The largest earthquake in Japanese records hit the East coast of Japan Friday the 11 of March. The large magnitude of the earthquake (~8.9 Mw), its location offshore of the coast and its depth of 14km, triggered a destructive tsunami with waves up to 10m.
The main peculiarity of this this catastrophic event which has damaged most of the eastern coast of Japan leaving the country in need of foreign aid, is that it was preceded by several fore-shocks of large magnitudes up to 7.1 Mw. Such behaviour was not seen in previous hazardous earthquakes like Chile (9.3 Mw), Haiti (6.2Mw) or New Zealand (7.1 and 6.3 Mw)

For more information on this severe natural catastrophe go to:

  • USGSSeismological information and real time data
  • JMALocal scientific information
  • BBCLatest news and some technical notes
  • CNN: Latest news
  • Red Cross: For humanitarian aid

8.9 Earthquake / Tsunami Strikes Japan