Tohoku Tsunami, Japan

Tohoku Tsunami, Japan:

Background and geology:

• The earthquake occurred on March 11th 2011 and it measured a huge 9.0 on the Richter scale. The earthquake Occurred 100km east of Sendai on Honshu, Japan. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded to have hit Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900.

• In just 30 minutes a wall of water up to 40m high hit the coast of north-western Japan and this was followed in places by up to 9 additional ‘waves’ of up to 10m in height

• 3,000 km of coastline were affected by the waves

• The earthquake that triggered the tsunami occurred at the destructive plate margin where the Pacific plate is being subducted beneath the North American plate

• Scientists believe that a segment of rock, some 200km in length slipped suddenly resulting in an upwards ‘flick’ of the earth’s crust by between 5-10cm.

• It was this sudden uplift that triggered the tsunami and displaced a large body of water upward which spread and caused the huge tsunami to take place.

Effects:

• Over 20,000 people were killed by waves that swept up to 10km onshore. The high death toll was due to the power of the surge of water which overtopped tsunami defences and flooded areas thought to be safe from tsunami

• 6,152 injured

• 2,562 people missing across twenty prefectures

• 228,863 people living away from their home in either temporary housing or due to permanent relocation.

• concerns about nuclear contamination and the possibility of a meltdown as the cooling systems failed to operate

• Electricity was cut off in almost six million homes and over one

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