Earthquake Moved Japan 8 Feet

Earth's axis also shifted slightly
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 12, 2011 1:28 PM CST
Earthquake Moved Japan 8 Feet
A couple walks past upturned vehicles in the city of Miyako.   (Getty Images)

Some numbers related to the Japan earthquake, from CNN and ABC:

  • 8: Number of feet the coast of Japan moved eastward.
  • 4: Number of inches the Earth's axis shifted.
  • 160: Number of aftershocks in the first 24 hours, most of them with a magnitude of at least 5.0.
  • 59 feet: How much tectonic plates slipped.
  • 6 miles: How far inland some of the tsunami waves reached.

"At this point, we know that one GPS station moved (8 feet), and we have seen a map from (Geospatial Information Authority) in Japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass," a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey tells CNN. For information on how to help, click here. (More Japan earthquake stories.)

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