TOKYO — The earthquakes that occurred early on Monday once again affected the north-central Ishikawa region of Japan, which is still recovering from the destruction left by a powerful earthquake on January 1, but the latest tremor did not cause significant damage.
A magnitude 5.9 tremor on the northern peak of the Noto Peninsula was followed minutes later by a magnitude 4.8 and then several smaller earthquakes over the next two hours, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. There was no tsunami.
Five houses that had been damaged in the Jan. 1 earthquake collapsed in the city of Wajiima, but no major damage or life-threatening injuries were reported, according to Ishikawa Prefecture. An earthquake alarm in the city of Tsubata, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of the epicenter, surprised a resident in her 60s who fell from her bed, but the injury was not life-threatening, officials said. of the prefecture.
Satoshi Harada, a seismology and tsunami official at the JMA, said Monday’s earthquakes were believed to be aftershocks of the magnitude 7.6 earthquake January 1st. Since then, seismic activity has decreased slightly, but Harada urged people to use caution, especially near buildings that were previously damaged.
Shinkansen super express trains and other rail services were temporarily suspended for safety checks, but most have resumed, according to West Japan Railway Co.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority said no anomalies were found at two nearby nuclear power plants. One of them, the shika plant on the Noto Peninsula, suffered minor damage, although officials said that did not affect the cooling functions of the two reactors.
Hokuriku Electric Power Co. said there were no power outages.
Monday’s noises reignited fear among residents still struggling to recover from damage caused by the New Year’s earthquake. NHK public television showed several people leaving their homes and temporary shelters to check for further damage.
“Many people who have been living in evacuation centers must have been scared,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said, urging caution against possible rockfalls and landslides in areas hit by strong shaking.
Reconstruction is progressing slowly in the mountainous areas of the peninsula and many damaged houses remain intact.
In Wajima, one of the worst-affected areas, an inn operator told NHK that he immediately hid under the reception desk when the first earthquake struck on Monday. Nothing fell to the ground or broke, but it reminded him of the January tremors and made him worry that a big earthquake like that would have happened even five months later.
The Jan. 1 earthquake killed 260 people, including those who later died from stress, illness and other earthquake-related causes, and three others are still missing, according to the FDMA. Damage persists and more than 3,300 residents remain evacuated.
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