The awesome power unleashed upon the east coast of Japan last month is a stark reminder of the challenge engineers face trying to tame 'mother nature'. Even the most sophisticated warning systems and robust construction could not save the lives of the tens of thousands that perished in the earthquake and resulting tsunami on 11 and 12 March. Earthquakes are a way of life in Japan. Major earthquakes occur every couple of weeks and minor tremors can be detected daily. But as Professor Osamu Kiyomiya of waseda University, Tokyo writes on page 12, the 9.0 magnitude earthquake went beyond seismologists' forecasts and past anything engineers had prepared for.
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