The quake strikes in the Pacific 89 miles east of Sendai. It’s so massive that it moves parts of Japan nearly eight feet closer to North America, changes the tilt of the Earth by 10 inches, and shortens the Earth’s day by 1.8 microseconds. It also unleashes a massive tsunami that races toward Japan’s islands. Eleven of Japan’s 55 nuclear reactors shut down automatically through emergency-protocol systems.
