It's hurricane season in Leeds, an overstatement albeit windy at the moment but incomparable to the scenes from Japan of the Tōhoku earthquake. The full force of mother nature powered through the Pacific Ocean and a merciless tsunami has engulfed everything in it's path. At magnitude 9.0 it's the most powerful known earthquake to have hit Japan, and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world overall since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The quake also shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of between 10 cm (4 in) and 25 cm (10 in). Thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected! I'm sure the people of Japan will show the world their resilience in the face of this terrible natural disaster. A contrast to the UK that experienced complete disruption because of the wrong kind of snow?! The Tōhoku earthquake is a developing story, we learnt about what had happened early this morning after returning from a night out and watching scenes on television. Footage of the tsunami has been shown steadily on news outlets and I'm sure more accounts from the disaster will emerge over the next few days. The scenes are a reminder of the Indian Ocean earthquake which triggered a deadly tsunami that occurred on Boxing Day, 2004. Many had not seen the devastating effects that a tsunami had presented before then.
