Tsunami Threat Issued After Huge 7.6 Japan Earthquake

The tremor clocked in at a magnitude 7.6 on the Richter scale. It hit just after 11:00pm, local time, off the coast of the Aomori Prefecture in the northeastern region of the country. The quake erupted at a depth of 51 kilometers, or 32 miles.

And following the huge shake, per the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), major tsunami warnings – with waves reaching “more than three meters (10 feet) – were issued for certain coastlines in the nearby area.

According to the latest data from NOAA and the National Weather Service, the tsunami threat for wider regions – such as Hawaii or the west coast of the U.S. – appear to be minimal. The most recent update reads:

TSUNAMI WAVES REACHING 0.3 TO 1 METERS ABOVE THE TIDE LEVEL ARE POSSIBLE FOR SOME COASTS OF JAPAN.

TSUNAMI WAVES ARE FORECAST TO BE LESS THAN 0.3 METERS ABOVE THE TIDE LEVEL FOR THE COASTS OFCHUUK... DPR OF KOREA... GUAM... JOHNSTON ATOLL...KOSRAE... MARSHALL ISLANDS... MIDWAY ISLAND... NORTHERN MARIANAS... NORTHWESTERN HAWAIIAN ISLANDS...PHILIPPINES... POHNPEI... RUSSIA... WAKE ISLAND... AND YAP.

Of course, this is following the 8.7-magnitude earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, which erupted in July, and sent tsunami waves to 16-foot tsunami waves to the Russian coast, large surf to Japan, and seven-foot waves to Midway Atoll.

And before that, there was the devastating 9.0-magnitude earthquake (and subsequent tsunami), which destroyed the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and caused an estimated 20,000 deaths.

Stay tuned; this is a developing story.