An ordinary March day in northeastern Japan ended in
extraordinary catastrophe: A 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck off
the coast on March 11, triggering a tsunami that swept away
whole towns in the devastated region of Tohoku. Officials
eventually reported more than 18,000 dead or missing in the most
powerful quake ever recorded in Japan. The quake moved the
island of Honshu (the largest in Japan) eight feet to the east,
and sped up the Earth's rotation by 1.6 microseconds, according
to NASA. But it was the ensuing tsunami that brought desolation:
Thirty-foot walls of water barreled over concrete barriers and
swallowed whole communities-and reached the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant, badly damaging reactors and triggering the
worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Authorities evacuated
miles of contaminated communities around the plant, adding to
the vast numbers of residents left homeless by the tsunami. A
year-end report claimed that a purification device leaked 45
tons of highly radioactive water du