Japan Timeline: How The Disaster Unfolded

Here is a timeline of the major developments in the Japanese disaster from the earthquake and tsunami to nuclear plant explosions.

:: Friday March 11

At 5.46am GMT (2.46pm in Japan) a massive earthquake, it emerges later registered 9.0 on the Richter scale, triggers a huge tsunami which devastates Japan's eastern coastline, sweeping away entire towns and carrying ships and trucks miles inland.

In Tokyo - hundreds of miles from the quake - skyscrapers sway and terrified workers flee onto the streets.

More than 50 aftershocks follow - seven at least registering 6.3 on the Richter scale, the size of the quake which caused such devastation in New Zealand on February 22.

A state of emergency is declared at one of the country's nuclear power plants after the Fukushima reactor, around 30 miles inland from the north east coast, suffers a cooling system failure.

Around 3,000 people are evacuated from a six mile (10km) exclusion zone.

:: Saturday March 12

Japan's government launches a rescue mission mobilising thousands of troops, 300 planes and 40 ships amid fears more than a thousand people have died.

US military vessels and aircraft carriers are sent, along with relief teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.

Japan requests help from the UK.

There is an explosion at the Fukushima 1 nuclear plant.

Operators at the plant's Unit 1 detect eight times the normal radiation levels outside and 1,000 times normal inside its control room.

Japan's Government spokesman says the explosion that tore through the nuclear plant did not affect the reactor.

The death toll rises to at least 1,300 dead but thousands more are missing - including 10,000 from the coastal town of Minamisanriku.

:: Sunday March 13

Japan's nuclear safety agency says the cooling system of a third nuclear reactor at Fukushima 1 has failed - experts constantly monitor levels of radioactivity in the quarantined area.

Around 170,000 people are evacuated from a 12-mile radius around the Fukushima 1 nuclear plant.

A Government spokesman says the blast destroyed a building which housed a
nuclear reactor, but the reactor escaped unscathed.

Prime minister Naoto Kan appeals to Japanese citizens to unite in overcoming
what he says is the country's worst crisis since the Second World War.

Nuclear plant operators try to keep temperatures down in a series of reactors.

Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano warns a hydrogen explosion could occur at Unit 3 of the Fukushima 1 nuclear complex - the latest reactor to face a possible meltdown.

Mr Edano says the radiation released into the environment so far is so small it does not pose any health threats.

Japan's nuclear agency says up to 160 people were taken to hospital after possibly being exposed to radiation while waiting to be evacuated.

:: Monday March 14

A second hydrogen explosion is reported, this time at the Unit 3 reactor at the Fukushima plant. Six people are injured.

The US seventh fleet is temporarily moved away from the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant after helicopter crews carrying out relief work received the amount of radiation equal to one month's natural radiation from the sun, rocks or soil.

:: Tuesday March 15

Dangerous levels of radiation leak from the Fukushima plant after a third explosion believed to be in the number 2 reactor, and a fire, rock the complex.

In an televised statement after the blast, prime minister Kan urges those within 19 miles (30.5km) of the area to stay indoors.