Twitter Global Pulse - The Japanese Earthquake

Twitter's visualisations show the flow of information (tweets) during major events; in this case the recent Japanese Earthquake.  There was a 500 percent increase in Tweets from Japan as people reached out to friends, family and loved ones in the moments after the earthquake.

The first clip shows the volume of @replies traveling in and out of Japan in a one-hour period just before and just after the recent earthquake.

Replies directed to users in Japan are shown in pink; messages directed at others from Japan are shown in yellow

The next clip shows the worldwide retweets of Tweets that originated in Japan, showing the spread of information from original Tweets through those who pass them on to others.

Senders’ original Tweets are shown in red; Tweets retweeted by their followers in the hour after the event are displayed in green.

 

Source - Twitter Blog