TOKYO, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese weather agency on Friday lifted a tsunami advisory for northern Japan's Pacific coast following a magnitude-6.9 earthquake in the Pacific Ocean off Aomori Prefecture.
Shortly after the temblor which occurred at 11:44 a.m. local time, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said the Pacific coast of Hokkaido as well as Aomori, Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, might see tsunami waves of up to 1 meter.
Waves of about 20 centimeters have been observed in parts of Hokkaido and Aomori, but there have been no reports of injury or property damage, Kyodo News reported.
Tohoku Electric Power Co. confirmed no abnormalities were reported at the Higashidori or Onagawa nuclear plants located in Aomori and Miyagi prefectures, respectively, the report said.
The quake, which was revised up from a magnitude of 6.7, struck off Aomori's Pacific coast at a depth of around 20 km, measuring 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in parts of north and northeastern Japan, the same region where a powerful quake hit earlier in the week.
On late Monday night, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the eastern coast of Aomori, prompting the JMA to warn of the chance of a temblor of similar or even larger magnitude hitting the same area within the coming several days. ■
