An earthquake of magnitude 7.1

7.1-magnitude earthquake rocks Japan, triggers small tsunamis

An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck Saturday morning off Japan's east coast, the U.S. Geological Survey said. / USGS

TOKYO

An earthquake of magnitude 7.1 struck early Saturday off Japan's east coast, the U.S. Geological Survey said, triggering small tsunamis but causing no apparent damage.

Japan's meteorological agency said the quake was an aftershock of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck the same area in 2011, killing about 19,000 people and devastating the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant.

Tsunamis of up to 40 centimeters (15 inches) were reported Saturday at four areas along the coast, but a tsunami advisory was lifted less than two hours after the quake.

Japanese television images of harbors showed calm waters. The quake hit at 2:10 a.m. Tokyo time (1710 GMT) about 290 kilometers (170 miles) off Fukushima, and it was felt in Tokyo, some 300 miles (480 kilometers) away.

"It was fairly big, and rattled quite a bit, but nothing fell to the floor or broke. We've had quakes of this magnitude before," Satoshi Mizuno, an official with the Fukushima prefectural government's disaster management department, told The Associated Press by phone. "Luckily, the quake's center was very far off the coast."

Mizuno said the operator of the troubled Fukushima plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said no damage or abnormalities have been found.

Japan's meteorological agency issued a 1-meter (3-foot) tsunami advisory for a long stretch of Japan's northeastern coast. The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not post warnings for the rest of the Pacific.

The meteorological agency reported tsunamis of 40 centimeters in Kuji city in Iwate prefecture and Soma city in Fukushima, as well as a 20-centimeter tsunami at Ofunato city in Iwate and a 30-centimeter tsunami at Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture.

All of Japan'