Tokyo - A high level of radioactive iodine has been detected in seawater near Japan's troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The facility was hit by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Saturday that iodine 131 in excess of 1,250 times regulated standards was found in seawater collected 330 meters south of a plant water outlet at 8:30 AM on Friday.

The agency says there is no immediate threat to people within the 20-kilometer evacuation zone. The agency adds that as seawater is dispersed by ocean currents, the contamination level will decline.

200,000 EVACUEES IN SHELTERS

Two weeks after the massive earthquake and tsunami, more than 200,000 survivors are taking refuge in emergency shelters located mainly in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures.

More than 30,000, have relocated to other prefectures. Most of them are from Fukushima, where the quake-stricken nuclear power plant is located.

The numbers were obtained by NHK from municipalities and prefectures as of Friday.

Most evacuees are concentrated in Miyagi Prefecture. 655 emergency shelters in the area are accommodating over 88,000 people. In Iwate Prefecture, over 380 shelters are housing nearly 44,000 evacuees.

The official death toll has surpassed 10,000.

INUNDATION ZONE MAPPED

The area affected by the massive Tsunami along the coastline of eastern Japan extends as far as 200 square miles, according to satellite image data.

Pasco, a geospatial company in Tokyo, analyzed satellite images of coastline stretching from Aomori to Ibaraki Prefectures. Seventy percent of the region is still underwater.

FAULT LINE SHIFTED UP TO 100 FEET

Japan's Meteorological Agency says the recent March 11th earthquake occurred due to a fault line shift of up to 100 feet.

The agency said at a news conference on Friday that it discovered this while analyzing how the quake occurred based on seismometer data it obtained in Japan and abroad. The findings show the breakdown of the fault started in waters off Miyagi Prefecture. Immediately after that, about 100 kilometers of the southern part of the fault line moved toward waters off Ibaraki Prefecture.

All this shows that the fault line shifted a distance of up to 100 in just 3 minutes. This caused the massive quake with a magnitude of 9.0 and a tsunami 35 feet high. . (Source: NHK television)

Story Date: March 27, 2011