Dramatic Videos, Photos Emphasize Scope of Japan Earthquake

11.03.2011
Yesterday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan has been captured on video by people all over the world on their smartphones and digital cameras. They're uploading to Twitter, YouTube, and CNN'S iReport, among many other sites.

With the proliferation of camera phones in the last decade, people continue to single-handedly capture events like this one and the 2004 tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands. Today, we see that same thing happening.

News agencies are posting user video and digital stills all over the Web in a fury to show people's first-hand accounts of the destruction.

from YouTube from user kirakirayuji, which shows a rattling house as a family tries to escape.

And this video really shows the force of the quake. Directly after the quake, user posted . The building appear to be built to sway, a modern earthquake engineering design that is used in many buildings, especially in California.

A tsunami warning was issued and from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) graphically shows the expected wave lengths of the tsunami as it moved across the Pacific after the giant earthquake.