A large wave was spotted off Japan’s coast today by a helicopter, but the meteorological agency said it had detected no sign of a new tsunami or a major quake that would have triggered it.
Authorities had issued evacuation orders in some parts of the devastated coastline after the initial report and as seawater was seen retreating off Iwate and Aomori prefectures — a phenomenon that occurs before tsunamis.
Public broadcaster NHK had reported that the crew of a fire department helicopter had spotted a three-metre high tsunami off Fukushima prefecture, saying it was expected to hit shortly after 0230 GMT. By 0300 GMT, no tsunami was reported to have hit.
The Pacific coastline of the north of Honshu island was utterly devastated on Friday by a 10-metre tsunami triggered by a massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake, the biggest on record in Japan.