A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck off northern Japan late Monday, triggering a tsunami of up to 20 inches in Pacific coast communities and warnings of potentially higher surges, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said.

The quake struck at about 11:15 p.m. local time (9:15 a.m. EST) in the Pacific Ocean about 50 miles off the coast of Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of Japan's main Honshu island, the agency said.

A tsunami of 50 centimeters (about 20 inches) was measured in Kuji port in Iwate prefecture, just south of Aomori, and tsunami levels of 40 centimeters (about 16 inches) to 50 centimeters struck other coastal communities in the region, the agency said.

The agency issued an alert for potential tsunami surges of up to 10 feet in some areas, and Chief Cabinet Se

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