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An Major Earthquake hit North-Eastern Japan in the sea today near Tokyo. Nothing near as serious as New Zealand but enough to suspend ALL Tokyo Metro lines and the Shinkansen, cut off power in over 3 prefectures. Tsunami warning has been issued for the WHOLE of Japan.

Kyoto is fine - I didn't feel a thing.

Update: Sendai has been engulfed by Tsunami. See the BBC video
Update 2: Nagoya being evacuated. One of Japan's 4 largest cities. Another earthquake about 30 mins ago, hitting Fukuoka. Kyoto lies half way between Tokyo and Fukuoka, so we hope there won't be one here.

News:

(English) BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709598
(Japanese) Asahi: http://www.asahi.com/national/update/03 ... 10287.html

The list of current Earthquakes: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... es_all.php

The data on the strongest of the series of earthquake occuring off the Eastern coast of Japan: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 140_40.php (it's actually the largest one, going by the seismic moment, I remember seeing ever since I started to watch earthquake data a decade ago; luckily the strength of a quake usually isn't related to the damage caused, the time and the exact place as well as its depth matter much more).

Let's hope the Tsunami won't hit the coasts too hard. Watch out for it, the warning level is set to max: http://www.weather.gov/ptwc/

10 metre high tsunami hits Sendai and destroys all in its path.

All Nuclear Power Plants have closed down automatically.

My reaction when i saw this on the news: 's***!'

Hope anyone and everyone in the area is ok. Heard it on the news this morning and did the wide eyed thing (TM)

Reports I've picked up from people in the area: Complete devastation. Complete cities and towns have been wiped off the map, almost exclusively due to the tsunami.

Jamie, you're OK I take it. I assume Helena's brother is OK also.

A message to a Swedish newspaper reads the following (my translation):
"Hi, mum! We were taken by complete surprise but managed to get to a hill about 100 meters above sea level. We are all OK, but many people have been taken to Heaven by the water. We love you."

Now of course, that's just some person who sent that to them, and this person may just be trolling from his basement in northern Sweden..

Probably a troll. Anyone that's been to Japan knows that there's no hills here. Only ridiculously flat plains and mountains. The prospect of an isolated hill in the midst of a plain by the sea is rather low, unless it was actually the mountain.

Well, a hill about 100 meters above sea level doesn't sound completely impossible Apparently, the tsunami is expected to reach San Diego tomorrow morning around 7:50am, but.. Well, it's not really going to be that big if it's travelled all the way across the Pacific

Wow that is insane. Seeing cars being swept away by the tsunami and moments later a boat passing by one the same spot I take it all is OK with you Jamie?

Everything is fine here in Kyoto since we're miles from the sea and didn't experience the earthquake. The concern is for

1. Those in the disaster area of the tsunami, and who were in its path. The images are too shocking to describe
2. Those in Tokyo who cannot get home because the trains are not running. It's a city that doesn't have many buses because the trains dominate everything, so there's no alternate bus network. There's pretty much chaos at each major terminal, with thousands of people standing outside each one, attempting to get on the few buses that exist.

Heard about the quake from a friend. It's terrible to see and my sympathy is with all those affected.

Images:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709791

They're Japanese, they'll rebuild everything in less than two years...


But broken families is something that can't be fixed.

This is much worse that we expected when we first head of the quake. Quakes are quakes and Japanese are used to them. The majority of Tokyo residents might have a broken light bulb or bookshelf - but those caught in the tsunami have their lives destroyed...

Up to 200-300 bodies have been found in the tsunami's path.

Whoa, these are truly terrifying images!

Makes me appreciate I live in Central Europe where major disasters of any kind are pretty much nonexistent (overseeing relatively minor floods, occasional hailstorm etc.).

I wish all Japanese good luck fighting this, it will be needed.

How is the situation around the nuclear facilities? I read one of them is on fire but that the area around four nuclear facilites are evacuated by authorities. Is that in case of or are those other severely damaged too?

The tsunami has reached Indonesia and Hawaii too now, no damage reported in Indonesia.

I guess both Indonesia and Hawaii are outside the "kill zone".

The nuclear power plant fire has been extinguished.

The first waves have hit Indonesia but it's not been bad and they've cancelled the Tsunami warning. Hawaii has been prepared and everyone evacuated to higher ground.

Lets hope they can cool those reactors, or else this could get much, much worse than it already is. Hard to believe that whole areas have been wiped off the map in North East Japan; typical that the media now seems to be focusing on whats happening in Hawaii and the US west coast.

The other worry is that some Pacific Islands lack suitable high ground for cover.

死者１１７人、不明４９７人、負傷５８１人　警察庁発表

Dead: 117. Missing: 497. Wounded: 581. Source: Police

As of 12:26am.

http://www.asahi.com/national/update/03 ... 10628.html

The Fukushima power plant, or at least something in its vicinity, has exploded. Is there a potential danger of it leaking radioactive material spreading via clouds to rain in other parts of the country?