Two strong earthquakes hit northern Japan

Two strong earthquakes rattled northern Japan on Thursday, but neither caused any apparent damage or a tsunami.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency said a magnitude-6.1 quake struck on Thursday evening (local time) south of the northern island of Hokkaido.

It hit about 750 km northeast of Tokyo and 30 km below the sea surface. The agency did not issue a tsunami warning.

The shaking was not felt in Tokyo, though the morning quake was.

That magnitude 6.0 temblor struck just off the coast near the nuclear power plant damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The two shakings are believed unrelated and did not affect the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant or other nuclear plants in the region.

The March 11 magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami wiped out large parts of Japan’s northeastern coast and left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing. The twin disasters also triggered a nuclear crisis, forcing about 100,000 people to flee their homes due to leaking radiation.

Japan lies on the “Ring of Fire” an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim. About 90 per cent of the world’s quakes occur in the area.