Earthquake aftershock of 7.4-magnitude strikes Japan, tsunami warning issued

The Washington Post is reporting that Japan’s northeastern coast has been rattled by a strong aftershock – a 7.4-magnitude earthquake. Japan’s meteorological agency has issued a tsunami warning for a wave of up to one meter. The warning was issued for a coastal area already ravaged by last month’s tsunami.

Update April 7, 2011, 15:28 UTC (10:28 CDT). USGS has revised its estimate for the strength of this aftershock to 7.1 magnitude.

Officials say the quake was a 7.4-magnitude and hit 25 miles under the water and off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, near the east coast of Honshu, Japan.

The quake that preceded the March 11, 2011 tsunami was a 9.0-magnitude, and there have been dozens of earthquakes around magnitude 6.0 in Japan since then.

The map below is from a USGS earthquake update page: Latest Earthquakes Last 7 Days

Here is the quake’s location with respect to nearby cities in Japan:
66 km (41 miles) E (89 degrees) of Sendai, Honshu, Japan
118 km (73 miles) ENE (60 degrees) of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan
147 km (91 miles) NNE (26 degrees) of Iwaki, Honshu, Japan
333 km (207 miles) NNE (30 degrees) of TOKYO, Japan