TOKYO: The strongest quake ever recorded in Japan unleashed on Friday a monster tsunami that claimed hundreds of lives, and a minister warned there could be a discharge of radiation from a nuclear plant.
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, churning up a devastating tsunami that swept over cities and farmland in the northern part of the country and set off warnings as far away the west coast of the United States and South America. Recorded as 9.0 on the Richter scale, it was the most powerful quake ever to hit the country.
As a new Haitian government seeks to jump-start aid to rebuild the country after the January 2010 earthquake, a draft of a new United States government report suggests that the scope of the disaster was not as severe as previously estimated.
The earthquake in Japan earlier this year was massive and devastating, but it also provided researchers with an unprecedented amount of data, thanks to Japanese investment in earthquake-monitoring technology.
The United States Geological Survey said a magnitude 7.4 earthquake was recorded Thursday evening in the Pacific Ocean off Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands.
Have you ever assured someone that your friend is reliable by saying that he or she "has both feet on the ground"? The fact that such a phrase exists shows how much comfort we take in the idea that the ground beneath our feet is unmoving, unchanging and dependable. Indeed, much of our civilization, from our houses and buildings to our energy, food and water sources, depends on unmoving earth.
Earthquakes, also called temblors, can be so tremendously destructive, it’s hard to imagine they occur by the thousands every day around the world, usually in the form of small tremors.
