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New Work Reinforces Megaquake's Harsh Lessons in Geoscience Richard A. Kerr High-tech analyses of Japan's March earthquake overturn long-held views of fault behavior and warn that another disaster may be looming. The moment the Tohoku-Oki earthquake struck off northern Japan on 11 March, many researchers knew their expectations had been shattered. The great offshore fault could not be counted on to behave at all predictably. And using onshore observations to gauge whether an offshore fault is building toward failure has grave limitations. Now three papers (http://scim.ag/MSimons, http://scim.ag/S-Ide, and http://scim.ag/M-Sato) published online this week in Science help show why the inevitable...

Concerns about Japan’s earthquake-induced nuclear-power shutdowns spread to another reactor at the Tokai No. 2 Power station, but authorities said a pump is keeping the reactor cool, according to reports early Monday. One of the two pumps used to cool the water of a suppression pool for the nuclear reactor at the Tokai plant stopped, but a second system is working, according to the English-language version of Kyodo News, which cited the nuclear safety section of the prefectural government. Japan Atomic Power said the reactor core at Tokai No. 2 Power station has been cooled, “without any problem,” Kyodo News...