6.6 Hits Japan Today 4/11/11

[Mimi]

4-11-2011 

A powerful earthquake has hit north-east Japan, exactly one month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The 7.1-magnitude tremor triggered a brief tsunami warning, and forced workers to evacuate the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

The epicentre of the quake was in Fukushima prefecture, and struck at a depth of just 10km (six miles).

It came as Japan said it was extending the evacuation zone around the nuclear plant because of radiation concerns.

The BBC

[Richard Myers]

TOKYO, Japan - A powerful 6.6-magnitude aftershock hit northeastern Japan on Monday, triggering a brief tsunami alert and forcing the evacuation of workers battling to avert a crisis at a stricken nuclear plant.

The tremor hit exactly one month after a 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami ravaged northeastern Japan and knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, triggering the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

"The company ordered workers to withdraw and stay in a quake-proof building," said a spokesman for operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). "We don't know how many workers were involved."

TEPCO said the power supply to three stricken reactors at the plant was briefly cut, but later restored, and the injection of water into reactors one, two and three had resumed.

However some monitoring systems had been knocked out by the quake.  source

[Mimi]

Tokyo (CNN) -- At least six people were killed when a magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck Japan Tuesday morning, a local fire department said.

The six were killed when a landslide triggered by the quake buried three homes in Iwaki, the city's fire department said. Three people were rescued and hospitalized, and fire officials were working to rescue an unknown number of others believed to be trapped, the department said.

The quake struck at about 8:08 a.m. Tuesday (7:08 p.m. Monday ET), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It had a depth of about 13 kilometers (8 miles) and was centered about 77 miles east-southeast of Tokyo.

-CNN