This is an analysis on what is known to be the largest earthquake and biggest tsunami ever to hit Japan on March 11, 2011. The earthquake and tsunami Japans coast lies in ruins after the earthquake hit followed by the tsunami picking up everything in its path like cars, houses, and warehouses. Seismometers, strain gages, and title gages records the disaster. P-waves travel at four miles a second and within seconds warnings flash across the country. The S-waves shake the ground making earthquakes so damaging and the reactor core is shut down (Kerger, 2011.
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.)
A tsunami warning was given 5 minutes after the earthquake by the Japanese Meteorological Agency. However, this was too late for the inhabitants of Okushiri. The quake caused fires to start in the town of Okushiri, adding greatly to the total damage. Parts of Okushiri Island were protected by concrete sea walls up to 4.5 metres high, designed to deflect the power of tsunami waves. However, the tsunami of 1993 broke through the walls.
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
DEATH TOLL The earthquake caused 5100 deaths, mainly in Kobe. The Hanshin earthquake was the worst earthquake in Japan since the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, which is also called the Great Kanto earthquake. The Great Kanto earthquake claimed 140,000 lives. On the other hand, the Kobe region was thought to be fairly safe in terms of seismic activity. STRUCTURAL DAMAGE The cities of Kobe and Osaka are connected by an elevated highway.
JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI AND IT’S IMPACT ON THE REGION INTRODUCTION 1. On 11 March 2011 Japanese off coast was hit by undersea mega thrust earthquake named “The Great East Japan Earthquake” having the magnitude 9.0 (Mw) with the epicentre approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku. It was 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 earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 38.9 metres (128 ft) that struck Japan, in some cases traveling up to 10 km (6 mi) inland. In addition to loss of life and destruction of infrastructure, the tsunami caused a number of nuclear accidents and the associated evacuation zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents.
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.
It also destroyed a lot of property which is estimated to be about $6 billion. This is the biggest earthquake ever to occur and recorded along the fault lines of San Andreas from the previous massive earthquake back in April of 1906. Most of the property devastation that was caused by the earthquake happened in the Oakland and also in San Francisco areas that were about 100 kilometers northwards from the fault line where the section moved in the San Andreas region. A lot of houses collapsed while several reinforced –concrete viaducts were destroyed in four areas of Oakland and also San Francisco. The areas namely: Embarcadero Freeway, Nimitz Freeway, which is in Highway 10, Oakland and the Interstate 280.
The Eastern Japan quake was caused by a 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan at 2.46 p.m on the 11th March 2011 (Friday). The epicenter was 72 kilometers east of the Peninsula of Tohoku at a depth of 32km. The earthquake triggered large destructive Tsunami waves of more than 10 meters that struck Japan quickly and travelled up to 10 km inland. Small Tsunami waves reached other countries as well like Hawaii after few hours. This tragedy has left more than 11,000 people dead with more than 15,000 people missing.
The Chernobyl accident that took place in 1986 is worst ever nuclear disaster faced by mankind. The accident that took place on April, 1986 is the result of a flawed reactor design and incompetent personals that were not properly trained. As a result of the accident, extremely harmful and toxic radioactive elements were released into the environment, the fallout of which is felt even to this day. The accident had tremendous health, economic, social and environmental consequences and it severely affected the lives of a huge section of population in the countries of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. The main radioactive elements that cause maximum damage to the affected population were iodine-131 and caesium-137.