Image from News.com.au live blog on the disaster

At around 3pm local time, a massive 8.8 richter scale earthquake struck off the Oshika Peninsula, Tōhoku, Japan. Subsequently, the earthquake created tsunami waves of up to 10 meters (33 ft) that struck Japan. Wikipedia has comprehensive coverage of this disaster, which is the largest earthquake to have hit Japan since records began.

ICT4Peace leveraged its Twitter account to scour through the hundreds of tweets coming from the ground and in the media. Using Google’s realtime search, the Foundation was able to curate some of the best links to crisis information, and continued to do so through the course of the day, beginning around an hour after the earthquake struck. These tweets in turn generated dozens of retweets demonstrating both the potential of Twitter to spread information generally as well as the power of social networks to push this information into respective spheres of influence. Most of our tweets were tagged with @crisismappers, pointing to the Crisis Mappers website where increasingly, the best information on disasters as they happen can be found and responses generated. The retweet of @groundviews followed concerns where Sanjana Hattotuwa, who curated these updates, resides, when news of the earthquake triggered grave concern over a tsunami such as that which completely devastated many coastal areas of the island on Boxing Day, 2004.

Following is a list of these tweets that still bear relevance to those interested in information from Japan, and helping those in need.

  1. (Link) Very useful how to help guide for #japan #earthquake#tsunamiNY Times http://nyti.ms/glMENO @crisismappers
  2. (Link) Extremely useful tool | Google Crisis Response page for #japan#earthquake#tsunami http://bit.ly/hOXYMW
  3. (Link) Radioactive material may have leaked from Japanese reactor (w/ photos) http://bit.ly/giV0JJ #japan #earthquake
  4. (Link) Wikipedia entry on #japan #earthquake demonstrates power of crowd. 100’s of updates & counting http://bit.ly/eW5OO6@crisismappers
  5. (Link) ITV news live coverage of #japan #earthquake http://bit.ly/eHQ1uj@crisismappers
  6. (Link#tsunami travel time image from NOAA http://1.usa.gov/eH83EE#japan #earthquake http://plixi.com/p/83171647
  7. (Link#Japan Meteorological Agency #earthquake pagehttp://bit.ly/fCh5R0 @crisismappers
  8. (Link) Incredible #japan #earthquake footage captured by citizenhttp://bit.ly/fOP41k @crisismappers
  9. (Link) More photos from #japan #earthquake and #tsunami from Huffington Post http://huff.to/fAV4kJ
  10. (Link) Live updates on #Japan #earthquake by The Telegraph (audio/video/text) http://bit.ly/gCYjI2 @telegraph @crisismappers
  11. (Link) First ground photo of #tsunami damage after #japan #earthquakehttp://bit.ly/gUBo3R @crisismappers
  12. (Link) RT @groundviews: Sri Lanka *NOT* on tsunami alert. Do not panic. See list of countries at risk here http://1.usa.gov/gclGc1 #lka#srilanka
  13. (Link) List of countries at risk of #tsunami following #japan #earthquakehttp://1.usa.gov/gclGc1 @crisismappers
  14. (Link) BBC live updates from #japan #earthquake http://bbc.in/fOe37q@crisismappers
  15. (Link) 36 photo slideshow of #japan #earthquake devastationhttp://bit.ly/epKRhV @crisismappers
  16. (Link#Japan #earthquake details from USGS http://1.usa.gov/gev1pB@crisismappers
  17. (Link) Anger erupts at #CNN coverage of #japan #earthquake and#tsunami http://bit.ly/eN0Z6M @crisismappers
  18. (Link) NHK TV livestream in English http://bit.ly/forGvX #japan#earthquake @crisismappers
  19. (Link) Citizen generated videos from #Japan #earthquakehttp://bit.ly/6ELj6q @crisismappers
  20. (Link) Google Person Finder launched for #japan #earthquakehttp://bit.ly/ebNMey @crisismappers
  21. (Link) Real time updates on Japan earthquake and tsunamihttp://bit.ly/h8at9K #japan #earthquake