A thick layer of slippery clay on the ocean floor may have formed the weak spot that enabled a magnitude 9.1 quake to make such a devastating tsunami.

Researchers onboard the deep sea scientific drilling vessel Chikyu sailed to the Japan Trench to drill up to 7,906 metres beneath the seafloor. Credit: JAMSTEC/IODP. A thin, soft and slippery layer of ...

New findings published in the journal Science help explain why the 2011 earthquake off the coast of Japan created such a large tsunami. An international team of geologists and geophysicists drilled ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The 2011 earthquake — the ...