Terrible Tsunami

North Pacific Coast, Japan - 11 March 2011

A powerful tsunami travelling 800km per hour with 10m-high waves swept over the east coast of Japan, killing more than 18,000 people. The tsunami was spawned by an 9.0 magnitude earthquake that reached depths of 24.4km- making it the fourth-largest earthquake ever recorded. Approximately 452,000 people were relocated to shelters, and still remain displaced from their destroyed homes. The violent shaking resulted in a nuclear emergency, in which the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant began leaking radioactive steam. The World Bank estimates that it could take Japan up to five years to financially overcome the $235 billion damages.