6.1 quake hits off Japan’s Bonin Islands —USGS

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) sprays water during a disaster drill in Odawara on September 1, 2017.
Japan carried out disaster preparedness drills on September 1, the annual Disaster Prevention Day on the anniversary of a magnitude-7.9 earthquake that hit Tokyo and the surrounding region in 1923, killing more than 105,000 people. / AFP PHOTO / JIJI PRESS / STR / Japan OUT

Tokyo, Japan — A 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit off Japan’s Bonin Islands on Friday but there was no tsunami risk, seismologists said.

The quake hit at a depth of 450 kilometers (280 miles) at 02:27 am (17:27 GMT) 770 kilometers south of Shimoda, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake poses no tsunami risk.

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake in March 2011 triggered a massive and deadly tsunami, which smashed into a power station and sparked the world’s worst atomic accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

Tokyo Electric was working to clean up and dismantle the reactors in a process that was expected to take at least four decades.