At 2.46 pm Japan time, an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter balance walloped in mid-ocean at a depth of 24.4 km, 130 km (80 miles) based on data from the coastal city of Honshu and 373 km (231 miles) of Tokyo.
The quake, that was tracked 30 moments subsequently by an aftershock registering above 7, triggered 13 meter elevated waves such a smacked the coast off Honshu, washing away cars and those of us and destroying buildings.
All fuel is lessened in the affected region, and all trains and buses undergo carried on put a halt on in Tokyo. Narita International airport has moreover been heard shut diminished for researching of runways and greater amount of facilities. The country's nuclear plants undergo all been heard shut diminished as a safety measure.
We shoot you updated tips as received; refresh for the latest:
5:32 pm: No issue how a large number of pictures and videos you see, or stories you need, the awesome forces of nature carry on to defy the imagination, to beggar description. Here's an example: a BBC video of an huge whirlpool triggered by the Japan quake
5:22 pm: An emergency cooling unit has carried on activated at the Fukushima nuclear plant, at which the cooling system's mafunction had led to the declaration of a market of nuclear emergency (See update of 5.16 pm). Kyodo News Agency, meanwhile, alleges a fire in the turbine construction of the Onagawa nuclear plant, that is located in Miyagi prefecture, one of the populations worst hit by the tsunami..
5:16 pm: Associated Press suggests the present the 'nuclear emergency' said by Japan is non-lethal. Quoting main cabinet secretary Yukio Edano, AP polls which the nuclear in Fukushima prefecture, located on the island of Honshu, matured mechanical failure of the governments needed to cool it lessened once it was shut in the wake of the quake. The declaration of emergency, Edano said, was a precaution; there was no immediate danger, and no leak, at the plant, the cabinet official confirmed.
5:15 pm: Ship carrying 100 buyers carried away by tsunami, suggests Japanese revelation agency Kyodo.
5:05 pm: Trains and buses stay shut down, and stranded commuters in Tokyo prediction a egregious dearth of taxis. On Twitter, Makiko Itoh (@makiwi) surveys the current the majority of schools and universities in the sector are opening up such a classrooms for the boon of the stranded commuters.
5:04 pm: Japan has believed a area of 'nuclear emergency'. Government broadcaster NHK surveys overly attempts to cool one reactor has not "gone as planned". All reactors got shut down, as a safety measure, in the immediate aftermath of the quake.
4:54 pm: Japan has stated a region of emergency when of the failure of the cooling process at one nuclear plant, according to the Associated Press.
4:36 pm: "People got acutely frightened. Very rare as of families in Japan are used up to quakes. Today was truly different" -- Reactions, as quake-prone Japan trembles to the most massive quake in 140 years. Read the story
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4:30 pm: Update: At lowest 32 individuals own continued killed and several others injured, argues Japanese revelation agency Kyodo.
4:27 pm: All Indians in Tokyo reported to be safe: Sources
4:25 pm: IAEA alleges thre nuclear electricity plants closest to the earthquake's epicentre suffer kept on shut dwindling safely.
4:15 pm: Yahoo! Australia reports, quoting International Red Cross officials, who the tsunami now racing around the ocean is exorbitant a sufficient amount of to wash for the duration of chosen whole Pacific islands. More
4:13 pm: 4.6-magnitude quake hits Hawaii; market is nevertheless short of tsunami caution from what i read in Japan quake: NBC News reports
4:07 pm: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has published an updated Tsunami alert, initiating properties innate to be hit and the anxious timings. The comprehensive list
4:06 pm: Honda suspends operations at group plant in Saitama, pretty near Tokyo: Japanese bombshell agency Kyodo reports.
4:00 pm: Government establishments in Taiwan states there has kept on minute evacuations: BBC reports.
3:58 pm: The website Earthquake Report has listed through 30 aftershocks consequent on the Japan quake. More
3:56 pm: Government and police growth death toll based on what i read in Japan quake to 29: AP reports
3:37 pm: The Japan Meteorological Agency projections the the city of Kurihara, located in the north-western portion of Japan's Miyagi Prefecture, has carried on utterly destroyed. Kurihara is renowned for the unique and length of rice it produces, and moreover as a tourist conclusion thanks to a larger quantity of hot springs, a good amount of of them located at the bottom of the dormant volcano Mt Kurikoma.
3:31 pm: In a sadly ironic twist, Japanese quake specialists got elsewhere when the quake hit beforehand today. Some of the country's most major establishments on earthquakes had, at the legal code of the Japanese municipal and the apply of the New Zealand government, flown to Christchurch to boon in the aftermath of the disastrous February 22, 2011 quake in so city such a left in 300 dead and lead to untold damage.
3:27 pm: The official death toll has now climbed to 19. Those established dead record two in the wider Tokyo neighborhood due to a wall recession and the collapse of a roof; 3 in the Ibaraki prefecture north-east of Tokyo due to residence collapses; two in the Fukushima provine and 3 in the Kanto province. On-ground states suggest overly the actual toll should be fearsome, and the it plans to take days for the broad magnitude to be measured. Many dozens meanwhile are trapped in the rubble ensuing a hotel market crash in the city of Sendai.
3:12 pm: Little situations be a big difference. The Japanese government, already competing the worst earthquake to hit the quake-prone planet in 140 years, at last found the tiny bit and sensitivity to do the bit things: says say this providing cellphone services out of whack, the federal has built all pay phones free of charge of credit to enable borrowers to carry on linked at a cycle of major chaos.
3:07 pm: Residents in the Phillippines suffer carried on warned to evacuate and move to excessive ground, through weather authorities prophesizing the primarily waves of the tsunami to strike all over 6 PM local time. The Coast Guard has continued put on great alert, and rescue teams suffer carried on placed in a state of affairs of emergency alert.
3:05 pm: Authorities in Taiwan undergo warned this tidal waves triggered by the Japan quake could easily contact the eastern coast of the Island at roughly 5.30 PM local time, and in addition more than likely hit the north-eastern port of Keelung by 6:00 pm.
3:03 pm: The US Geological Society meanwhile has reported a secondary quake, timed at 5.12 PM Japan time, of magnitude 6.2, too pretty well the eastern coast of Honshu. More
3:00 pm: In a new illustration of how social media is supplementing, continuing to exceeding, the leg work of to hear agencies, the CitizenTube program parts videos of the Japan quake try by the mortgage holders themselves. Watch video
2:41 pm: Within portion an hour of the quake, the Twitter monitoring care Tweet-O-Meter argued this tweets out of Tokyo got streaming in at the costs of more than 1,200 per minute.
2:40 pm: Tsunami alert given around US West Coast; evacuation on in Hawaii.
Photos: Tsunami damages northern Japan
2:30 pm: 11,000 evacuated in Russia in the wake of Japanese tsunami
2:29 pm: With a astonishing fuel and communications blackout decreasing the quake-hit area, predictions of the toll and damages will be able to take a large long time to be collated. For now, the Japanese authorities is legally reporting one dead, AP reports.
2:27 pm: Though the Sensex fell during 200 points in reaction to the surprise of the quake, no lasting harm on the industry is expected, say experts. More
2:24 pm: The United States Geological Survey, that has kept on tracking the quake and its aftermath, has pegged the Japan quake at 8.9 on the Richter scale. That affects the current the 5th leading earthquake in history, in the future of the February 2010 quake in Chile. See chart
2:22 pm: Four million units in Japan experience no energy supply.
2:21 pm: Sendai airport in northern Japan flooded.
2:17 pm: Japanese revelation agency Kyodo suggests such a as numerous as 14 public homes are on fire in Tokyo.
2:15 pm: The Japan Meteorological Agency in a drive statement warned the current aftershocks of a prospective magnitude of 7 and above on the Richter balance were able to arise in a month, consequent on today's quake.
2:15 pm: AP surveys too Russian establishments own evacuated for the duration of 12,000 community members of the far-eastern Sakhalin Island and its area as a consequence of the tsunami warning.
2:05 pm: Biggest quake as of 1995, say Japanese met officials.
2 pm: Blaze carries on at substantial oil refinery. Fires break out in Tokyo as well. Aftershocks remain in Tokyo. Casualty rates trickling in.
1:55 pm: Kudan Kaikan auditorium collapses: 600 had gathered for a graduation ceremony, 30 considerably injured.
1:53 pm: Television studio cameras shake as aftershocks continue.
1:52 pm: Tsunami concerns for Australia, New Zealand.
1:45 pm: Japan's cataclysm management commission is went by its prime minister Naoto Kan. One of the most major earthquakes yet to hit the country, reports met office.
Tsunami may hit Indonesia, Hawaii next.
1:26 pm: Japan has swung to catastrophe control mode in the wake of a tsunami and monumental earthquake on Friday.
The planet has shut ebbed all its ports, airports and nuclear installations.
World television channels indicated cars and boats making swept onshore by gargantuan tidal waves. A even better tsunami is feared.
Ravi Shingari, director, KPMG, Japan, informed CNN-IBN more than the phone the present the Japanese got not as shocked by the tremors as the Indians.
The nearest city to the epicenter is the coastal city of Honshu, 130 km (80 miles) for the quake center. Tokyo is 373 km (231 miles) away.
The quake was about 24.4 KM deep over the ocean. Al Jazeera is running a make a home stream of the disaster:
Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan assumed no radiation leak had kept on reported of any nuclear installation.
The government had no casualty numbers, and stated properties got concentrating on 'relief and rescue'.
Thousands of passengers are trapped in trains, that suffer discontinued mid-way. Prime minister Kan alleged properties might be rescued, and appealed to everyone in all portions of Japan to be vigilant.
Prime minister Kan is addressing the nation. 'Stay calm', is his message.
The tidal waves got 13 feet high, met displays say.
Buildings in Tokyo shook and received creaking sounds, according to an Indian executive making an attempt in so city.
An oil refinery is on fire, and the fire specialists are vying a costing battle.
People are milling all over Tokyo station as all trains and buses own continued halted.
Stranded passengers won't afford any taxis either.
1 pm (India time): All airports own carried on closed in Japan as the establishments fear fires is able to break out imminent the tsunami.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK suggested cars, trucks, residences and structures making swept away by the tsunami.
Earthquakes are rampant in Japan, one of the world's a good amount of seismically active areas. The nation accounts for almost 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
Reuters reports: A monumental 8.8 magnitude quake hit the northeast coast of Japan on Friday, shaking structures in the capital Tokyo, bringing about "many injuries", at minimum one fire and meaning a four-metre (13-ft) tsunami, NHK television and witnesses reported.
There was moreover a rebuke of a 10-metre tsunami after the quake, Japan's most massive in 7 years.
The public broadcaster implied flames and brown smoke billowing from what i read in a producing in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the nation got halted.
Black smoke was furthermore pouring out of an industrial region in Yokohama's Isogo area.
TV footage suggested boats, cars and trucks floating in water once a compressed tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan.
"The constructing shook for how seemed a extensively age and several purchasers in the newsroom grabbed the helmets and Other got below this desks," Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said.
"It was perhaps the worst I hold experienced ever since I came to Japan a larger number of as opposed to 20 decades ago."
Passengers on a subway series in Tokyo screamed and grabbed a great deal more passengers' hands. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand, assumed Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura.
The U.S. Geological Survey beforehand substantiated a magnitude of 7.9 at a depth of 15.1 miles and located the quake 81 miles east of Sendai, Honshu. It consequently upgraded it to 8.8.
The Tokyo inventory sell long its losses subsequent to the quake was announced. The vital bank believed it is able to do all of it to ensure interest stability.
Japan's northeast Pacific coast, identified Sanriku, has suffered based on data from quakes and tsunamis in the beyond and a 7.2 quake hit on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the sector killed further as opposed to 3,000 people. Last year fishing equipments got damaged in the wake of by a tsunami lead to by a solid jolt in Chile.
Earthquakes are regular in Japan, one of the world's the majority of seismically active areas. The nation accounts for approximately 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
Source:http://in.news.yahoo.com/fires-break-out-following-quake--tsunami-in-japan.html