INTERACTIVE: Japan earthquake, then and now
(Click on the link to view the interactive presentation)
On March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m. local time, a magnitude 8.9 earthquake jolted the northeast coastal area of Japan.
The epicenter was in Oshika Peninsula of Tohoku.
But the largest devastation was wrought on Iwate Prefecture, devastated by tsunami waves that reached as high as 40 meters (133 feet).
It would turn out to be the strongest earthquake to hit Japan ever, more powerful than the Great Kanto earthquake that devastated Tokyo in 1923 or more recently, the Great Hanshin earthquake that shook the Kobe area in 1995.
The quake took more than 19,000 lives with total damages estimated at over US$122 billion.
Nearly a year later, a photographer of Agence France Presse (AFP) went back to the scenes where the original pictures of the quake were taken by AFP. Here, in an interactive format, is how the area looked like before and after.