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(CNN) -- Within an hour after a major earthquake rattled Japan, the nation and the world watched a surreal and unprecedented scene from a helicopter hovering above the coastal area of Miyagi prefecture:

Neat rows of tilled farmland being cleaved by a wall of water, with a white ship sweeping across the soil . Behind it, a massive wave of mud, debris and burning buildings atop the rushing water.

"We've never seen this -- we're watching a live tsunami strike Japan," said CNN International meteorologist Ivan Cabrera. "Those are not taped pictures, that appears to be live pictures of a major tsunami strike the coast."

Tokyo residents shook off the horror of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake only to watch on television as the first tsunami waves crashed into coastal areas hundreds of miles northeast of the city.

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"The footage that we're seeing, the video that we're seeing on the television screens is absolutely heart wrenching," said Matt Alt, a Tokyo resident. "Because you know a lot of those people did not have a chance to evacuate before the wave hit, even though they were telling you need to get away from the shore lines.

"Just watching this wave hit and cars and buildings and houses being spent away, I think we're going to see a significant number of casualties," Alt said. So far the number of casualties is not known.

In Japan, one of the most wired nations in the world, the reaction was immediate . Twitter use skyrocketed, with tweets coming out of Tokyo topping 1200 per minute, according to Tweet-o-Meter, a traffic-monitoring system at University College of London.

The temblor was the most powerful on record in earthquake-prone Japan, government officials said. In Tokyo, traffic, trains and power shut down and air traffic halted, created an eerie scene on the streets of one of the world's largest cities as people stood outside and wondered what to do.

"This is a city of 13 million people that's paralyzed," said Kyung Lah, CNN Tokyo correspondent. "It's going to be a big long challenge for us tonight in Tokyo."

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Tag: tsunami in japan,cnn, tsunami, tsunami in japan today, earthquake in japan, tsunami in japan 2011

This morning an unprecedented message appeared on Google’s home page (in every country): “Tsunami Alert for New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, and others. Waves expected over the next few hours, caused by 8.9 earthquake in Japan.” No link – it is just a bare text message. It immediately clues you into the fact that something huge is happening. This is what the tsunami looked like when it hit the airport:

“Video of cars, ships wrecked by tsunami waves after Japan earthquake”:

From the video’s description: “The government has confirmed 23 deaths, with the number expected to rise. It follows the 8.9-magnitude earthquake which sent a 4-metre (13 feet) wall of water inland across the Miyagi prefecture . There’s considerable destruction – 200 people have been washed away. Buildings, cars and ships were also swept by the raging waters.”

The facts:

1) It was initially reported as a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. Overnight it has been upgraded several times to the 8.9 reported by Google.

2) The earthquake’s epicenter was off the eastern coast of Japan as shown in this map, which also shows tsunami risk all around Japan. In the following map, the epicenter was approximately 80 miles off the coast near