One of the largest ever recorded earthquakes hit Japan at 05:46 GMT (14:46 local time) measuring 8.9 by the US Geological Survey. An immediate tsunami warning has been issued in countries across the Pacific as high water will hit as far as the Pacific United States and South & Central America.

The 8.9-magnitude temblor, which was centered near the east coast of Japan, damaging dozens of coastal communities. Kyodo news agency said a 10-metre wave (33ft) struck the port of Sendai in Miyagi. Japan’s NHK television showed a massive surge of debris-filled water sweeping away buildings, cars and ships and reaching far inland. Motorists could be seen trying to speed away from the wall of water.

Today’s Japan earthquake tells a rather horrific story. However, the earthquake also tells a rather familiar tale of horror as well. The circumstances are a little bit new this time, since it’s in a new location, one that hasn’t seen such a disaster in its modern era. The 8.9 quake, and subsequent tsunami, has left the affected regions in a shambles. As such, Japan has joined the sadly large ranks of nations that have faced terrible earthquakes and tsunamis lately.

An explosion at an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant was not caused by damage to the nuclear reactor but by a pumping system that failed as crews tried to bring the reactor’s temperature down, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday.

The Tokyo Electric Company said four workers were injured in an explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. NHK said the injured workers were in the process of cooling a nuclear reactor at the plant by injecting water into its core.

A small amount of radioactive Cesium has escaped into the air surrounding a nuclear plant in northeastern Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Agency said

The next step for workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant will be to flood the reactor containment structure with sea water to bring the reactor’s temperature down to safe levels, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. The effort is expected to take two days.

Radiation levels have fallen since the explosion and there is no immediate danger. Japanese authorities are making plans to distribute stable iodine, a treatment to prevent radiation poisoning, to residents near two damaged nuclear plants and they also ordered the evacuation zone around the plant expanded from a 10km radius to 20km (12 miles).

An estimated 6.4-magnitude earthquake has hit near the east coast of Honshu – the latest in a series of aftershocks striking on and around Japan’s largest island in the past 24 hours. The aftershock occurred at 10:15 p.m. and just 82 kilometers (about 50 miles) from Fukushima, where officials are assessing a nuclear reactor damaged by Friday’s earthquake and tsunami.

According to the UN Dispatch, the Japanese earthquake is much larger than the one that struck Haiti last January. Today’s strike measured an 8.8, while Haiti endured a 7.2. Yet as many will point out in the next several days, Haiti is likely to have a far greater death toll, and even graver damage to its country.

The Haiti incident is the most devastating quake of the last several years. However, the most devastating tsunami of recent times hit the Indian Ocean in late 2004. It was spawned by a 9.1 quake and went on to kill over 200,000 people, according to the USGS.

Today’s incident is extremely frightful, because it had both a record-setting earthquake and a tsunami. As such, fears are that this will be on a par with those two great disasters, although it might not reach those horrific heights. After all, they set the bar so high that it would take a real act of God to top them.

But even if the latest quake and waves aren’t that terrible, they have still caused an untold amount of devastation. For the next several days and weeks, we will be consumed with horrific pictures and video clips from Japan while mourning over their grave losses. Yet by now, this has become an all too familiar formula for us to play out.

Things have been so harsh over recent years that even the recent New Zealand earthquakes look mild by comparison. That island was struck with a 7.1 tremor in September, and just suffered an even more destructive 6.3 aftershock last month. However, by the current standards of natural disasters, New Zealand got off easy, in spite of their obvious difficulties.

Earthquakes and tsunamis have struck the world since the dawn of time, and will continue to cause havoc until the end of time. Technically, they may not be more frequent than usual, yet it is starting to seem that way. The Indian Ocean tragedy stunned the world, as did the Haiti disaster last year. Now the turmoil in Japan today is the latest to bring the planet to a halt – as we have become all too accustomed to doing nowadays. – (Yahoo News)