With communications networks going down in Japan and across the Pacific in the wake of the horribly powerful earthquake and resulting tsunami, it’s Twitter and Facebook that many people are relying on to share information, contact loved ones or express prayers and thoughts around the unfolding catastrophe.

According to Tweet-o-Meter, the number of tweets per minute coming out of Tokyo has held at around the 1200 mark for the past few hours. News services are directly reporting tweets from people in the path of the disaster and well-wishers from around the world.

 The quake, reported by the BBC as being the most powerful ever recorded, has unleashed an international emergency that’s still unfolding as we speak.

With a wall of water reportedly up to ten meters high currently racing across the Pacific at around 500 miles an hour, tsunami warnings have been issued in the Philippines, Hawaii, the Pacific coast of Russia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and also Central and South America.

 Twitter users are using the hashtag #hitsunami to share information and warnings on when the wave might reach threatened areas.