The earthquake began off of the north-eastern coast of Honshu and caused catastrophic damage. The coastal areas were hammered by a “series of large tsunami waves that devastated many coastal areas of the country, most notably in the Tōhoku region (northeastern Honshu)”. (“Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011”, 1) According to Encyclopedia Britannica… The epicentre was located some 80 miles (130 km) east of the city of Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, and the focus occurred at a depth of 18.6 miles (about 30 km) below the floor of the western Pacific Ocean. The earthquake was caused by the rupture of a stretch of the subduction zone associated with the Japan Trench, which separates the Eurasian Plate from the subducting Pacific Plate. (Some geologists argue that this portion of the Eurasian Plate is actually a fragment of the North American Plate called the Okhotsk microplate.)
The earthquake’s strongest point lasted for around 8-10 minutes. The tsunami created a permanent rise in global sea level by at least 0.1mm and it caused an inactive volcano located in the Leuser Mountain, Indonesia to active. Did you know the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was caused by an earthquake that is thought to have had the energy of 23,000 atomic bombs. *Location* The tsunami was located in 15 different countries. The countries which were affected the most include Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
Movement in this fault zone resulted in the great Hanshin earthquake. A 30-50 km long rupture of a strike-slip fault occurred close to and under downtown Kobe. The eruption towards the north ruptured towards Kobe. The earthquake’s shallow depth of 16 km and close proximity to the built-up area meant that buildings and structures were subjected to much ground-shaking and soil liquefaction On Tuesday, January 17th 1995, at 5.46 am (local time), an unexpected earthquake of magnitude 7.2 on the Richter scale struck the Kobe region of south-central Japan, the shallow depth of the focus which was only about 16 kilometres below the surface and the fact that the epicentre occurred close to a very heavily populated area caused a great destruction. Seismic shockwaves travelled from Awaji Island (the epicentre) along the Nojima Fault to the cities of Kobe and Osaka.
The earthquake was particularly devastating because it had a shallow focus. The earthquake had a "strike-slip mechanism." The resulting surface rupture had an average horizontal displacement of about 1.5 meters on the Nojima fault. This fault which runs along the northwest shore of Awaji Island. DEATH TOLL The earthquake caused 5100 deaths, mainly in Kobe.
Cities are located near dangerous earthquake zones all throughout the country, from the most infamous on the West Coast to potential time bombs in the Midwest and even on the Eastern Seaboard. Stretching from northern Vancouver Island in Canada to northern California is the Cascadia subduction zone, where one giant plate of the Earth's surface is diving deep beneath another one. “The very largest earthquakes all occur on subduction zones”, said seismologist Geoffrey Abers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York. "These are also the faults that make very large tsunamis that propagate across ocean basins to cause a lot of damage.” This means that our home state, Washington, falls into that “at risk” category. The earthquake threat in Washington is
Up to 40.5 m (133 ft) in Miyako, Iwate, Tōhoku Landslides Yes Foreshocks 7 Aftershocks 1,235 Casualties 15,844 deaths,[4][5] 5,893 injured,[4][5] 3,394 people missing[4][5] The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku (東北地方太平洋沖地震, Tōhoku-chihō Taiheiyō Oki Jishin? ),[6] also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake,[7] or the Great East Japan Earthquake,[8][9][fn 1] was a magnitude 9.0 (Mw) undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on Friday, 11 March 2011,[2][3][10] with the epicenter approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku and the hypocenter at an underwater depth of approximately 32 km (20 mi). [2][11] It was the most powerful known earthquake ever to have hit Japan, and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. [10][12][13] The earthquake triggered powerful
2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami On Friday, 11 March, 2011, at 2:46PM local time in Japan, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck 45 miles off the east coast of the Oshika Peninsula of Tohoku, Japan. The nearest major city to the quake was Sendai, Honshu, Japan, 81 miles away. The earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 77 feet that struck Japan minutes after the quake, in some cases traveling up to 6 miles inland, with smaller waves reaching many other countries after several hours. The Japanese National Police Agency has officially confirmed 10,804 deaths, 2,776 injured and 16,244 people missing across eighteen prefectures, as well as over 125,000 buildings damaged or destroyed. Estimates of the Tohoku earthquake's magnitude make it the most powerful known earthquake to have hit Japan, and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world overall since modern record-keeping began in 1900.
The epicenter is located directly above the focus on the earth’s surface. After the fault splits, seismic waves which are produced of energy are released in all different directions. (United States Geological Survey USGS) Seen to the left are the epicenter, focus, and seismic waves. Smaller earthquakes that occur in the same location before the larger earthquake are called foreshocks. Unfortunately scientists aren’t able to tell if an earthquake is a foreshock until the larger earthquake occurs.
Geology The Loma Earthquake 1989 Name Course Date due An earthquake is a physical occurrence where vibrations are caused by underlying rocks that are breaking under a lot of stress. The rocks are situated under the earth’s crust and are mostly caused when two tectonic plates come together, and pressure is created along the fault lines. It is then released towards the earth’s surface resulting in an earthquake. In 1989, the Loma Earthquake occurred in the region of the Santa Cruz Mountains that caused a total number of 63 fatalities, 3,557 injured related cases. It also destroyed a lot of property which is estimated to be about $6 billion.
The 1993 southwest-off Hokkaido earthquake occurred at 22:17 on 12 July 1993 in the Sea of Japan near the island of Hokkaido. It had a magnitude of 7.7 on the moment magnitude scale (newer version of the Richter scale) and a maximum felt intensity of VIII on the Mercalli intensity scale. It triggered a major tsunami that caused deaths on Hokkaidō and in southeastern Russia, with a total of 239 fatalities recorded. The island of Okushiri was hardest hit, with 165 casualties from the earthquake, the tsunami and a large landslide. The earthquake occurred in the backarc region of the convergent boundary where the Pacific Plate subducted beneath the Eurasian Plate.