As if being hit with one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded wasn't bad enough, the March 2011 earthquake in northern Japan also created two tsunami waves that merged into a larger, more powerful one.

Actually, that still doesn't sink in sometimes...a major industrialized country being hit with one of the largest earthquakes ever in recorded history anywhere on the planet. I hope California fares as well as Japan when a "measly" 7+ eventually hits us.

Article here .

Rouge tsunami waves . That's enough to give St Michael and St Brendan (sailor's patron saints) nightmares.

Interesting, thanks. Looks like that satellite data is a goldmine for scientists.

Human history is just a blink of the eye compared to geologic history. Based on what we know of the past, Mama Nature has some nasty tricks up her sleeve that could play out at any time.

I wonder what we don't know. Seems a lot of earthquakes are caused by previously unknown faults.

Comprehensive Emergency Management is all about making plans about things you know, so you can handle what you don't know. It will never be perfect, and there will always be things that screw things over. I think Japan is a perfect example of "Complex systems fail in complex ways". The nuclear plant is also an example of a 'deprecated' design that has flaws. With software, you release a new version and hope people upgrade. What about a nuclear power plant?