Chris Cantell Discusses Markets: Strong quake jolts northern Japan, no tsunami by Michaela Vargova

TOKYO, 24th July - A strong earthquake with magnitude of 6.8 jarred the northern part of Japan early on Thursday. The Japan Meteorological Agency said people do not have to worry about an uprise of a tsunami from the quake, because its focus lied approximately 120 km (75 miles) below the surface of the earth in an upland and sparsely settled region. Fortunately, only several people have been injured. Military planes were hovering about the affected area to try to adjust the extent of damage. It is estimated at least 10,000 homes have been cut off the electric power. Also some parts of highways had been closed to traffic and some rail lines were stopped after the quake in the region, which is, as mentioned sooner, mountainous and sporadicaly populated part of Japan. Fortunately, neighter any of the nuclear plants that are situatd further south had not been affected.
In general, earthquakes like that last one are quite common in Japan. The country is considered to be one of the world's most seismically active areas, which is determinated its geographical location on a seismically very active belt called The fire circle. So no surprise, according to the world statistics, the country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
Thursday's quake follows a string of earthquakes that stroke the same country region in recent time. The first earthquake in sequence appeared in the middle of June and killed at least 10 people. It is estimated during the last earthquake, that hit the country on Thursday, about 18 to 55 people have been injured.

by Michaela Vargova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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