Two years after the fourth most-powerful earthquake ever recorded on this planet, we’re still learning amazing facts about the sheer power behind the 11 March 2011 disaster that devastated the northeast coast of Japan:  It was heard on the edge of space.

The magnitude 9.0 temblor sent a ripple up through the atmosphere that was picked up by the Goce satellite, 255 kilometers above the earth.  It’s the first time a satellite made such an observation.

The sound was so deep that the human ear can’t hear it.  But the Goce satellite picked it up twice, once over the Pacific Ocean and again reverberating across Europe.

The Goce satellite has hypersensitive equipment designed to detect the smallest changes of gravity across the earth.

The Great East Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011 leveled buildings across the coast of Tohoku, and generated a tsunami that ripped across the rubble, wiping entire cities off the map.  More than 15,000 people were killed.