A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck in the Sea of Okhotsk off the east Russian coast early today, US and Japanese monitors said, with the tremor felt as far away as Tokyo.
The quake occurred at 0259 GMT some 158 kilometres east of Poronaysk, Russia, with the epicentre a comparatively deep 625 kilometres down, the US Geological Survey said in an initial report.
Japan’s Meteorological agency said the tremor was felt throughout the country’s northern island of Hokkaido, but the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a first and final bulletin that a destructive tsunami was not expected.
The earthquake caused a jolt in the Japanese capital Tokyo. The area around Japan is regularly hit by powerful quakes and is the site of the convergence of several of the Earth’s tectonic plates.