and then a nuclear meltdown.

Bells rang all across Japan... at 2:46 p.m. local time, the exact moment the 9-point-oh

quake was detected. People across the country took a moment of

silence... bowed their heads as a mark of respect for the nearly 20-thousand people

who died that day. The Japanese government also marked the fifth

anniversary in a national ceremony along with residents from the affected regions.

On March 11th, 2011 the powerful offshore earthquake spawned a monster tsunami... along

the country's northeastern coast and sparked the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl

in 1986.