Japan Quake Lifted Seabed 16 Stories—Largest Recorded
Giant slip may have spawned deadly tsunami, study says.
(See 20 unforgettable pictures of the aftermath of the Japan earthquake and tsunami.)
This giant movement probably caused the massive tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people and crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (pictures).
For the study, Toshiya Fujiwara and colleagues at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology compared seabed maps made in 1999 and 2004 to those made only days after the March quake.
Their analysis also revealed the seabed may also have risen by as much as 33 feet (10 meters).
"This is a very important piece of work, in
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