It happened less than two hours ago. It has been registered as a 7.1 magnitude and, initially, there was a tsunami warning along the whole of the north east coast almost as far south as Tokyo. That warning has now been cancelled. As I type this it is the very early hours of the morning there and I won't hear anything from my son for several hours at least.

There doesn't seem to have been any significant damage this time. It was one of the strongest aftershocks recorded. The British Geological Survey is on record as saying that aftershocks could continue for 12 months.

I was looking at this story that is Japan a month after the disasters in photos.
Very well done.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/04/japans_crisis_one_month_later.html

I spoke to my son last week. He tells me that there are aftershocks almost every day. One was severe enough for him to feel it on the train on his way to work in Tokyo, and he lives a little to the southwest of the city.

Looking at those pictures, I don't remember seeing anything like the partitions (for privacy) before. In all the Katrina shelter photos, the people just seemed to be huddled together on bare floors...Such a small thing would make a big difference in comfort.

it's hard to understand just what they're all going through but that must give them shivers for every shock they feel.
has you son and family thought of leaving Japan for a while, RMG?

I don't think the thought has even entered their heads. When the radiation was at its worst my son and Grandson moved out of Tokyo for a few days but went back very soon. They live with tremors all the time. It's only the really bad ones that worry them.

Long after the event and a huge hiatus in reporting the inevitable news has finally broken, one confirmed and two suspected core meltdowns. This is far worse than it seems as once this radiation escapes it travels worldwide in the atmosphere and falls back on the rain. Some such as caesium and plutonium will be here a very long time and can have short and long term results from radiation poisoning for plutonium to cancer for most others which last more than weeks. I wasn't personally expecting anything else as had been following the reports of growing problems from day one, but worst of all this has not appeared in any UK media I've come across although being an international problem is something we all need to know, even though there's absolutely nothing we can ever do about it.

Japan meltdown Mind the popups, it was the best report I could find so have to get rid of a few ads before it can be read.