Japan Hit By 8.9 Earthquake, Massive Tsunami Threatens Pacific

Friday, 11 March 2011 | by Pat's Picks

The biggest earthquake to strike Japan in 140 years struck last night, felling buildings and creating a “devastating tsunami that swallowed swaths of coastal territory and fanned out across the Pacific Ocean, threatening everything in its path” reports the LA Times. The 8.9-magnitude quake is the world’s fifth largest since 1900. Japanese authorities say hundreds of people are missing, presumably trapped under rubble.

Warnings have been issued to virtually every country that touches the Pacific, 53 in total. Sendai, a city north of Tokyo, has seen two massive waves already, one 20-footer and one 33-feet tall. In Tokyo the trains and subways have been halted and the nation’s airports remained closed.