The Great Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011 On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Japan and sent a thirty-three foot tsunami raging down the coast to devastate their towns even further. To make matters even worse, the earthquake also triggered a nuclear emergency that has been compared to the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. (McCurry, 1) This earthquake was the worst earthquake in Japan’s recorded history. (McCurry, 1) It would not be surprising if people will still talk about it for centuries to come. The earthquake began off of the north-eastern coast of Honshu and caused catastrophic damage.
This earthquake is remembered as one of the most destructive natural disasters next to the Galveston hurricane of 1900, and hurricane Katrina of 2005. The death toll is believed to have soared past the 3000+ casualty mark. San Francisco was the 9th largest city in the US, and the largest city on the west coast. Over the years San Francisco had become a financial, trade powerhouse and was even referred to as “gateway to the pacific” because they had the busiest port on the West coast. The initial impact was devastating which left about 300,000 people homeless out of a population of about 410,000.
The shifting of the earth’s plates in the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, 2004 caused a rupture more than 600 miles long, displacing the seafloor above the rupture by perhaps 10 yards horizontally and several yards vertically. As a result, trillions of tons of rock were moved along hundreds of miles and caused the planet to shudder with the largest magnitude earthquake in 40 years. Within hours of the earthquake, killer waves radiating from the epicentre slammed into the coastline of 11 Indian Ocean countries, damaging countries from east Africa to Thailand. A tsunami is a series of waves, and the first wave may not be the most dangerous. A tsunami “wave train” may come as surges five minutes to an hour apart.
DEMONSTRATE UNDERSTANDING OF A SIGNIFICANT EVENT IN THE CLASSICAL WORLD In the year 79 AD, a mountain in Italy called Mount Vesuvius erupted, the eruption is one of the most catastrophic and famous of all time. Surrounding Roman cites; Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were two densely populated towns located in the Bay of Naples were obliterated by the eruption. It is not known how many people the eruption killed. LOCATION OF THE AREAS AFFECTED BY THE ERUPTON This map shows the cities surrounding Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii, Stabiae, Oplontis and Herculaneum which were all destroyed during the eruption. This map also shows the area of the smoke plume from the eruption.
I shall use examples of the Kobe Earthquake 1995, Boxing Day Tsunami 2004 and the Haiti Earthquake 2010. The earthquake of 2004 was caused by subduction of the Australian plate and the Eurasian Plate ,a 15-20m slip occurred along the fault line which then caused an earthquake measuring a 9.1 on the Richter scale. This a very high recording on the Richter scale so therefore it would always cause devastating hazards , but human factors could be seen as making the impacts far worse. The earthquake in the ocean had caused a tsunami to occur within the Indian Ocean. The wave reached up to 30 metres high causing devastation to the 13 countries surrounding the ocean.
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’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.
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 Fukushima I, Fukushima II, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant and Tokai nuclear power stations, consisting of a total eleven reactors, were automatically shut down following the earthquake. Japan's government said the cost of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeast could reach $309 billion, making it the world's most expensive natural disaster on record. According to the chief scientist for the Multi-Hazards project at the U.S. Geological Survey, the fact that the Tohoku earthquake took place in Japan—a country with "the best seismic information in the world"—meant that large amounts of data were collected for an earthquake of this type and severity. Japan specifically requested teams from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United States; it also requested, via its space agency JAXA, the activation of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, allowing diverse satellite imagery of affected regions to be
DISASTER | BACKGROUND | SHORT TERM SOCIAL | LONG TERM SOCIAL | SHORT TERM ECONOMIC | LONG TERM ECONOMIC | SHORT TERM PHYSICAL | LONG TERM PHYSICAL | IMMEDIATE RESPONSE | LONG TERM RESPONSE | Mount Nyiragongo Volcanic Eruption 2002 | * Active stratovolcano in East African Rift DRC * 3470m high with 2km wide crater and lava lake inside * Proximal to towns of Goma & Lake Kivu * Eruption 17 Jan 2002 * Several months before was increase in seismic and fumarolic activity. Many stayed near site due to lack of education * 13 km fissure south side * UN scientists lead 400000 evac | * Goma split into 2 by lava flows * 4500 (40%) buildings destroyed * 120000 homeless * 14 villages destroyed * 2 hospitals destroyed | * 400000 fled, over half to Rwandan border * Looting in Goma after people left * Cholera outbreak at refugee camp as no clean water or electricity * Death toll: 147 * Water treatment plant destroyed not helping | * Lava crossed the runway at Goma meaning airport was unusable * Destruction of crops was bad for local economy as only real mean of income * 80% of economic area destroyed | * Attracts more volcanologists to the area and adding a tiny amount of money to local economy. Most stay enclosed within labs and round the volcano | * Land around volcano was ruined – a fifth of Goma | * Formation of a lava lake within the crater with constant eruptions now | * The destruction of the runway meant no big aircrafts could deliver aid * UN supplied 220 tonnes of aid to refugees * Poor infrastructure meant aid could not make it to most vulnerable * Fears of endemics like cholera and diarrhoea just avoided * Goma volcano Observation was updated with help from international community hopefully reducing the chance of a repeat event | Mount St Helens Volcanic Eruption 1980 | * Active stratovolcano in
‘How do people and society respond to environmental hazards and what factors influence their choice of adjustments?’ (Cutter 1996). Discuss this statement with reference to examples of both natural and technological hazards. Introduction Environmental hazards fall under two headings: Chronic and Catastrophic. Catastrophic hazards are those with a high magnitude and low frequency. They create huge media attention as the rate of change from what would have been considered as ‘normal’ conditions is very high, for example an earthquake can turn an entire city to ruins and kill hundreds of people in just minutes.