On March 11th 2011 a devastating 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit the north east coast of Japan. It was the most powerful known earthquake to have hit Japan and one of the five most powerful in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The earthquake triggered hugely destructive tsunami waves of up to 38 meters that struck Japan traveling up to 10km inland. Over 28 thousand people are dead or missing and over 125,000 buildings destroyed or severely damaged.
In addition to loss of life and destruction of infrastructure the tsunami caused several nuclear incidents of which the ongoing level 7 one at  Fukushima is the most serious. Rikuzentakata. Iwate. Japan. 2011.