Japan was struck by what is now known as a magnitude-9 level earthquake, which took place on March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m. local time (05:46 UTC) off the east coast of Japan. The epicenter was 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Sendai, and 373 kilometers (231 miles) northeast of Tokyo, and has been labeled the fourth largest in the world since 1900.
The below image shows the epicentre of the quake, as well as foreshocks (dotted circles) and aftershocks (solid circles).
That close to the east coast of Japan, a tsunami was sadly inevitable, and as can be seen in the images below, the devastation has been immense. The first image was taken on August 8 of 2008, and the second taken on March 14, 2011, three days after the massive earthquake.
Source: NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Day 1 & 2
