ONAGAWA, OSAKA,FUKUSHIMA,JAPAN EARTHQUAKE,TSUNAMI

 Hundreds of aftershocks have rocked the ground and frayed nerves in the five weeks since Japan’s massive earthquake and tsunami, forcing survivors to relive the terror almost daily.The incessant rumbling of the Earth’s stressed crust has held back relief work, imperilled already dangerous operations to contain a nuclear crisis and fuelled fears far beyond the coast that was devastated by the giant wave.Many now complain of “earthquake sickness” — the sensation that the ground is swaying beneath their feet even when it is not — a condition blamed on confused inner-ear balance receptors and a heightened state of anxiety.
For the tens of thousands living in spartan and crowded evacuation shelters in and near the tsunami wastelands, the creaking of already weakened buildings and the risk of another killer wave spark mortal fears.Since the 9.0-magnitude quake shifted the seafloor by 24 metres (yards) and sent a huge wave crashing into Japan, more than 400 quakes above magnitude 5.0 have hit, most below the sea but many beneath Japan itself.Maps show their epicentres spread out like an angry rash across the Pacific seafloor east of Japan, one of the world’s most quake-prone and volcanic places on the intersection of several tectonic plates.
Geophysicists agree that the jolts and rumbles will not stop any time soon.They only differ on whether they will go on for months, years or even a decade.
A powerful 7.1-magnitude aftershock struck on April 7 followed by a series of shocks above 6.0 this week, with the biggest one prompting a tsunami scare, one of several issued and lifted since the monster quake.At the Onagawa evacuation centre, the lights went off on April 7 and hundreds poured out of the buildings where they shivered in the cold for about an hour until the tremors subsided and they were allowed back inside.Aftershocks centred near the tsunami-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant have also repeatedly forced emergency crews there to evacuate, and led to fears the charred reactor buildings and water pipes may be further compromised.Radiation fears have also haunted some in the Onagawa evacuation centre, which lies just five kilometres (three miles) from a coastal nuclear plant of the same name that was also damaged on March 11 but went into full shutdown.I am afraid that another tsunami may knock out the Onagawa nuclear plant and cause it to leak radioactive material, like in Fukushima.