Television coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last week, pales in significance, after seeing photos of the destruction. A television wide shot can give an idea of the damage, but it really hits home, when seeing a photo like the one above.
It is difficult for Americans to actually comprehend what has happened in Japan. The country of Japan has been hit by an earthquake, a tsunami and the eruption of a volcano since the earthquake hit last Friday.
To make things worse, the adverse conditions have caused six nuclear reactors to experience serious problems, that could result in radioactivity being released into the atmosphere.
So not only are the Japanese people dealing with the aftermath of a horrific earthquake and tsunami, they now are having to worry about being exposed to radioactivity.
In addition, many people are missing and either are dead, or have no way of contacting their families to tell them they are safe.
The day before the 9.0 earthquake (recently upgraded from 8.9), there were only five earthquakes 5.0 or higher reported in the east coast in the Honshu, Japan vicinity.
However, two days before the 9.0 earthquake, 17 earthquakes over 5.0 magnitude, were recorded. One of those earthquakes was recorded at 7.2 magnitude.
Going two days back to March 7 and March there was no seismic activity recorded in Japan on those days.
The 8.9 earthquake last Friday was the first seismic activity recorded last Friday. 13 aftershocks were felt in the first two hours following the earthquake with one registering a magnitude of 7.1.
Nine aftershocks were recorded the next hour. Yesterday the Honshu, Japan area experienced the only 5.0 earthquakes in the world. There have been 22 earthquakes recorded so far today in Japan.
The complete list of earthquakes in the world measuring 5.0 or higher in magnitude starting on March 7 through today: