Japan hit by massive earthquakes

News is just coming in about a series of earthquakes in Japan, the largest measuring 8.9, near the east coast of Honshu and potentially triggering tsunami with waves up to 6 meters high. There was another one measuring 6.8 north of Tokyo and some more further afield.

[Official USGS kmz feed on a map that can be shared]

[Many aftershocks happening as shown on this map]

[Gescience Australia estimates of felt and damage radius]

[Tsumami warning from Japan Meteorological Agency]

Update: It has been 4 days after the event but the tragedy is not over yet… thousands of people still missing, regional areas running out of water, food petrol and survivors threatened by radiation from damaged nuclear power plants… Simply no words to express adequately the sadness and my sympathy to all those affected by the earthquake and the resulting tsunami.

The world’s GIS community has contributed a lot of resources to depicts the events on the maps for all those searching details on the event. A few examples are presented below for information.

[more info on shareable map: shake analysis, epicenter, shelters, social reports (in Japanese)]

Links to more maps:
Google Crisis Response
Animated timeline: main earthquake and aftershocks (in HTML5)
New York Times: Tsunami propagation map
New York Times: Interactive maps with counts of dead and missing persons, building damage
Washington Post: Earthquake in Japan interactive map
New York Times: Forecast for Plume's Path