Former Chief Scientist, National Ocean Service at NOAA, Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter. (If the fuel tanks and diesel engines had simply been put on higher floors in the nuclear reactor buildings, which withstood the force of the tsunami, or the sea wall had been higher, there would have been no nuclear accident.). ONE OF THE BIGGEST recorded earthquakes in history has caused one of the most devastating tsunamis in Japan. In addition the tsunami precipitated multiple hydrogen explosions and nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced the strongest earthquakein its recorded history. It is a story that demonstrates the critical importance of disaster preparedness in saving lives, especially for tsunamis, which are unpredictable. You care. (Tsunami models did an excellent job of predicting when the tsunami would hit Hawaii or California, hours after the earthquake.) East of Japan, the Pacific plate dives beneath the overriding Eurasian plate. Equally unbelievable, the diesel engines inside the buildings had also been placed at ground level and in the basement below, and the tsunami submerged them. It's a common misconception that Tsunamis are hundreds of feet tall, when in fact the devastating force lies in the energy created by an unseen force rather than the height of the series of waves. When the earthquake severed the connection between the nuclear power plant and the Japan electrical grid, the diesel backup system turned on as it was supposed to. This works fine for warning people living along coast far from the epicenter of the submarine earthquake. The 9.0 Richter magnitude earthquake and the resulting tsunami have provoked the largest crisis that Japan has encountered since the end of World War II. But most deaths occur on the coast closest to the epicenter. In this post, Dr. Parker provides a short summary of the reasons why so many people died. With so little time to try to escape, tsunami preparedness becomes the most important thing in saving lives. You’re unstoppable. Aftershocks continued, many exceeding magnitude-7.0. Photograph: NOAA/EPA. There is, however, very little cost associated with designating safe evacuation areas. The release of energy along the subduction zone between the Pacific and North Atlantic plates will transfer stress to other parts of the faultline, which could easily generate more earthquakes in the region in coming months. About 40 percent of the coast of Japan has sea walls, but unfortunately they had not been built high enough and they failed to protect the people on March 11. It would have been much more expensive to build them high enough to handle a worst-case scenario, which the March 11 tsunami was, produced by a 9.0 earthquake, the fifth largest in modern history. Nine years ago this week the island nation of Japan suffered the devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The key questions on the Japanese quake answered, A map provided by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the predicted travel times of the tsunami. How quickly were they issued, and how much time did the Japanese have to react? Today is National Voter Registration Day! Some countries may experience waves up to 2 metres, according to PTWC forecasts. ©2021 Verizon Media. Obviously the sheer power of the quake helps explain why the tsunami was so devastating… That Japan was not adequately prepared for the tsunami that hit the northeastern Honshu coast on March 11, 2011, first became apparent at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. [This question is answered in "The Unpredictable and the Unprepared," a new chapter added to the just-released paperback edition of The Power of the Sea: Tsunamis, Storm Surges, Rogue Waves, and Our Quest to Predict Disasters by Bruce Parker, former chief scientist of the National Ocean Service in NOAA and presently a visiting professor at the Center for Maritime Systems, Steven Institute of Technology. TOKYO Rescuers struggled to reach survivors on Saturday morning as Japan reeled after an earthquake and a tsunami struck in deadly tandem. On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 earthquake occurred, this time near the east coast of Honshu, Japan. The tsunami also led to a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, resulting in the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl—with long-term effects that are still up for debate. The 2011 Japan Tsunami Was Caused By Largest Fault Slip Ever Recorded Clay lubricated the fault zone in the Japan trench, producing the devastating tsunami, researchers say. Like the 2004 underwater earthquake, this too unleashed a massive tsunami. As the tsunami spread across the Pacific, the wave height dropped to around 40cm in Guam and the nearby Marianas. 30,000+To anyone visiting the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, there is a poignant reminder … Although there had been many recent earthquakes, there had not been a deadly large tsunami since 1933. This was critical, because those generators provided the electrical energy needed to continue the operation of the cooling system, without which there would be a nuclear meltdown. The Kobe earthquake in 1995 was a magnitude 6.9 and caused more than 5,000 deaths and injured 36,000 others. The tremors were the result of a violent uplift of the sea floor 80 miles off the coast of Sendai, where the Pacific tectonic plate slides beneath the plate Japan sits on. The devastating tsunami that swept ashore in Japan after a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake in March had such extraordinary power because of the unusual way in … The largest waves measured by instruments in the water were 7 metres (nearly 23ft) high in the north-east of Japan, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) in Hawaii. The Pacific plate moves fast in tectonic terms, at a rate of 9cm (3.5 inches) a year. (Of course, if there was one place where the highest and strongest sea wall should have been built, to handle a worse case scenario, no matter what the cost, it was around the nuclear reactors.) This was the sixth largest earthquake in the world since 1900, when seismological records began. Waves reached 4 metres around the coast of Japan. When the earthquake severed the connection between the nuclear power plant and the Japan electrical grid, the diesel backup system turned on as it was supposed to. The most powerful waves appeared to be moving south-west from Japan.   It was the fifth most powerful earthquake ever recorded, and within 30 minutes, a 133-foot high tsunami pummeled Japan's northeastern shoreline. Make the most of your reading with comments, events and more. The city bore the brunt of the waves. Study of fault lines uncovers theory about why Japanese tsunami so devastating. But the seawall in front of the power plant was not high enough to stop the tsunami, and the fuel tanks were washed away. The earthquake and tsunami of 2011 in Japan would always ring a bell as one of the extensive natural disasters that occurred in history. [143] Among the factors in the high death toll was the unexpectedly large water surge. The stories of what happened at many elementary and junior high schools sadly provide tragic insights into the lack of preparation. The hundreds of bodies already found are just the beginning of the toll this quake has taken — and could continue to take in aftershocks and tsunamis. The most powerful earthquake recorded in Japanese history, magnitude 8.9. The earthquake struck below the North Pacific Ocean, 130 kilometers (81 miles) east of Sendai, the largest city in the Tohoku region, a northern part of the islandof Honshu. And what about the tsunami warnings? The quake was centered off the Pacific coast of Japan, near the city of Sendai. They conducted disaster drills, but they also integrated tsunami awareness into almost all aspects of their school day. Add your voice. On March 11, the very large size of the earthquake was recognized quickly (from the seismic data) and the Japanese Meteorological Agency fortunately took no chances and put out a tsunami warning three minutes later. … Part of HuffPost Science. A magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck off Japan’s northeastern coast. Regular aftershocks have already hit Japan as the Earth's crust continues to rupture along the Japan trench. 4. The 2011 Tohoku earthquake struck offshore of Japan, along a subduction zone where two of Earth's tectonic plates collide. The tsunami struck in the middle of a sunny Friday afternoon at a time when thousands of parents were heading to schools to pick up their children. Some may think perhaps the Tsunami footage they have seen doesn't look so bad. Other estimates put the wave height at 10 metres. Tsunamis are unpredictable, because the submarine earthquakes that produce them are unpredictable. They had been trained in earthquake preparedness, but not in tsunami preparedness. And the fact that the Japanese had made very real progress in reducing deaths due to the frequent earthquakes (better building codes, etc) added further to their false sense of security about tsunamis. GDP in the January-March quarter contracted by a staggering annualized rate of 3.7%, sending the economy into yet another recession. Why Indonesia’s tsunamis are so deadly ... the magnitude-9.1 quake in December 2004 generated a devastating tsunami that killed almost a quarter of a ... Hawaii and Japan … We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote! In the Kamaishi school district, only five children were lost out thousands (and those five had been at home when the tsunami struck). Unfortunately, the response of many Japanese to that warning was inadequate due to their lack of tsunami preparedness training. The Tohoku earthquake caused a tsunami. There are concerns for low-lying islands in the Pacific. As the Pacific plate moves down, it sticks to the overhead plate and pulls it down too. Eventually, the join breaks, causing the seafloor to spring upwards several metres. An extremely destructive and most fearsome one was the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March, 2011. All rights reserved. The waves completely obliterated such coastal towns as Kuji and Ōfunato and severely damaged much of the infrastructure in eastern Sendai. Surprisingly, many of these supposedly safe evacuation areas were not located high enough and/or far enough inland, and many people who came to these evacuation areas died. (IODP/JAMSTEC) An unprecedented drilling expedition has revealed that the devastating 2011 tsunami off the coast of Tohoku, Japan, was due to a particularly weak and slippery fault zone. In 2011, a megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan produced a huge tsunami that killed over 15,000 people. Unbelievably those critical fuel tanks had been situated outside the buildings at ground level. Even so, it took only 29 minutes for the tsunami to reach the closest point on the Japanese coast. News Why the Japan Tsunami Was So Big The devastating tsunami that swept ashore in Japan after a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake in March had … The great plates are rough and stick together, building up energy that is released as earthquakes. You'll have to read his chapter for the very compelling personal stories that illustrate what Dr. Parker summarizes below. The Japanese thought the sea walls would protect them. The earthquake that wrecked Christchurch in New Zealand last month was a magnitude 6.3 event. Also regarded as the Great Tōhoku Earthquake or the Great Sendai Earthquake, several catastrophic events brought by the force of nature struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. Here are some striking facts about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. High-rise buildings can still be damaged, but are more likely to remain standing. Scientists have uncovered clues about the origin of an unusual geological structure off the coast of Japan, believed to have contributed to the devastating tsunami that struck the country in 2011. Important conversations are happening now. Scientists, including a geologist from Montreal's McGill University, think they now know why the devastating 2011 tsunami off the coast of Japan was so much bigger than expected. 3. The plate tectonics of the region are complex, and geologists are not sure which plate Japan sits on. In 2005 Professor Toshitaka Katada, a disaster social-engineering expert at Gunma University Graduate School, and his colleagues began giving emergency disaster lessons to students at elementary and junior high schools in the Kamaishi school district. Lisbon 1755. The story of how the students from Kamaishi-Higashi Junior High School and Unosumai Elementary School saved themselves during the tsunami provides a heartwarming illustration of the benefit of tsunami preparedness training. On March 11, 2011, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake occurred 231 miles northeast of Tokyo. Nevertheless, ports were pounded by the tsunami and the airport in Sendai was inundated. Fact 1: An earthquake of 8.9 magnitude, the highest ever recorded, created a huge tsunami that shattered the entire eastern coast of Japan in the year 2011. From then, waves are due to reach Acapulco in Mexico at 7.59pm, Chile at 10.55pm, Ecuador at 11.31pm, Colombia at 11.47 and Peru at 12.33am. Japan's devastating March 2011 earthquake caused the largest slip yet recorded, according to a new study. The tsunami moves across the Pacific at a speed of 500mph, with waves expected to reach the island of Fiji and Cairns in Australia at 3.28pm GMT. And people forget. But the fact that 25,000 Japanese were killed by the tsunami shows that the lack of preparation went well beyond just the nuclear power plants. This leads to the rapid buildup of huge amounts of energy. Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 - Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 - Relief and rebuilding efforts: In the first hours after the earthquake, Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto moved to set up an emergency command centre in Tokyo, and a large number of rescue workers and some 100,000 members of the Japanese Self-Defense Force were rapidly mobilized to deal with the crisis. So one has to ask the question, how could the tsunami have killed so many people in a country that was supposed to be the most tsunami-aware nation on Earth? The devastating Japanese earthquake … Also, most submarine earthquakes do not produce tsunamis, so to prevent false alarms an actual tsunami must first be detected (by a DART buoy or a real-time tide gauge) before a warning can be given. Perhaps most important, however, many of the deaths were due to the fact that a large number of Japanese did not know what to do if a tsunami came. Tens of miles of crust ruptured along the trench where the tectonic plates meet. Nuclear power plants were shut down across the country and a state of emergency declared at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, where a cooling system failed. In a subduction zone, one plate slides beneath another into the mantle, the hotter layer beneath the crust. 2. Measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, the offshore earthquake struck at a depth of 24.4 km and just 130 km off the coast of Japan near the worst-hit city of Sendai. The goal of the program was to teach the students to save themselves. Japan has invested heavily in coastal protection and buildings that can withstand tremors. ], That Japan was not adequately prepared for the tsunami that hit the northeastern Honshu coast on March 11, 2011, first became apparent at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. 1. The most devastating earthquake to strike Japan was in 1923, when a magnitude 7.9 tremor devastated Tokyo and Yokohama and killed an estimated 142,800 people. Why Japan's quake/tsunami was deadly Next Scientist J R Kayal explains the why the monster quake that hit Japan caused such havoc and why it gave rise to a tsunami … Five years ago, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred 200km off the east coast of Japan, causing a devastating tsunami. You’re informed. It is estimated that the initial tsunami wave took 10 to 30 minutes to make its first landfall. The resulting waves affected … The rest of the book is also very compelling and the science is fascinating. 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