On March 11th 2011, at 05:46 (GMT) a M 8.9 earthquake struck of the North East Coast of Japan. It has caused fatalities and there is a widespread flooding and fires in the Tokyo region. Because the focus of the earthquake was shallow, 25 km, it generated a tsunami, with waves of 4-10 m in height, and a Pacific wide tsunami alert has been put in place. The shock waves generated by this super earthquake were recorded by the Irish National Seismic Network, at our stations in Donegal, Galway, Kerry and Dublin, 12 minutes later. It has also been recorded by over 50 schools in the Seismology in Schools Project, which is part of DIAS outreach programme.

More information available here:

• DIAS Geophysics Press Release
• Japanese earthquake information webpage
• Irish National Seismic Network earthquake recording