The YouTube video belows shows a time lapse of all of the earthquakes that occurred between March 9 and March 14 off the coast of Japan. The action begins to increase after about 15 seconds and the “big one” occurs at one minute and 17 seconds into the animation. After that, the map lights up with activity through the end of the animation. The tectonic flurry is jaw-dropping.
Hat tip to NOAA’s Justin Kenney (@JustinNOAA on Twitter), who refers to this as a “Swarm Google Earth Animation”