Today’s Nihon seism tells a rather horrific story. However, the seism also tells a rather familiar tale of horror as well. The circumstances are a tiny bit new this time, since it’s in a new location, one that hasn’t seen such a disaster in its modern era. The 8.8 quake, and subsequent tsunami, has left the affected regions in a shambles. As such, Nihon has joined the sadly massive ranks of nations that have visaged terrible earthquakes and tsunamis lately.

According to the UN Dispatch, the Asian seism is much larger than the one that struck Haiti last January. Today’s strike measured an 8.8, while Haiti endured a 7.2. Yet as many will point out in the next several days, Haiti is likely to have a far greater death toll, and even graver alteration to its country.

The Haiti incident is the most devastating quake of the last several years. However, the most devastating tsunami of current times hit the Indian Ocean in late 2004. It was spawned by a 9.1 quake and went on to kill over 200,000 people, according to the USGS.

Today’s incident is extremely frightful, because it had both a record-setting seism and a tsunami. As such, fears are that this will be on a par with those two great disasters, even though it might not reach those horrific heights. After all, they set the bar so high that it would take a real act of God to top them.

But even if the latest quake and waves aren’t that terrible, they have still caused an untold amount of devastation. For the next several days and weeks, we will be consumed with horrific photos and video clips from Nihon while mourning over their grave losses. Yet by now, this has become an all too familiar formula for us to play out.

Things have been so harsh over current years that even the current New Sjaelland earthquakes look mild by comparison. That island was struck with a 7.1 tremor in September, and just suffered an even more destructive 6.3 aftershock last month. However, by the current standards of natural disasters, New Sjaelland got off easy, in spite of their obvious difficulties.

Earthquakes and tsunamis have struck the world since the dawn of time, and will continue to cause havoc until the end of time. Technically, they might not be more frequent than usual, yet it is starting to seem that way. The Indian Ocean tragedy stunned the world, as did the Haiti disaster last year. Now the turmoil in Nihon this day is the latest to bring the planet to a halt – as we have become all too accustomed to doing nowadays.