Tsunami in Japan

Today

A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded slammed Japans eastern coast. Hundreds were killed while it swept away boats, cars, houses, while widespread fires burned out of control. Hours later it hit Hawaii and warns raced across the Pacific, putting areas on alert as far away as South America, Canada, the entire US, and west coast in Japan.

The 8.9 offshore earthquake unleashed a 23 foot (7 meter) tsunami and was followed my more then 50 aftershocks for several hours. Many of them reached over a 6.0 magnitude. Dozens of villages along a 1300 mile stretch of coast line were shaken by violent tremors that reached as far away as Tokyo.

Even for a county used to earth quakes, this one was of horrific proportions because of the tsunami that followed swallowing everything in its path as it surged inland for several miles.

First waves hit Hawaii about 9am eastern time, waves reached around three feet. Japans worse previous quake was an 8.3 in 1923, it killed 143,000 people. Japan lies on what is called "the ring of fire" An arc stretching around the Pacific where about 90% of the worlds earth quakes occur, including the one in December of 2006 that killed around 230,000 people in at least 12 nations.