Dr. Daniel McNamara, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, told The Huffington Post that the disaster left a gigantic rupture in the sea floor, 217-miles long and 50 miles wide. It also shifted Japan's coast by eight feet in some parts, though McNamara was quick to explain much of the coast likely didn't move as far.

McNamara found the way in which the quake actually sunk the elevation of the country's terrain to be more troublesome than coastal shifting. "You see cities still underwater; the reason is subsidence," he said. "The land actually dropped, so when the tsunami came in, it's just staying."

In the aftermath of the largest earthquake in Japan's history, scientists have scrambled to gather concrete data to quantify such a powerful tremor's effect on the Earth. But the numbers don't always add up. For example, McNamara pointed out that reports claiming the sea floor's rift measured 93 miles wide are incorrect.

Additionally, conflicting reports over whether and how far the enormous tremor shifted the Earth's axis have been circulating.

According to CNN, the earthquake moved the planet's axis approximately 4 inches, though other sources, like The Vancouver Sun and The Montreal Gazette, report the estimate even higher -- around 10 inches.