Earthquakes Today: Two Huge Quakes Hit Cuba and Japan, No Tsunami Warnings
Two separate earthquakes were reported in Japan and Cuba Thursday, with neither temblor resulting in injuries or immediate damage.
A magnitude 6.2 quake struck off Japan’s northeastern coast, shaking buildings in Tokyo. Occurring about 225 kilometers east of Tokyo at a depth of 6.2 miles, the quake was centered off the coast of Ibaraki, according to the nation’s Meteorological Agency. The agency said the earthquake presents no threat of a tsunami.
In a separate event Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey registered a magnitude 6.0 quake off the coast of Cuba. The temblor was centered about 68 miles from the north coast of Jamaica. The earthquake occurred about 25 miles off Cuba’s coast, nearly 38 miles southeast of the capital city Havana.
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The Associated Press said that no tsunami warnings have been issued.
USGS geophysicist Randy Baldwin told AP that earthquakes are common in the remote area of the Caribbean Sea, and the Cuban quake was not expected to cause damage on land.
In the earthquake and tsunami that thrashed Japan on March 11, more than 20,000 people died or were reported missing across the northeastern coast. Another 100,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes after the disaster damaged the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, located 155 miles north of Tokyo.
The threat of radiation emissions from the damaged plant presented risk of severe health problems and death. Fukushima lies 20 miles northwest of the epicenter of Thursday’s earthquake. Fortunately, following the quake, operators at Fukushima say that the plant’s cooling functions are intact and there has been no change in radiation levels around the plant.
Japan’s economy has suffered since the March 11 catastrophe. A recent report by Reuters indicates that Japanese manufacturing confidence has been improving for five consecutive months, but the pace of recovery has slowed. The nation’s rapid economic rebound from the March quake may have run its course, said a Reuters poll on Thursday.
