Sequence of Japan Quakes Depicted in Animation from Researchers

In a new graphic animation, German researchers illustrate a series of seismic quakes that occurred Japan from March 8 to March 16, including a magnitude 7.2 quake that occurred two days before the massive quake that devastated the country. The animated graphic, produced by researchers at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, shows that after a seismically quiet day on March 8 in the region of Honshu, a large quake occurred off Japan’s east coast on the morning of March 9, followed by a series of aftershocks. The massive quake triggering the catastrophic tsunami occurred two days later, on March 11, which was followed by several major aftershocks, two of which nearly reached magnitude 8. The scientists estimated that the length of the main quake was about 400 kilometers (248 miles) based on the distribution of aftershocks. Overall, they registered 428 earthquakes in the region during this period.