A strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake was registered by both the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) southeast of the Ryukyu Islands, Japan at 15:45 UTC. Its epicentre is located around 186 kilometres away from the city of Hirara, located on one of the islands.
Naha, the closest large Japanese city with a population of over 300,000, is situated even further away – 312 kilometres south of the epicentre.
At the same time, the US Tsunami Warning System issued no warning or advisory about an imminent threat of a tsunami related to the 6.6-magnitude earthquake. The European and American monitoring systems gave conflicting assessments as to how deep the epicentre of the earthquake was located. While the EMSC estimated it at just two kilometres, the USGS said it was six miles below sea-level, or around 10 kilometres.
There have been no reports so far of any damage caused by the earthquake on the nearby islands.