Just how powerful was the deadly tsunami that devastated Japan in March?

We've certainly heard about the deaths and damage it caused in Japan. But we had believed the massive wave did no notable damage to other parts of the world

Until now.

NASA used satellite photographs taken over almost a half-century to reveal major damage to the Antarctic ice shelf.

Researchers were trying to see the effect of the earthquake and tsunami on sea ice. They were startled to find several large icebergs floating off the coast of Antarctica, where none had ever been seen before. They soon realized that the tsunami had caused major damage to the Sulzberger ice shelf.

The damaging waves are believed to have traveled some eight-thousand miles from Japan, with enough force to damage the ice shelf eighteen hours after the quake. NASA estimates some 50 square miles of ice were broken off the Sulzberger shelf. One of the chunks is roughly the size of Manhattan! Checking their archives, they discovered that the ice shelf had been intact for almost a half-century before the tsunami.

See the damage with this video from the Goddard Spaceflight Center:

NASAexplorer, via YouTube

The more I find out about the damage the earthquake and tsunami caused, the happier I am to live in a part of the world not noted for earthquakes. Then again, there is a huge fault line running through Buffalo and Niagara Falls, and supposedly, it is very overdue to erupt...

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