A dam in Japan's northeast Fukushima prefecture broke and homes were washed away, Kyodo news reported early this morning.
Aftershocks continued to strike Japan as the nation grappled with the scale of the disaster, which brought buildings down in balls of fire across the country and killed an unknown number of people. Giant waves swept 5km inland through coastal areas north of Tokyo, tearing up houses, farms and factories.
Following what was deemed the biggest quake to hit the country - and almost certainly its greatest natural disaster - Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan addressed his people as live television coverage presented an unfolding vision of the catastrophe.
He warned of "major damage in broad areas in northern Japan" and asked people "to act calmly while listening carefully to information from radio and TV".
The Japanese government said it was acting on the presumption the quake was the largest the country had seen, and sent warships and army personnel to assist, while jet fighters were scrambled to assess the damage.
"Our initial assessments indicate that there has already been enormous damage," chief government spokesman Yukio Edano said. "We will make maximum relief efforts based on that assessment."
A state of emergency was declared at the Ongawa nuclear power plant in the wake of the giant earthquake but a fire there was extinguished early this morning.
About 6000 people within a 3-kilometre radius were also urged to leave areas surrounding a nuclear plant in the Fukushima prefecture, which was early this morning was "under control" after water was pumped into the reactor's cooling system.
A total of 11 reactors at four nuclear plants were automatically shut down by the quake but Mr Kan said no leakages had been detected.
Flames were last night still roaring out of an oil refinery north of Tokyo.
The UN said it was ready to send search-and-rescue teams.
Australia said it also stood ready to provide Japan with whatever assistance it required.
The Australian embassy in Tokyo was last night trying to ascertain whether any Australians had been hurt or injured by the quake.
An estimated 11,000 Australians live in Japan, including 14 in the Miyagi prefecture and nine in Sendai, the area worst hit by the tsunamis. The 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit Japan at 2.46pm local time (4.46pm AEDT), unleashing tsunamis up to 10m high that sent ships crashing into the shore and carried cars through the streets of coastal towns.
A ship carrying about 100 people was reportedly swept away by the tsunami and its fate remained unknown last night, while reports said a passenger train was also unaccounted for.
The Pacific Rim was on high alert after a tsunami warning was issued for virtually the entire region. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from coastal areas in Hawaii, which lay in the direct path of the tsunami. The quake - the fifth-biggest recorded by the US Geological Survey - struck just under 400km northeast of Tokyo.
It was followed by at least 19 aftershocks, one as strong as 7.1.
Thirty minutes after the main quake, tall buildings were still swaying in Tokyo and mobile phone networks were not working. Big aftershocks rocked Tokyo hours after the first quake, and hundreds of people were reported trapped in buildings.
Oil installations exploded into infernos that spread through residential areas, and Mr Kan said all was being done to secure the country's nuclear power plants.
Many injuries were reported from Pacific coastal areas of the main Honshu island and the capital, Tokyo, while TV footage showed widespread flooding in the area. A 10m wall of water was reported at Sendai in northeastern Miyagi prefecture. NHK showed footage of a large ship being swept away by the tsunami and ramming into a breakwater in the city of Kesennuma in Miyagi.
Helicopter footage showed massive inundation in northern coastal towns, where floods of black water sent shipping containers, cars and debris crashing through towns. Mud waves were shown racing upstream along the Natori river in Sendai city and moving inland, tearing up roads, tossing vehicles around and covering farm fields.
Japan's meteorological agency said that within two hours, large tsunamis washed ashore into cities along a 2100km stretch of the country's eastern shore from the northern island of Hokkaido to central Wakayama prefecture.
The International Red Cross last night warned that the tsunamis generated from the quake would be higher than many Pacific islands.
While Japanese authorities last night confirmed deaths in two figures, the extent of the devastation led to expectations of mass casualties.
Kevin McCue, a seismologist and adjunct professor at Central Queensland University based in Canberra, said seven earthquakes over magnitude-8 had rocked Japan since 1891. In 1923, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake killed 147,000 people in Kanto, he said.
In 1995, more than 6000 people died in an earthquake. But the 8.9-magnitude quake yesterday exceeded all of them.
"Our expectation is that many people will be killed and there will be extensive damage," Professor McCue said. "Fortunately for Tokyo, it's a bit further north than the great Kanto earthquake was, which means the damage in Tokyo is likely to be much less."
The earthquake off Indonesia that set off the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004, killing more than 200,000 people, was 9.1 on the Richter scale.
Co-director of the Australian Tsunami Research Centre James Goff said the earthquake would test Japan's building code, tsunami warning system and evacuation plans.
AT least 337 people died in the strongest earthquake ever to hit Japan yesterday and the final death toll from that catastrophe and subsequent tsunamis is likely to pass 1000.
The magnitude-8.9 megaquake caused catastrophic damage across Japan, with cities engulfed by tsunamis set off by the 8.9 megaquake.
The earthquake unleashed a monster tsunami that together claimed hundreds of lives, as a minister warned there could be a discharge of radiation from a nuclear plant.
The towering wall of water generated by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake - the seventh biggest in history - pulverised the northeastern city of Sendai, where police reportedly said that between 200 and 300 bodies had been found on the coast.
Kyodo News said the final death toll was likely to pass 1000.
At least 531 were missing as of last night.
The 10m (33-foot) wave of black water sent shipping containers, cars and debris crashing through the streets of Sendai and across open farmland, while a tidal wave of debris-littered mud destroyed everything in its path.
"Japan has a rigorous earthquake building code and excellent tsunami warning system and evacuation plans," he said. "This event will likely provide a severe test for all of them."
In the capital, where millions evacuated swaying buildings, multiple injuries were reported when the roof of a hall collapsed during a graduation ceremony.
"We were shaken so strongly that we needed to hold on to something in order not to fall," said an official in the local government of the hard-hit city of Kurihara in Miyagi prefecture.
"We couldn't escape the building immediately because the tremors continued . . . Officials are now outside, collecting information on damage."
Plumes of smoke rose from at least 10 locations in Tokyo, where 4 million homes suffered power outages. The quake saw Tokyo's metro system shut down, along with the main international airport at Narita. Metropolitan expressways were also closed.
Professor McCue said a Pacific-wide tsunami has been generated and would hit other countries in the north Pacific within hours.
Authorities warned that tsunamis could extend around the Pacific, with Southeast Asia, Australia, and the west coasts of the Americas vulnerable.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said: "An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coasts near the epicentre in minutes, and more distant coastlines within hours."
But Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said there was no tsunami threat for Australia.
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