Earthquakes strike Andamans, Tokyo

| Last updated less than one minute ago

Submit :

News Photos Just In Debate Topic Latest News Articles Local News Blog Posts Pictures Reviews Recipes

Mukondi Pillai

11 August, 2009

An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck off the coast of the Andaman Islands at 1:55am (local time) on Tuesday morning. Ten minutes later an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale struck the Japanese capital, Tokyo.

SEPARATE EARTHQUAKES struck India and Japan in the early hours of Tuesday. An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck off the coast of the Andaman Islands at 1:55am (local time) on Tuesday morning. The epicenter of the quake was 260km north of the main city of Port Blair. A tsunami watch had been issued for the region by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, but the tsunami warning was later cancelled.

The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services had not issued a warning as it had detected no abnormal surge in sea levels. The quake lasted for 20 to 30 seconds and triggered panic among some locals who ran out of their homes. No casualties have been reported. Tremors were felt as far away as Chennai. Several parts of Orissa including Bhubaneswar, Kendrapara, Puri, Paradip, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Puri were shaken by tremors from the quake.

Meanwhile an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale struck the Japanese capital, Tokyo, at 5:07am local time. The epicenter of this earthquake was 144km south west of Tokyo. Japan’s Meteorological Agency had issued a tsunami alert but later cancelled the warning. The two separate earthquakes that struck India and Japan occurred within 10 minutes of each other. Japan is also facing the brunt of Typhoon Etau which has triggered floods and landslides on Japan's north east coast.