The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was half a mile deep. Shaking was felt at the White House and all over the East Coast, as far south as Chapel Hill, N.C. Parts of the Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

It was centered near Louisa, Va., which is northwest of Richmond and south of Washington.

Obama and many of the nation's leaders were out of town on August vacation when the quake struck at 1:51 p.m. EDT. The shaking was felt on the Martha's Vineyard golf course as Obama was just starting a round.

The East Coast gets earthquakes, but usually smaller ones and is less prepared than California or Alaska for shaking.

At Reagan National Airport outside Washington, ceiling tiles fell during a few seconds of shaking. Authorities announced it was an earthquake and all flights were put on hold.

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With one tap on the cracked glass of the front window, any passerby could have walked off with enough alcohol to drown out the deprivations of post-quake life. The Japanese do like their booze; they even sell it in sidewalk vending machines. But no one ever touched that liquor store window. To do so would have broken the rules -- and to the Japanese, not even the violent overthrow of the rules of nature could justify deviating from social norms.

As you try to understand what life might be like in Japan right now, keep those untouched liquor bottles in mind. Disasters strip human nature to its essence, but they also reveal the ways that cultures differ. In the face of triple tragedy -- quake, tsunami, nuclear threat -- too many commentators seem to assume everyone reacts to adversity with the impatience of us average Americans.

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The first, measuring 6.2 in magnitude, struck Tuesday night off the coast of Fukushima prefecture, 200 miles (325 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo and near where a massive quake hit last week.

Three minutes later, a second 6.0-magnitude quake rumbled under Shizuoka prefecture, 55 miles (90 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo.

Friday's huge temblor spawned a tsunami that wreaked havoc along Japan's northeastern coast, and officials believe it killed more than 10,000 people.

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Hidehiko Nishiyama of the economy ministry that oversees nuclear safety told reporters Tuesday that "we cannot deny the possibility of water boiling" in the pool.

Nishiyama sought to avoid commenting on the potential risks from the rising temperatures caused by a failure of systems required to keep the spent fuel rods cool. He said the plant's operator is considering what to do about the problem.

Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors Tuesday after an explosion and a fire dramatically escalated the crisis spawned by a deadly tsunami.

In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation has spread from four reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima state, one of the hardest-hit in Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that has killed more than 10,000 people, plunged millions into misery and pummeled the world's third-largest economy.

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Osaka fire department spokesman Yuko Kotani says the woman was found inside her house that was washed away by the tsunami in northeastern Japan's Iwate prefecture. The rescuers from Osaka, in western Japan, were sent to the area for disaster relief.

Kotani said the woman was conscious but suffering from hypothermia and is being treated at a hospital. She would not give the woman's name.

Her rescue was a rare bit of news for Japanese traumatized by the disaster.

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So far, there are nine nuclear reactors at three sites in Japan that are under states of emergency -- three at Fukushima Dai-ichi, three at Fukushima Daini and three at Onagawa. All are northeast of Tokyo and all are boiling water reactors.

Here's what is known about each:

-- Dai-ichi Unit 1: Some uranium pellets in the fuel core have already melted. Workers trying to prevent total meltdown, released steam in attempt to lower pressure in reactor vessel. Led to hydrogen explosion that blew away much of the containment building. Reactor vessel said to be intact. Regular cooling methods have failed; large amounts of seawater being pumped into reactor vessel to try cooling the severely overheated uranium core. Offsite radiation has been reported.

-- Dai-ichi Unit 2: Ability to cool unit has been lost. Officials say fuel rods have been fully exposed, at least twice. An attempt to channel seawater into the reactor failed due to stuck rod, so officials were trying to spray cool water on the top of the reactor vessel. Explosion occurred early Tuesday at this reactor. Partial fuel melt believed to have already occurred.

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However, that hasn't stopped many from speculating after two major earthquakes occurred on Pacific coastal areas in recent weeks (Christchurch, New Zealand, suffered a 6.3-magnitude quake on Feb. 22) and a third, devastating tremor struck last year (Chile's 8.8-magnitude quake on Feb. 27, 2010). Foremost among those sounding the alarms is Simon Winchester, an author and journalist, who appeared on the CNN this morning.

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Will explosions at a tsunami-stricken Japanese nuclear plant halt what has come to be known as the nuclear renaissance?

Fears about nuclear safety that took a generation to overcome after the accidents at Chernobyl and Three-Mile Island are resurfacing around the globe. They are casting new doubt on a controversial energy source that has seen a resurgence in recent years, amid worries over volatile oil prices and global warming.

"Europe has to wake up from its Sleeping Beauty slumber" about nuclear safety, Austria's Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich told reporters in Brussels. He suggested an EU-wide stress test for nuclear plants, much like European banks have been tested for their ability to cope with financial shocks.

Yet some experts and officials say those fears are overblown, given the exceptional nature of Japan's earthquake and ensuing tsunami. The Japanese blasts may slow the push for more nuclear plants, but appear unlikely to stop it, given the world's fast-growing energy needs.

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Except not really.

Sure, I get certain, if somewhat silly questions all the time:

What happens if an earthquake strikes just as a plane is landing or taking off?

Aircraft landing gear are designed to withstand some pretty severe jolts, but it would depend on the strength of the shaking and the speed of the plane. And better to have this happen during landing, when the idea is to stay on the ground and decelerate, rather than on takeoff, when you’re accelerating and attempting to fly. A high-speed upset on takeoff could be very dangerous, especially if the runway begins to buckle or the plane is knocked side to side and manages to smash a wingtip or an engine. (Note: The shaking of a 7.0 temblor is roughly equivalent to one of the author's normal landings, so nothing new there.)

But what if the runway were to fracture or split apart?

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Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who has spent years pushing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission toward stricter enforcement of its safety rules, has called for a reassessment. Several U.S. reactors lie on or near fault lines, and Markey wants to beef up standards for new and existing plants.

"This disaster serves to highlight both the fragility of nuclear power plants and the potential consequences associated with a radiological release caused by earthquake related damage," Markey wrote NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko in a March 11 letter.

Specifically, Markey raised questions about a reactor design the NRC is reviewing for new plants that has been criticized for seismic vulnerability. The NRC has yet to make a call on the AP1000 reactor, which is manufactured by Westinghouse. But according to Markey, a senior NRC engineer has said the reactor’s concrete shield building could shatter "like a glass cup" under heavy stress.

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The tsunami that devastated Japan's coast rolled in through a tree-lined ocean cove and obliterated nearly everything in its path in this village of about 250 people and 70 or so houses.

Now, three days later, Saito is a moonscape of death and debris, a hellish glimpse into the phenomenal destruction caused by the killer wave that followed Japan's most powerful earthquake on record and one of the five strongest on Earth in the past 110 years.

In Saito and nearby areas, there is no electricity, no running water. There are no generators humming. The night is pitch black. The buildings still standing are closed. No stores are open. Everything has stopped.

"There is nothing left," villager Toshio Abe told The Associated Press on Monday as firefighters in bright orange and yellow emergency suits hacked through the vast wasteland with pickaxes, searching not for survivors but for the dead. Abe said at least 40 of Saito's people were dead or unaccounted for.

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Kudlow later apologized, saying he had "flubbed" his line. Oops. Maybe he would have been better served by a moment of a silence. As the death toll mounts in Japan and nuclear power plants teeter on the edge of meltdown, worrying about what's going to happen to GDP growth rates -- in Japan, the U.S. or globally -- shouldn't be a high priority.

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Developments elsewhere were more muted -- an indication that investors think the costs facing Japan may not spill over significantly. In Europe, sentiment was partly supported by the weekend agreement of a broad package of measures to ease the government debt crisis that has already forced Greece and Ireland into seeking bailouts.

However, most attention was centered on Japan, and how the world's third-largest economy is dealing with the catastrophic events of last Friday. Financially, the situation is made even more difficult by the fact that Japan's debt stands at around 200 percent of its national income and its economic recovery came to a grinding halt in the last three months of 2010.

The Bank of Japan was quick off the mark Monday, injecting a record 15 trillion yen ($183.8 billion) into money markets to try to defend the already fragile economy. By flooding the banking system with cash, the central bank hopes banks will continue lending money and meet the likely surge in demand for post-earthquake funds.

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Water levels were restored after the first decrease but the rods remained exposed late Monday night after the second episode, increasing the risk of the spread of radiation and the potential for an eventual meltdown.

The cascading troubles in the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant compounded the immense challenges faced by the Tokyo government, already struggling to send relief to hundreds of thousands of people along the country's quake- and tsunami-ravaged coast where at least 10,000 people are believed to have died.

Later, a top Japanese official said the fuel rods in all three of the most troubled nuclear reactors appeared to be melting.

Of all these troubles, the drop in water levels at Unit 2 had officials the most worried.

"Units 1 and 3 are at least somewhat stabilized for the time being," said Nuclear and Industrial Agency official Ryohei Shiomi "Unit 2 now requires all our effort and attention."

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Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Monday: "Although we cannot directly check it, it's highly likely happening."

Some experts would consider that a partial meltdown of the reactor. Others, though, reserve that term for times when nuclear fuel melts through a reactor's innermost chamber but not through the outer containment shell.

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Navy Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. 7th Fleet, said Monday that the Navy is committed to continuing the operation to help the Japanese after last week's earthquake and tsunami. But he says officials had to figure out how to continue safely after airborne radiation was detected Sunday by the carrier USS Ronald Reagan and on a helicopter crew returning to the ship from search and rescue operations.

By moving the ships in the carrier group out of the downwind path of the power plant, Davis says the navy can continue with less risk to Americans participating.

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The exposure happened at Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant -- the latest reactor to lose its ability to cool down. The other two reactors at the plant are facing a meltdown and authorities are racing to cool them with sea water.

Tokyo Electric Power said Monday sea water is being channeled into Unit 2. It did not know if the rods were covered yet.

Their exposure raises the risk of the reactor overheating, which can lead to meltdown.

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Millions of people were facing a fourth night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures in the devastated northeast. Meanwhile, a third reactor at a nuclear power plant lost its cooling capacity, raising fears of a meltdown, while the stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses by Japanese industries including big names such as Toyota and Honda.

A Japanese police official said 1,000 washed up bodies were found scattered Monday across the coastline of Miyagi prefecture. The official declined to be named, citing department policy.

The discovery raised the official death toll to about 2,800 but the Miyagi police chief has said that more than 10,000 people are estimated to have died in his province alone, which has a population of 2.3 million.

In one town in a neighboring prefecture, the crematorium was unable to handle the crush of bodies being brought in for funerals.

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The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) offshore when it detected the radiation, which U.S. officials said was about the same as one month's normal exposure to natural background radiation in the environment.

It was not clear if the leak happened during Monday's explosion. That blast was felt 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, but the plant's operator said radiation levels at the reactor were still within legal limits.

The explosion at the plant's Unit 3, which authorities have been trying to cool with sea water after a system failure in the wake of Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami, triggered an order for hundreds of people to stay indoors, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. The two disasters left at least 10,000 people dead.

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• Apple has set up a page in its iTunes store where users can donate to relief efforts in increments of $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 and $200. All proceeds go to the American Red Cross.
• Donors who want to give directly to the American Red Cross can do so at its website, or by texting "redcross" to 90999 to make a $10 gift. The organization is assisting the Japanese Red Cross, and providing shelter to those displaced by the tsunami in American regions such as Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest.
• Lady Gaga sent out a tweet yesterday announcing she's designed a "We Pray For Japan" wristband, available for sale on her website. 100 percent of proceeds go directly to Japan relief.
• Zynga, the maker of the hugely popular Facebook game Farmville, is soliciting donations in all of its games. All proceeds go to Save the Children's "Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children in Emergency Fund."
• Individuals who also want to give directly to Save the Children's relief efforts can do so at their website.
• Doctors Without Borders is sending three-person teams to those areas most adversely effected by the disaster. Donations are accepted at the NGO's website. 
• International Medical Corps provides training and health care and medical assistance to local populations in need. The organization has already sent a response team to Japan, and is mobilizing supplies and coordinating with partners in the country to help as need be. You can donate at its website or by texting "MED" to 80888.
• The Salvation Army is accepting donations from their website, via telephone (1-800-SAL-ARMY) or via text message by sending "Japan" or "Quake" to 80888 to make a $10 donation. The group is sending a team to Japan to provide nourishment, aid and assistance
• Individuals can contribute to AmeriCares using a form on its website. The non-profit says its team is mobilizing resources for the relief effort and sending a relief expert with experience mitigating the impact of last year's Chile earthquake to the scene.

If ever in doubt about a charity, you can check out a list of helpful tips and ratings at Charity Navigator. 

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