At around 10 am today (Friday), a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck off the Japanese coast. Experts say there is no danger for a tsunami to hit the West Coast.
Althea Rizzo is with the Oregon Office of Emergency Management. She says it's entirely possible the event was related to the 2011 Japanese earthquake:
Rizzo: "Aftershocks can continue to occur for decades after a very large event, in fact we're still getting aftershocks to the 2004 Sumatran earthquake."
Rizzo says, although the Japanese tremor will not affect the Pacific West Coast, it's a good reminder for people to talk through what *would happen if we had an earthquake in Oregon:
Rizzo: "Because we're certainly capable of having very large 9.0 earthquakes on the Cascadia Subduction Zone, but we also have crustal faults that can have earthquakes up to a 7, 7-1/2."
The quake occurred under the ocean on Japan's east coast. Experts said a small tsunami could reach Fukushima, the site of the 2011 nuclear power disaster.