A powerful earthquake struck off northern Japan late Monday local time, triggering a tsunami of up to 28 inches in Pacific coast communities, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said. The agency reported the quake's magnitude as 7.5, down from its earlier estimate of 7.6.

The quake struck at about 11:15 p.m. (9:15 a.m. ET) 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 70 centimeters (about 28 inches) was measured in Kuji port in Iwate prefecture, just south of Aomori, and tsunami levels of up to 50 centimeters (about 20 inches) struck other coastal communities in the region, the agency said.

The agency had issued an alert for potential tsunami surges of up to 10 feet in some ar

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