Then the tsunami and quake hit in northeastern Japan, in 2011, crippling production.
The quake hit about 100 miles east of Acapulco, the Pacific tourist resort.
The earthquake followed less than six hours after another quake hit the northern part of the country, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
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Friday, getting his land ready for planting, when the quake hit.
Houses collapsed and roads buckled when the quake hit, with much of the intensity concentrated in Lushan, a county just southwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu.
While the possible destruction of the latest, 7.4-magnitude quake that hit Japan on Thursday night is still to be assessed, markets reacted violently to the news.
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It has been suggested that as many as one million people could die in Tehran if there was a repeat of the last big quake to hit the capital, a tremor which killed 45, 000 in 1830.
Working in rolling 12-hour shifts, the British have been helping to sift through houses in quake-hit suburbs, as well as comb through the wreckage of the Pyne Gould Guinness Building, one of Christchurch's best-known office blocks.
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The global economy already had one heart attack which it survived and one earth quake has already hit.
The quake, which hit about 31 miles inland from the Pacific coast, wouldn't generate a destructive tsunami, but there was the possibility of some local tsunami effects, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
The site also has news feeds and maps showing shelter locations and areas hit by the quake.
In the early hours of April 6, a quake of 6.3 magnitude hit L'Aquila and its surroundings.
Our whole family is in Abbottabad which is one of the worst hit areas by the quake.
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But the plant was designed only to withstand a 7.0 quake, not the 9.0 that hit Japan.
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Friday's quake is the strongest earthquake in recorded history to hit Japan, according to U.S. Geologic Survey records.
In 2011, the Legislature authorized the study of what would happen if a quake and tsunami such as the one that devastated Japan hit the Pacific Northwest.
The quake comes just days after an earthquake of 4.2 magnitude hit the region, sending tremors in New Delhi.
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Buildings damaged by Wednesday's quake, which struck at about 1854 GMT and was the strongest to hit the state for 52 years, included the headquarters of coffee firm Starbucks.
This church has been hit by two giant earthquakes in the last 300 years but owing to its quake-resistant structure has remained intact.
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