastal areas fronting the Pacific Ocean expected to experience “high tsunami waves”.
People in the coastal areas in several provinces were advised to immediately evacuate to higher grounds or move further inland, the advisory read.
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