For a small indication of what the people in Japan have been enduring, take a gander at this chart of global seismic activity from the U.S. Geological Service. You can find the 9.0 quake that rocked the nation on March 11 at 05:46.
Fear and Trembling
The latest from america
In Venice, Pope Francis visits a Vatican-sponsored exhibition at a women’s prison, meets with inmates and presides at Mass.
Pope Francis wrote a letter of encouragement to parish priests, who were largely missing from the first synod session.
A Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, by Father Terrance Klein
Jesuit brothers of the world, unite!
And from the list on the linked page there seems to be a constant movement of the plates in the area of the original quake and a couple dozen or more of 6.0 quakes which were the size of the Christchurch quake since the 9.0 quake off the coast of Honshu. My guess is that we will learn a lot more about the effects of earthquakes and the potential damage depending upon the distance from the epi-center.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/beforeafter.htm