At the risk of sounding pedantic...
(and to steer things back on topic somewhat):
I noticed late last week that Japan's lies at one of the world's most impropitious tectonic conflurences... maybe the most impropitious-
The area near the recent earthquake lies at the triple-intersection of the Pacific Plate, the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Plate. Now, the Pacific Plate is the fastest-moving Plate in the world- trending Northwest in that area at over 10 inches a year, average. The Philippine plate also trends Northwest, at a less brisk (but not insubstantial) 7 inches (to the nearest inch) average a year. Contrarily, the Eurasian Plate is (comparatively speaking) slow-moving in that area, managing about an inch a year average- but here's the kicker- It is moving in direct opposition (i.e.: collision course) to the Pacific Plate (→←).
By contrast, the San Andreas fault system of the Western US has the Pacific Plate moving at a little over 8 inches a year average, Northwest, and the North American Plate moving Southwest at an average of about 2½ inches a year. (↑←) My source says that the entire West Coast of the US has as many 7.5+ magnitude earthquakes every 100 years as Japan has in about 25. (Source: Goode's World Atlas.)
In spite of this technical digression, I can't begin imagine the scope of the disaster and loss involved. Let's also save a thought for those who've made progess in lowering the water-temperatures in two key nuclear reactors.
