Posted on behalf of David Cyranoski, in Tokyo.
In a land of people used to earthquakes, everyone is saying this one, which hit at 14:46 local time, is the strongest they've ever felt-and that's in Tokyo, some 400 kilometers southwest from the epicenter.
Scientists are calling it the biggest earthquake in Japan's tremor-filled history. Preliminary estimates from the USGS put the magnitude at 7.9, which have since grown to 8.9. Estimates of the depth range from 10-20 kilometres. This earthquake was 178 times as powerful as the 1995 Hanshin/Kobe earthquake.
Miyagi prefecture was pummeled the hardest. There Japan's earthquake intensity scale, which measures the amount of shaking at ground level, recorded a 7, the highest level. More than 20 deaths have been reported.
Tsunamis reaching 10 metres have hit the area and 3 metres tsunami are reported down all the way down the coast far past Tokyo.
Panic gripped Tokyo as bookshelves and installations in offices fell, people poured into the streets and more than a dozen buildings reported fire sending smoke billowing into the sky.
Trains are stopped as far down as Shizuoka, far south of Tokyo. Some phone lines are dead, but my internet is working. I'm writing minutes after the earthquake, stuck on a train that screeched to a halt and then bounced on the tracks.
For full coverage of the Fukushima disaster, go to Nature's news special.
In a land of people used to earthquakes, everyone is saying this one, which hit at 14:46 local time, is the strongest they've ever felt-and that's in Tokyo, some 400 kilometers southwest from the epicenter.
Scientists are calling it the biggest earthquake in Japan's tremor-filled history. Preliminary estimates from the USGS put the magnitude at 7.9, which have since grown to 8.9. Estimates of the depth range from 10-20 kilometres. This earthquake was 178 times as powerful as the 1995 Hanshin/Kobe earthquake.
Miyagi prefecture was pummeled the hardest. There Japan's earthquake intensity scale, which measures the amount of shaking at ground level, recorded a 7, the highest level. More than 20 deaths have been reported.
Tsunamis reaching 10 metres have hit the area and 3 metres tsunami are reported down all the way down the coast far past Tokyo.
Panic gripped Tokyo as bookshelves and installations in offices fell, people poured into the streets and more than a dozen buildings reported fire sending smoke billowing into the sky.
Trains are stopped as far down as Shizuoka, far south of Tokyo. Some phone lines are dead, but my internet is working. I'm writing minutes after the earthquake, stuck on a train that screeched to a halt and then bounced on the tracks.
For full coverage of the Fukushima disaster, go to Nature's news special.
