An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 struck southwestern Japan today, with tsunami warnings issued for Kochi, Miyazaki and other prefectures, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. According to Kyodo News, the 4:43 pm local time quake occurred at a depth of about 30 kilometers off Miyazaki and registered a lower 6 on Japan's seismic intensity scale of 7 in the city of Nichinan, in the southern part of the Prefecture. Japan lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire and is highly seismic.
