Paragraph Two::
Paragraph Two: The quake, with a preliminary magnitude
of 7.1, hit at 6:39 a.m. (4:39 p.m. Monday
EST) and was centered just below the
ocean bottom off the east coast of Japan's
main island of Honshu, Japan's
Meteorological Agency said.
Paragraph Three::
Paragraph Three: Small tsunami waves measuring 12 and 20 inches hit the coastal city of Ofunato and smaller waves hit at least four other towns. Tsunami waves — generated by earthquakes — are often barely noticeable in the ocean but can rise to great heights once they arrive at shore.
Ross Stein, a geophysicist with the USGS in Menlo Park, Calif., said the swell amounted to "a surfable tsunami."
Paragraph Four::
Paragraph Four: The quake hit at a depth of about 18 miles and was centered off the coast of Sanriku in northern Japan, 330 miles east of Tokyo, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It shook buildings across a wide area across northern and eastern Honshu, including Tokyo, and Hokkaido.
Paragraph Five::
Paragraph Five: Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries because it sits atop four tectonic plates. A 7.2-magnitude earthquake shook northeastern Japan in August, injuring at least 59 people, triggering landslides, damaging buildings and causing widespread power outages.
Concluding Paragraph ::
Concluding Paragraph : There was no destructive Pacific Ocean-wide tsunami threat following Tuesday's earthquake, based on historical quake and tsunami data, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii.
Slide7:
However, earthquakes as large as Tuesday's can generate a local tsunami capable of causing destruction along coastlines within 60 miles of the epicenter, according to the center.