Quake of 5.6 Magnitude Strikes Off Southern Japan

TOKYO (Sputnik) – A 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck off southern Japan, the country’s meteorological office said Thursday.

According to the service, the epicenter was located northwest of Okinawa.

Earlier in the day, Reuters reported citing the US Geological Survey that a quake of magnitude 6.1 struck 424 miles off Kyushu island at a depth of 6.2 miles.

Back in 2011, a similar quake left almost 16,000 people dead as it was followed by tsunami, landfalls, and fires.

Kyushu island is the third biggest of Japan's four main islands. The region is the part of the so-called "Ring of Fire" — a string of volcanoes encircling the Pacific Ocean. Being located in a seismically active zone it regularly suffers from earthquakes. For example, two weeks ago an earthquake at 6.3 on the Richter scale hit eastern Japan off the Fukushima coast.

Kyushu is famous for its volcanic mountain range of Kirishima made up of volcanoes, hot springs and lakes and Satsuma Peninsula with lots of natural hot springs