It's no surprise that the news of Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan spread rapidly on Twitter, while live video feeds and blogs kept pace.
With unreliable cellphone service, social media is the only form of communication consistently available to people in Japan, says Brian Gillespie of Texas. He has reached out to friends in Japan through Twitter and Facebook. Mixi, Japan's largest social networking site, has also been used to located loved ones, he says.
Like Gillespie's friends, many in Japan are updating us on the country's status via the Internet. In addition, thousands of reporters and citizen journalists worldwide are distributing their knowledge of the situation on homepages and social streams.
Now, hours after the initial quake, information about the earthquake and tsunami abound. Here's a list of some of the best Japan earthquake resources online, as suggested by our readers.
What tools are you using to track the crisis? Let us know in the comments which ones we've missed.
Social Media
Twitter: Hashtags #Japan, #JPQuake, #JapanQuake, #PrayForJapan, #Tsunami and #TsunamiCharity; real-time Tweet map; Save Japan (updates in Japanese); and the UN's Must-Follow Twitterers
Facebook: Japan Earthquake page and Solidarity With the Victims of the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan 2011 page
YouTube: Japan Tsunami and CitizenTube videos
Flickr: Japan Earthquake photos and blog post
Reddit: IAmA Survivor
Live Video and Blogs
CNN: Live Blog
BBC: Live Coverage
NHK: Japan Live
Al Jazeera: Japan Live
Other Resources
Google: Crisis Response and Japan Person Finder (Mashable's coverage of these tools)
RSS: Japan Earthquake feed
Internet Radio: Tsunami news in your toolbar
Interactive Map: Japan Earthquake
Other Resource Lists: TV News Radio and SreeTips
Image courtesy of MapLarge.com