The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku was a magnitude 9.0–9.1 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday 11 March 2011, with the epicenter 70 kilometers east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku and the hypocenter at an underwater depth of 29 km. The earthquake is referred to in Japan as the Great East Japan Earthquake and is known as the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, the Great Sendai Earthquake, the Great Tōhoku Earthquake, the 3.11 earthquake. It was the most powerful earthquake recorded in Japan, the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900; the earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5 meters in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture, which, in the Sendai area, traveled at 700 km/h for up to 10 km inland. Residents of Sendai had only eight to ten minutes of warning, more than 19,000 were killed, many at evacuation sites, more than a hundred of which washed away.

The earthquake moved Honshu 2.4 m east, shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of between 10 cm and 25 cm, increased earth's rotational speed by 1.8 µs per day, generated infrasound waves detected in perturbations of the low-orbiting GOCE satellite. The earthquake caused sinking of part of Honshu's Pacific coast by up to a metre, but after about three years, the coast rose back and kept on rising to exceed its original height; the tsunami swept the Japanese mainland and killed over ten thousand people through drowning, though blunt trauma caused many deaths. The latest report from the Japanese National Police Agency report confirms 15,899 deaths, 6,157 injured, 2,529 people missing across twenty prefectures, a report from 2015 indicated 228,863 people were still living away from their home in either temporary housing or due to permanent relocation. A report by the National Police Agency of Japan on 10 September 2018 listed 121,778 buildings as "total collapsed", with a further 280,926 buildings "half collapsed", another 699,180 buildings "partially damaged".

The earthquake and tsunami caused extensive and severe structural damage in north-eastern Japan, including heavy damage to roads and railways as well as fires in many areas, a dam collapse. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, "In the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan." Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million without water. The tsunami caused nuclear accidents the level 7 meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex, the associated evacuation zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents. Many electrical generators ran out of fuel; the loss of electrical power halted cooling systems. The heat build-up caused the generation of hydrogen gas. Without ventilation, gas accumulated within the reactor containment structures and exploded. Residents within a 20 km radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and a 10 km radius of the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated.

Early estimates placed insured losses from the earthquake alone at US$14.5 to $34.6 billion. The Bank of Japan offered ¥15 trillion to the banking system on 14 March in an effort to normalize market conditions; the World Bank's estimated economic cost was US$235 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in history. The 9.1-magnitude undersea megathrust earthquake occurred on 11 March 2011 at 14:46 JST in the north-western Pacific Ocean at a shallow depth of 32 km, with its epicenter 72 km east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku, lasting six minutes. The earthquake was reported as 7.9 Mw by the USGS before it was upgraded to 8.8 Mw to 8.9 Mw, finally to 9.0 Mw. On 11 July 2016, the USGS further upgraded the earthquake to 9.1. Sendai was the nearest major city to the earthquake, 130 km from the epicenter; the main earthquake was preceded by a number of large foreshocks, with hundreds of aftershocks reported. One of the first major foreshocks was a 7.2 Mw event on 9 March 40 km from the epicenter of the 11 March earthquake, with another three on the same day in excess of 6.0 Mw.

Following the main earthquake on 11 March, a 7.4 Mw aftershock was reported at 15:08 JST, succeeded by a 7.9 Mw at 15:15 JST and a 7.7 Mw at 15:26 JST. Over eight hundred aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 Mw or greater have occurred since the initial quake, including one on 26 October 2013 of magnitude 7.1 Mw. Aftershocks follow Omori's law, which states that the rate of aftershocks declines with the reciprocal of the time since the main quake; the aftershocks could continue for years. This megathrust earthquake was a recurrence of the mechanism of the earlier 869 Sanriku earthquake, estimated as having a magnitude of at least 8.4 Mw, which created a large tsunami that inundated the Sendai plain. Three tsunami deposits have been identified within the Holocene sequence of the plain, all formed within the last 3,000 years, suggesting an 800 to 1,100 year recurrence interval for large tsunamigenic earthquakes. In 2001 it was reckoned that there was a high likelihood of a large tsunami hitting the Sendai plain as more than 1,100 years had

Conus vautieri, common name Vautier's cone, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Conidae, the cone snails and their allies. Like all species within the genus Conus, these snails are venomous, they are capable of "stinging" humans, therefore live ones should be handled or not at all. Conus vautieri was named as a subspecies of Conus pulicarius Hwass in Bruguière, 1792, but has been recognized as a valid species, alternative representation in the genus Puncticulis; the size of the shell varies between 75 mm. The spire is tuberculate; the sides of the body whorl are nearly direct. The color of the shell is white, with chestnut spots, overlaid here and there by lighter chestnut clouds; this species occurs in the Pacific Ocean off the New Caledonia. Kiener L. C. 1844-1850. Spécies général et iconographie des coquilles vivantes. Vol. 2. Famille des Enroulées. Genre Cone, pp. 1-379, pl. 1-111. Paris, Rousseau & J. B. Baillière Puillandre, N.. F.. M.. "One, four or 100 genera? A new classification of the cone snails".

Journal of Molluscan Studies. 81: 1–23. Doi:10.1093/mollus/eyu055. PMC 4541476. PMID 26300576. To USNM Invertebrate Zoology Mollusca Collection To World Register of Marine Species Cone Shells - Knights of the Sea "Puncticulis pulicarius vautieri". Gastropods.com. Retrieved 16 January 2019

Paul Anthony Garbett is a chess International Master. Garbett has represented New Zealand in six Chess Olympiads between 1974 and 2012, his best result was in 1990 when he scored 5/11 on board 1. Garbett competed in the Asian Zonal Chess Championship in Melbourne 1975 and Kuala Lumpur 1990, he competed in the Oceania Chess Championship in 2000, 2005, 2009 and 2012. Garbett gained his International Master title when he scored 6.5/9, finished =2nd with Darryl Johansen, George Xie and Jonathan Humphrey, in the 2005 Oceania Zonal Chess Championship in Auckland. Garbett won or jointly won the New Zealand Chess Championship seven times in 1973/74, 1974/75, 1982/83, 1983/84, 1988/89, 2015 and 2020, he holds the record for the longest timespan between latest title. He jointly won the New Zealand Rapid Chess Championship in 2003/04 and in 2013, he has won the NZ Correspondence Chess Championship twice - in 1971 and 1982. Paul Anthony Garbett vs Vasilios Kotronias, Olympiad Novi Sad, Sicilian Defense: Richter-Rauzer Variation, 1-0