The moment Japan’s cataclysmic tsunami engulfed a nation

Stretching into the distance, waves caused by the tsunami pour over the
coastline and rush inland swamping all before them. As the seawater
passes over the land it mixes with the soil and begins to change colour
to a dark brown

Helpless: A ship, dwarfed by the sheer size of the whirlpool, is drawn

ever closer towards the vortex as is tossed about in the foaming waters

off the port of Oarai, Ibaraki 

Menace: Wave upon wave heads towards the coastline which has

already been breached by an earlier onslaught

With fires and destruction all around him a man picks his way carefully though the rubble while (right) there’s gridlocked in either direction in Sendai as people try to escape the coastal city

This extraordinary image shows how the quake split this road in

Satte on the island of Honshu right

down the middle

Two women in Urayasu city, Chiba, scramble up a road that was buckled by the force of the quake. Right, a young woman wells up and leans on her friend as the true scale of the disaster that has claimed the lives of hundreds of people becomes apparent

Collapsed: Three shocked employees look at what has become of

the factory in Sukagawa city, Fukushima, where moments earlier

they had been working

Raging seas: The tsunami pours through trees and engulfs homes on the coast of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, after the earthquake struck

The same scene just moments later shows how the entire area with dozens of homes is completely obliterated by the unforgiving waters which swept away anything in their path. Bobbing about on the surface is all the debris the waters have picked up along the way

Swelling: The murky flow of mud and debris trapped in the tide of water washes over the tarmac car park at Sendai airport in northern Japan 

Destruction: Tsunami tidal waves race upstream along the Naka river

at Hitachinaka city in Ibaraki hours after the massive 8.9 magnitude

quake struck this morning

Shock: A young couple at a bookshop in Sendai, northern Japan, embrace as the ceiling collapses  and the building rocks from the force of the quake while in Tokyo, right, black smoke rises from fires caused by the quake

Aftermath: Clouds of grey smoke billow out of an oil refinery, and

an inferno burns at its centre, in Chiba following the earthquake

Concerned: Two office workers in Tokyo brace themselves for a

potential disaster as the earthquake rumbled buildings and smoke

can be seen rising from skyscrapers outside 

Effects: A mother and her daughter watch nervously as pools of water from burst pipes encroach on the pavement in Tokyo while, right, paramedics carry away casualties from a nearby building that was rocked by the earthquake

Red alert: Flames engulf homes that were hit with the full force

of the tsunami in the Miyagi region of north eastern Japan

Debris: An eerie mist sweeps across the debris of destroyed homes

and cars caught in the raging tsunami waters in Kesennuma in Miyagi, northern Japan 

Explosion: Flames reach hundreds of feet into the sky after a natural gas facility in Chiba near Tokyo explodes after the earthquake, while right, a fire tears through residential houses in Yamada in northern Japan

Stranded: Shoppers sit on the floor of a department store as train

and bus services were suspended due to the earthquake

Cold: Elderly women who are likely to have experienced a number

of earthquakes in their lifetime sit on the street as they take in the

most recent disaster which is one of the worst in recent history

Stuck: Stranded commuters inside Tokyo railway station prepare

themselves for a long wait as the city, where infrastructure is

designed to withstand disasters, recovers from the earthquake

Aftershocks: A frail elderly man rests under a blanket as all around him the country is gripped by the full scale of the earthquake and right, young Japanese people evacuated frombuildings at risk of collapsing wrap blankets around themselves

At risk: Confusion spead amoung passengers who were taken off

planes at Narita International Airport in Naita city, suburban Tokyo

Pile-up: New cars ready to be shipped are stacked on top of each other after the water gushed through Hitachinaka city in Ibaraki prefecture 

The sheer force of the quake is evident in this image of the road

in Fukushima which has been flipped, buckled and broken

Aftermath: The remains of houses are surrounded by broken wood

and concrete after flood waters engulfed Iwaki town, Fukushima prefecture

 

Giant fireballs rise from an oil refinery in Ichihara, which lies on the eastern coast of Japan, after being shaken by the earthquake off the coast

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Posted in: Climate Change, Jumma