How do scientists use the knowledge of radioactive dating

-Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution What has been released from the Fukushima reactors and how dangerous is it?

But this "fingerprint" provided by cesium-134 is rapidly fading.

In addition to the tragic toll of dead, injured, and displaced people, the earthquake and tsunamis badly damaged the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, eventually causing four of the six reactors there to release radiation into the atmosphere and ocean.

I began my career in oceanography by studying the spread of radionuclides from Chernobyl in the Black Sea.

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake—one of the largest ever recorded—occurred 80 miles off the coast of Japan.

The earthquake created a series of tsunamis, the largest estimated to be over 100 feet, that swept ashore.