Aftershocks Radiate Across Japan

A powerful 6.6-magnitude tremor has hit the country twelve hours after a massive earthquake and tsunami rocked its east coast.

The aftershock ripped through Japan’s western prefecture of Niigata at around 4 am Saturday local time, further damaging a country still reeling from Friday's magnitude 8.9 earthquake. News agencies are reporting that the initial quake, believed to be the fifth largest on record, has killed at least 450 people but that figure is expected to rise. It also caused billions of dollars in damage and sent stock exchanges around the world tumbling. Residents near the Fukushima nuclear plant were ordered to evacuate after high levels of radiation were detected in the area. Friday’s quake was so powerful that it knocked the Earth off its axis by 25 cm, and caused a gash in the Earth’s crust 240-km-long and 80 km across.