6- earthquake rocks Eastern Hokkaido

[Maciamo]

A strong earthquake has woken up Hokkaido dwellers around 4am this morning. The tremor had a magnitude 8 at its epicenter off the Eastern coast of Hokkaido, but n more than 6- on the island itself. There seems to be no victims, though hundreds of people were taken into hospital.
The more disastrous images came from an oil refinery that took fire as a consequence.

This is the 3rd earthquake reaching 6- in Northern Japan in the last 4 months, which at closer analysis actualy seem to happen exactly every 60 days (29/05 and 27/07 near Sendai and today 26/09).

BBC News : Strong quake hits northern Japan

A strong earthquake has struck the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido injuring over 100 people.
The quake, which hit at about 0450 local time on Friday (1950GMT Thursday), has reportedly derailed a train and set off a fire at an oil refinery

Reuters : Huge quakes hit Japan's Hokkaido

TOKYO (Reuters) - A series of powerful earthquakes have shaken the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, injuring more than 230 people, causing widespread damage and blackouts and prompting officials to issue tidal wave warnings.

Japan's Meteorological Agency measured the initial quake at 8.0 on the Richter scale -- strong enough to cause major damage -- and warned there could be aftershocks for up to 10 days.