Asia, Natural Disaster | featured news

Google on Saturday released its first satellite images of Japan since the devastation that followed a massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit the island nation Friday afternoon local time.

The tsunami warnings have been lifted, and California coastal communities damaged by Friday's waves were assessing the damage to harbors and boats this morning.

Navy ships, Marine forces and non-governmental relief teams are being dispatched to the disaster-stricken areas of Japan to provide humanitarian assistance and to search for survivors.

In the coastal Miyagi prefecture town of Minamisanriku, 9,500 people out of the population of 17,000 are unaccounted for, according to Kyodo News. We could hear many more stories like that in the next few days. The overall picture of the destruction remains patchy, with rescue workers unable to reach some of the worst-hit areas due to wrecked roads and tsunami warnings.

A U.S.-led research team may have finally located the lost city of Atlantis, the legendary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of years ago in mud flats in southern Spain.

An explosion at a nuclear power station Saturday destroyed a building housing the reactor amid fears that it could melt down after being hit by a powerful earthquake and tsunami.

Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of Friday's powerful earthquake. Thousands of residents were evacuated as workers struggled to get the reactors under control to prevent meltdowns....

Waves generated by the quake have forced evacuations in Hawaii and tsunami warnings for the West Coast.

A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control. Tsunami warnings blanketed the entire Pacific, as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West Coast....

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake has hit northern Japan, shaking buildings in Tokyo and prompting the country's meteorological agency to issue a tsunami alert for the northeastern coast. There are no immediate reports of damage or injuries, but officials are still assessing the situation.