A 33ft tsunami has killed at least 60 people as it swept over Japan's northeastern coast after the country's biggest earthquake in recorded history, today.
The massive 8.9 magnitude megaquake, the biggest for at least 140 years has caused a huge wave which has hit the port of Sendai city, sending ships crashing into the shore and carrying cars and buildings through streets.
There are many reports of serious damage, missing ships and even a missing train in one of the coastal areas. Other news agencies report a ship carrying around 100 was swept away by the tsunami.
The quake also rocked the capital, Tokyo, which was among the cities shaken by at least 19 subsequent aftershocks.
In a worrying move, most of the necular power plants shut down automatically, but some didn't and one is reporting to he ultra heated and a cooling system failing and an evacation order in place for local residents of Fukushima.
The distaster is unfolding both in Japan and elsewhere, the resulting tsunami, is expected to cause havoc accorss the entire pacific region. Hawaii is on alert, with low laying areas evaquated as a precaution. Many other islands are putting in place alerts and evaquations to higher ground.
Simon Boxall, from the National Oceanography Centrelink in Southampton, explains how a quake triggers a tsunami: "An earthquake with the epicentre on the seabed rather than inland is a bit like throwing a huge boulder into the water." Mr Boxall tells the BBC World Service that as a result the waves moving away from the epicentre "move incredibly fast, in fact in the deep water they move at 800kmh. But as they get to shallower water, the front of the waves slows down, the back of the waves keep going at full speed. So what starts off as a ripple that may only be 20 or 30 cm high ends up with a wave that piles up to an eccessive 10 metres. That is what happened here. And of course this part of north-east Japan is very low-lying, so it's become swamped incredibly quickly."
© 2011 Copyright Jason Shaw
