5.2-magnitude quake hits Japan

TOKYO —  An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale jolted 35km west and northwest of Naha-shi, Japan at 02:27:31 GMT on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake’s epicentre, having a depth of 112.34 km, was initially determined to be at 27.4194 degrees north latitude and 127.3648 degrees east longtitude, the National Weather Service’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.

Japan has had a long history of earthquakes and seismic activity. It is an area of high seismicity because it is located near major tectonic plate boundaries and is situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire.

The islands in Japan are primarily the result of several large oceanic movements occurring over hundreds of millions of years from the mid-Silurian to the Pleistocene as a result of the subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate beneath the continental Amurian Plate and Okinawa Plate to the south, and subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Okhotsk Plate to the north.