Powerful Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake Rocks Japan, Tsunami Warning Issued

News of the earthquake broke the same day that the Tokyo Electric Power Company began releasing a new batch of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant. The release first started in late August.

A powerful magnitude 6.1 earthquake rattled Japan on Thursday and prompted local authorities to issue a tsunami warning for the region.

Readings collected by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre indicated the quake struck at about 11 a.m. local time near the Izu Islands at a depth of 10 kilometers. An initial detection by the Japan Meteorological Agency measured the first quake at a 6.6-magnitude event.

In the aftermath of the first earthquake, three aftershocks were recorded by the EMSC at magnitudes of 5.4.

The waves from the tsunami area are expected to be 1 meter high (3.3 feet), meteorologists said, warning that even such a wave has the ability to knock people off their feet.

Residents have been urged to stay away from the shore and seek high ground. The first wave of the tsunami is expected to approach the coastline of the island between 11:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. local time.

Japan last experienced the effects of a major tsunami in March 2011, after a severe magnitude 9.0 quake struck the island nation and triggered a tsunami.

The event subsequently caused a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which later became the worst fallout since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.