User blog comment:Phoenixlight13/Japan Earthquake/@comment-1429792-20110312122426

Its amazing to see what nature can do, just unreal watching the videos of the tsunami.

To clear up a couple of points - the earthquake (reported to be 8.9 or 9.0 magnitude depending what source you look at, either way it was the biggest in the 140 years that records have been kept in Japan) did not kill many people - it was the tsunami that hit Japan immediately after the quake which did that. 300 were found dead in the water yesterday and another 300-400 today so far, with several trains missing. Watch the videos of the tsunami and you'll see entire buildings being swept away and carried for ages - it is a miracle that so few are dead (though the death toll will likely rise as more remote areas as well as debris are searched).

There were dozens of aftershocks, each quite powerful in its own right with the strongest reported at 7.1. On top of that there was a 6.7 magnitude quake in the west at a depth of 1km, unrelated (directly at least) to the 8.9 quake, which 400km northeast of Tokyo, at a depth of 24.4km. The US Geological Survey says the quake caused a rupture in the Earth's crust 150 miles long and 50 miles across. Readings from an observatory in Miyagi prefecture show it is now located four metres further east than it was before the earthquake.

There was an explosion at the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant well north of Tokyo but it did not damage the container of the reactor and radiation levels have dropped. The area had already been evacuated. There is a threat of further (smaller) tsunami, but the worst of the threat is over.

ANN list: Anime/Manga/Game Industry Members Check In After Quake