March 12, 2011 - The earthquake that struck Japans northern coast off Miyagi prefecture early Friday morning was the country’s worst in its history and in over 300 years. The earthquake registered at 8.9 magnitude which caused a tsunami (pronounced soo-NAH-mee) that has killed an unknown number of people.

The death toll and juries where limited as a result of Japan’s two early warning systems; the earthquake alert system and ocean-based tsunami warning system. Tsunamis are a frequent occurrence in Japan and prior to Friday’s event Japan has been hit with approximately 195 events that have been recorded.

The term tsunami comes from the Japanese, meaning "harbor" and "wave". A tsunami is a series of water waves (called a tsunami wave train) caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, usually an ocean, but can occur in large lakes.

Owing to the immense volumes of water and the high energy involved, tsunamis can devastate coastal regions. A string of detection buoys in the Pacific Ocean detected the tsunami that resulted from the earthquake, sending warnings of possible catastrophe to many different nations.

Air travel for the most part has come to standstill. Tokyo’s Narita International Airport had allowed some flights out however there are thousands of passengers stranded there.