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Just past 11 P.M. on the night of February 13, an earthquake of approximately magnitude 7.3 struck Northeastern Japan. This is the same region which suffered severe damage in the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami almost exactly 10 years ago.
The epicenter of the quake was 71 km off the coast of Minamisoma, in the north of Fukushima Prefecture. There was no tsunami alert issued for this quake.
Many respondents on the ground reported feeling a long quake of almost a minute, which strongly shook the cameras of NHK national broadcasting office during the live reporting.
The most seriously affected regions were Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures, but the quake was felt over a wide swath of eastern Honshu, Japan’s main island, including Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures, and throughout the capital city Tokyo, over 200 km away. Minor tremors were also felt further to the west, in Aichi Prefecture.