This week's Seafloor Sunday shows the eastern coast of Japan and westernmost Pacific Ocean, highlighting Sendai, which was one of the hardest hit areas for the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The seafloor topography, called bathymetry, is highly vertically exaggerated here. Note the deep trench adjacent to the northern part of Japan where the Pacific oceanic plate is subducting underneath the volcanic arc of Japan.
This post from Chris Rowan on Scientific American has some great information if you want to learn more about the tectonic setting of this earthquake.
Image: NOAA / global bathymetry data
