Econintersect: Technically this was an aftershock from the massive March 11 earthquake, but what an aftershock. The magnitude 7.1 (Richter scale) tremor was much larger than the magnitude 6.7 1994 Northeridge, California earthquake and also larger than the October, 1989 Loma Pieta event (known as the World Series earthquake) that cause so much damage in the San Fransisco Bay area (magnitude 6.9). The quake was originally reported as a 7.4 event and later downgraded to 7.1.There have been no damage reports yet, particularly from the disabled nuclear plants. There was a tsunami of about one meter, but the tsunami warning for a tsunami of 1-2 meters has been lifted. There are no personal injury, missing persons or fatality reports yet more than two hours after the quake hit.
Stock markets around the world fell immediately after news of the quake broke, but have been partially recovering since. In New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 100 points as the news broke but two hours later had recovered more than 75% of the decline.
