A massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, triggering a devastating tsunami. The tsunami waves reached heights of over 130 feet in some areas, washing away homes, cars, and devastating many entire towns in Japan's northeastern coast. The earthquake and tsunami also caused a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, as damage to the plant's cooling system from the tsunami threatened a potential meltdown. Authorities worked to avert a catastrophic meltdown by cooling the reactors. The disaster is considered Japan's worst crisis since World War II.

2. It spawned by the magnitude-8.9 quake—one of the largest ever recorded—rocked Japan's eastern coast, killing hundreds of people, according to the Associated Press.

4. Path Through Destruction A survivor walks his bicycle through the remains of the devastated Japanese town of Otsuchi on March 14.

5. Wave of Destruction A tsunami wave crashes over a street in Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture, in northeastern Japan on March 11.

6. Houses Destroyed Rescue workers search for Japan earthquake victims amid shattered houses in Nodamura, Iwate Prefecture, on March 14.

8. The quake shifted what's called Earth's figure axis, an imaginary line around which the world's mass is balanced, about 33 feet (10 meters) from the north-south axis.

9. Data from high-precision GPS instruments show that parts of Japan shifted by as much as 13 feet (4 meters) as the fault plates lurched due to the earthquake.

10. The shifting mass also affected the planet's spin rate.

12. TEPCO is now battling to avert a catastrophic meltdown at three of the six reactors at the Fukushima facility­, with a second hydrogen explosion early Monday morning signaling the difficulty of that effort.

13. But in 2007, the company escaped such peril at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, the largest nuclear power station in the world, when it was damaged by a 6.8-magnitude earthquake that was up to three times larger than the plant’s design was built t­o withstand.

15. At the plant, an explosion blew the roof off a building and destroyed exterior walls, Japan's Kyodo News reported. The steel container housing the reactor, however, was reportedly not damaged.

17. Japan Tsunami, Before & After: Before After

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