( Fast Company ) -- An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.9 hit Japan today , resulting in tsunami warnings for 20 countries , as well as California and Hawaii . Crisis mappers wasted no time responding : In under 2.5 hours Google launched its person finder application , which was also used when New Zealand 's 6.3 quake struck last month , and a local developer in Tokyo , Shu Sigashi , a member of the OpenStreetMap Foundation in Japan , quickly put up a localized Ushahidi crisis platform . Crisis mapping 's reach only goes as far as it is utilized , so the key now is getting the word out that online tools are available to help report the missing . Google 's person finder app is already rapidly increasing in usage . Within a couple hours 2,000 reports had been logged . If you type in the name , `` Yoshi , '' in Google 's app , results come up that indicate whether people with that name have been reported as alive or missing . Hawaii 's Pacific Disaster Center has updated tsunami warnings and an interactive map with information on the risks present on each island . The UN satellite monitoring group that teamed up with Google and George Clooney in Sudan could also be activated at the request of the Japanese government at any moment . `` We 're on standby basically , '' UNOSAT 's Lars Bromley tells Fast Company . `` The Japanese have a very good disaster satellite monitoring program run out of their space agency ( JAXA ) . We 'll assist if they request it . '' Copyright © 2010 FastCompany.com , a unit of Mansueto Ventures , LLC . All rights reserved .
An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.9 hit Japan today . It was centered in the Pacific Ocean about 50 miles off Japan's coast, and it struck at around 10:45 a.m. local time ( 11:40 p.m. ET ). Within a couple hours 2,000 reports had been logged .