| Title | 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami東日本大震災 |
|---|
| Image alt | An aerial view of tsunami damage in Tōhoku |
|---|
| Imagecaption | An aerial view of damage in the Tōhoku region with black smoke coming from the Nippon Oil Sendai oil refinery |
|---|
| Map | 2011 Tohoku earthquake observed tsunami heights en.png |
|---|
| Caption | Peak tsunami wave height locations, color-coded with red representing most severe |
|---|
| Date | 14:46:23, 11 March 2011 (+09:00) |
|---|
| Duration | 6 minutes (Japanese: with the epicenter approximately east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku and the hypocenter at an underwater depth of approximately . 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 that struck Japan, in some cases traveling up to inland. In addition to loss of life and destruction of infrastructure, the tsunami caused a number of nuclear accidents, primarily the ongoing level 7 meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant complex, and the associated evacuation zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents. The overall cost could exceed US$300 billion, making it the most expensive natural disaster on record. |
|---|
The 9.0-magnitude (MW) undersea megathrust earthquake occurred on 11 March 2011 at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) in the western Pacific Ocean at a relatively shallow depth of 32 km (19.9 mi), with its epicenter approximately 72 km (45 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku, Japan, lasting approximately six minutes. Following the quake, a 7.0 MW aftershock was reported at 15:06 JST, followed by a 7.4 at 15:15 JST and a 7.2 at 15:26 JST. Over eight hundred aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or greater have occurred since the initial quake. United States Geological Survey (USGS) director Marcia McNutt explained that aftershocks follow Omori's Law, might continue for years, and will taper off in time.
Initially reported as 7.9 MW by the USGS, the magnitude was quickly upgraded to 8.8, then again to 8.9, and then finally to 9.0.
Geology
This earthquake occurred where the Pacific Plate is subducting under the plate beneath northern Honshu; which plate is a matter of debate amongst scientists. The Pacific plate, which moves at a rate of 8 to 9 cm (3.1 to 3.5 in) per year, dips under Honshu's underlying plate releasing large amounts of energy. This motion pulls the upper plate down until the stress builds up enough to cause a seismic event. The break caused the sea floor to rise by several meters. The hypocentral region of this earthquake extended from offshore Iwate Prefecture to offshore Ibaraki Prefecture. The Japanese Meteorological Agency said that the earthquake may have ruptured the fault zone from Iwate to Ibaraki with a length of 500 km (310 mi) and a width of 200 km (120 mi). Analysis showed that this earthquake consisted of a set of three events. The earthquake may have had a mechanism similar to that of another large earthquake in 869 with an estimated surface wave magnitude (Ms) of 8.6, which also created a large tsunami. Other major earthquakes with tsunamis struck the Sanriku Coast region in 1896 and in 1933.
The strong ground motion registered at the maximum of 7 on the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale in Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture. dissipated as shaking and tsunamic energy, which is nearly double that of the 9.1-magnitude 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that killed 230,000 people. "If we could only harness the [surface] energy from this earthquake, it would power [a] city the size of Los Angeles for an entire year," McNutt said in an interview. The total energy released, also known as the seismic moment (M0), was more than 200,000 times the surface energy and was calculated by the USGS at 3.9×1022 joules, slightly less than the 2004 Indian Ocean quake. This is equivalent to 9,320 gigatons of TNT, or approximately 600 million times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb.
Japan's National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) calculated a peak ground acceleration of 2.99 g (29.33 m/s²).|name="fn_2"|group="fn"}} The largest individual recording in Japan was 2.7g, in the Miyagi Prefecture, 75 km from the epicentre; the highest reading in the Tokyo metropolitan area was 0.16g.
Geophysical impacts
The quake moved portions of northeastern Japan by as much as 2.4 m (7.9 ft) closer to North America, and another early estimate put the amount of slippage at as much as 40 m (130 ft). On 6 April the Japanese coast guard said that the quake shifted the seabed near the epicenter 24 meters (79 ft) and elevated the seabed off the coast of Miyagi prefecture by 3 meters.
in Koto, Tokyo]]
The earthquake shifted the Earth's axis by estimates of between and . The speed of the Earth's rotation increased, shortening the day by 1.8 microseconds due to the redistribution of Earth's mass. The axial shift was caused by the redistribution of mass on the Earth's surface, which changed the planet's moment of inertia. Because of conservation of angular momentum, such changes of inertia result in small changes to the Earth's rate of rotation. These are expected changes Chiba City, Funabashi, Narashino (all in Chiba Prefecture) and in the Koto, Edogawa, Minato, Chūō, and Ōta Wards of Tokyo. Approximately 30 homes or buildings were destroyed and 1,046 other buildings were damaged to varying degrees. Nearby Haneda Airport, built mostly on reclaimed land, was not damaged. Odaiba also experienced liquefaction, but damage was minimal.
Shinmoedake, a volcano in Kyushu, erupted two days after the earthquake. The volcano had previously erupted in January 2011; it is not known if the later eruption was linked to the earthquake. In Antarctica, the seismic waves from the earthquake were reported to have caused the Whillans Ice Stream to slip by about 0.5 m (1.6 ft).
The first sign international researchers had that the earthquake caused such a dramatic change in the Earth’s rotation came from the United States Geographical Survey which monitors Global Positioning Satellite stations across the world. The Survey team had several GPS monitors located near the scene of the earthquake, and one was directly in the epicenter. The GPS station located in the epicenter proved that Japan had gotten at least thirteen feet wider as a result of the splitting of the Earth. This motivated government researchers to look into other ways the earthquake may have had large scale effects on the planet. Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory did some calculations and determined that the Earth’s rotation was changed by the earthquake to the point where the days are now one point eight (1.8) microseconds shorter.
While the 1.8 microsecond shortening of the day is not noticeable to the average person, one way the earthquake and its effects on the Earth’s rotation and time of day is important was explained by Dr. Richard Gross, one of the head researchers working for NASA. Gross explained that even a difference of 1.8 microseconds is important to his team, because it affects the way that spacecraft being sent to Mars are navigated. Not taking the changes into account creates a greater chance for failure of the mission, resulting in millions of dollars wasted. Gross noted that the way the Earth rotates is not very smooth; he related the way the Earth moves to an old car wobbling on its axle. The earthquake was similar to if a person took a hammer and whacked the car's axle, causing it to shift and the car to drive differently. This is what occurred with the earthquake in Japan. The powerful earthquake was the hammer hitting the Earth’s axle, causing it to spin in a slightly different way.
Aftershocks
Japan experienced over 900 aftershocks since the earthquake, with about 60 registering over magnitude 6.0 Mw and at least three over 7.0 Mw. A magnitude 7.7 Mw and a 7.9 Mw quake occurred on March 11 and the third one struck offshore on 7 April with a disputed magnitude. Its epicenter was underwater, 66 km (41 mi) off the coast of Sendai. The Japan Meteorological Agency assigned a magnitude of 7.4 MJMA, while the U.S. Geological Survey lowered it to 7.1 Mw. At least four people were killed, and electricity was cut off across much of northern Japan including the loss of external power to Higashidori Nuclear Power Plant and Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant. Four days later on April 11, another strong magnitude 6.6 Mw aftershock struck Fukushima, causing additional damage and killing a total of three people.
As of 3 June 2011 aftershocks continued; a regularly updated map showing all shocks of magnitude 4.5 and above near or off the east coast of Honshu in the last seven days showed over 20 events. shocks in the past week had dropped to 13.
Tsunami
The earthquake which was caused by 5 to 8 meters upthrust on a 180-km wide seabed at 60 km offshore from the east coast of Tōhoku resulted in a major tsunami which brought destruction along the Pacific coastline of Japan's northern islands and resulted in the loss of thousands of lives and devastated entire towns. The tsunami propagated across the Pacific, and warnings were issued and evacuations carried out. In many countries bordering the Pacific, including the entire Pacific coast of North and South America from Alaska to Chile; however, while the tsunami was felt in many of these places, it caused only relatively minor effects. Chile's section of Pacific coast is one of the furthest from Japan, at about 17,000 km (11,000 mi) away, but still was struck by tsunami waves 2 m (6.6 ft) high. A wave height of 38.9 meters (128 ft) was estimated at Omoe peninsula, Miyako city, Iwate prefecture. The actual height predicted varied, the greatest being for Miyagi at 6 m (20 ft) high. The tsunami inundated a total area of approximately in Japan.
Station, 690 NM Southeast of Tokyo]]
The earthquake took place at 14:46 JST around 67 km (42 mi) from the nearest point on Japan's coastline, and initial estimates indicated the tsunami would have taken 10 to 30 minutes to reach the areas first affected, and then areas farther north and south based on the geography of the coastline. Just over an hour after the earthquake at 15:55 JST, a tsunami was observed flooding Sendai Airport, which is located near the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, with waves sweeping away cars and planes and flooding various buildings as they traveled inland. The impact of the tsunami in and around Sendai Airport was filmed by an NHK News helicopter, showing a number of vehicles on local roads trying to escape the approaching wave and being engulfed by it. A 4 m high tsunami hit Iwate Prefecture. Wakabayashi Ward in Sendai was also particularly hard hit. At least 101 designated tsunami evacuation sites were hit by the wave.
Like the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the damage by surging water, though much more localized, was far more deadly and destructive than the actual quake. There were reports of entire towns destroyed from tsunami-hit areas in Japan, including 9,500 missing in Minamisanriku; one thousand bodies had been recovered in the town by 14 March 2011.
Among several factors causing the high death toll from the tsunami, one was the unexpectedly large size of the water surge. The tsunami walls at several of the affected cities were based on much smaller tsunami heights. Also, many people caught in the tsunami thought that they were located on high enough ground to be safe.
runway]]
Kuji and Ōfunato were almost entirely destroyed Also destroyed was Rikuzentakata, where the tsunami was reportedly three stories high. Other cities reportedly destroyed or heavily damaged by the tsunami include Kamaishi, Miyako, Ōtsuchi, and Yamada (in Iwate Prefecture), Namie, Sōma and Minamisōma (in Fukushima Prefecture) and Shichigahama, Higashimatsushima, Onagawa, Natori, Ishinomaki, and Kesennuma (in Miyagi Prefecture). The most severe effects of the tsunami were felt along a 670-km (420 mi)-long stretch of coastline from Erimo in the north to Ōarai in the south, with most of the destruction in that area occurring in the hour following the earthquake. Near Ōarai, people captured images of a huge whirlpool that had been generated by the tsunami. The tsunami washed away the sole bridge to Miyatojima, Miyagi, isolating the island's 900 residents. A two meter high tsunami hit Chiba Prefecture about 2 1/2 hours after the quake, causing heavy damage to cities such as Asahi.
On 13 March 2011, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) published details of tsunami observations recorded around the coastline of Japan following the earthquake. These observations included tsunami maximum readings of over 3 m (9.8 ft) at the following locations and times on 11 March 2011, following the earthquake at 14:46 JST:
15:12 JST – off Kamaishi – 6.8 m (22 ft)
15:15 JST – Ōfunato – 3.2 m (10 ft) or higher
15:20 JST – Ishinomaki-shi Ayukawa – 3.3 m (11 ft) or higher
15:21 JST – Miyako – 4.0 m (13.1 ft) or higher
15:21 JST – Kamaishi – 4.1 m (13 ft) or higher
15:44 JST – Erimo-cho Shoya – 3.5 m (11 ft)
15:50 JST – Sōma – 7.3 m (24 ft) or higher
16:52 JST – Ōarai – 4.2 m (14 ft)
These readings were obtained from recording stations maintained by the JMA around the coastline of Japan. Many areas were also affected by waves of 1 to 3 meters (3.3 to 9.8 ft) in height, and the JMA bulletin also included the caveat that "At some parts of the coasts, tsunamis may be higher than those observed at the observation sites." The timing of the earliest recorded tsunami maximum readings ranged from 15:12 to 15:21, between 26 and 35 minutes after the earthquake had struck. The bulletin also included initial tsunami observation details, as well as more detailed maps for the coastlines affected by the tsunami waves.
On 23 March 2011, Port and Airport Research Institute reported tsunami height by visiting the port sites or by telemetry from offshore as follows:
animation of the tsunami's propagation]]
Port of Hachinohe – 5–6 m (16–19 ft)
Port of Hachinohe area – 8–9 m (26–29 ft)
Port of Kuji – 8–9 m (26–29 ft)
Mooring GPS wave height meter at offshore of central Iwate (Miyako) – 6 m (20 ft)
Port of Kamaishi – 7–9 m (23–30 ft)
Mooring GPS wave height meter at offshore of southern Iwate (Kamaishi) – 6.5 m (22 ft)
Port of Ōfunato – 9.5 m (31 ft)
Run up height, port of Ōfunato area – 24 m (79 ft)
Mooring GPS wave height meter at offshore of northern Miyagi – 5.6 m (18 ft)
Fishery port of Onagawa – 15 m (50 ft)
Port of Ishinomaki – 5 m (16 ft)
Mooring GPS wave height meter at offshore of central Miyagi – could not measure
Shiogama section of Shiogama-Sendai port – 4 m (13 ft)
Sendai section of Shiogama-Sendai port – 8 m (26 ft)
Sendai Airport area – 12 m (39 ft)
A joint research team from Yokohama National University and the University of Tokyo also reported that the tsunami at Ryōri Bay (綾里白浜), Ōfunato was about 30 m high. They found fishing equipment scattered on the high cliff above the bay. At Tarō, Iwate, a University of Tokyo researcher reported an estimated tsunami height of 37.9 m (124 ft) reached the slope of a mountain some 200 m (656 ft) away from the coastline. Also, at slope of nearby mountain from 400 m (1,312 ft) Aneyoshi fishery port (姉吉漁港) of Omoe peninsula (重茂半島) in Miyako, Iwate, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology found estimated tsunami run up height of 38.9 m (127 ft).
Elsewhere across the Pacific
trapped in the sand on
Midway Atoll by the tsunami, before being rescued]]
Shortly after the earthquake, the
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in
Hawaii issued tsunami watches and announcements for locations in the Pacific. At 07:30 UTC, PTWC issued a widespread tsunami warning covering the entire Pacific Ocean.
Russia evacuated 11,000 residents from coastal areas of the
Kuril Islands. The United States
West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for the coastal areas of most of California, all of
Oregon, and the western part of
Alaska, and a tsunami advisory covering the Pacific coastlines of most of Alaska, and all of
Washington and
British Columbia, Canada. In California and Oregon, up to 2.4 m (8 ft) high tsunami surges hit some areas, damaging docks and harbors and causing over US$10 million in damage. Surges of up to 1 m (3.3 ft) hit
Vancouver Island in Canada
, Chile]]
In the Philippines, waves up to 0.5 m (1.6 ft) high hit the eastern seaboard of the country. Some houses along the coast in Jayapura, Indonesia were destroyed. Authorities in Wewak, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea evacuated 100 patients from the city's Boram Hospital before it was hit by the waves, causing an estimated US$4 million in damages. Hawaii estimated damage to public infrastructure alone at US$3 million, with damage to private properties, including resort hotels such as Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, estimated at tens of millions of dollars. It was reported that a 1.5 m (5 ft) high wave completely submerged Midway Atoll's reef inlets and Spit Island, killing more than 110,000 nesting seabirds at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. Some other South Pacific countries, including Tonga and New Zealand, and U.S. territories American Samoa and Guam, experienced larger-than-normal waves, but did not report any major damage. However in Guam some roads were closed off and people were evacuated from low-lying areas. In Curry County, Oregon $7 million in damages occurred including the destruction of 3,600 feet of dockspace at the Brookings harbor; the county has received over $1 million in FEMA emergency grants.
Along the Pacific Coast of Mexico and South America, tsunami surges were reported, but in most places caused little or no damage. Peru reported a wave of 1.5 m (5 ft) and more than 300 homes damaged. with waves of up to 3 m (9.8 ft). In the Galapagos Islands, 260 families received assistance following a 3 m (9.8 ft) surge which arrived 20 hours after the earthquake, after the tsunami warning had been lifted. There was a great deal of damage to buildings on the islands and one man was injured but there were no reported fatalities.
Land subsidence
elevator shaft]]
Geospatial Information Authority of Japan reported land subsidence on the height of triangulation station measured by GPS from previous value on 14 April 2011.
Miyako, Iwate - 0.50 m (1.64 ft)
Yamada, Iwate - 0.53 m (1.73 ft)
Ōtsuchi, Iwate - 0.35 m (1.14 ft)
Ishinomaki, Miyagi - 0.78 m (2.55 ft)
Higashimatsushima, Miyagi - 0.43 m (1.41 ft)
Iwanuma, Miyagi - 0.47 m (1.54 ft)
Sōma, Fukushima - 0.29 m (0.95 ft)
Scientists say that the subsidence is permanent. As a result, the communities in question are now more susceptible to flooding during high tides.
Casualties
The National Police Agency has confirmed and across eighteen prefectures.
Save the Children reports that as many as 100,000 children were uprooted from their homes, some of whom were separated from their families because the earthquake occurred during the school day. As of 10 April 2011, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare stated that it was aware of at least 82 children who had been orphaned by the disaster. The quake and tsunami, as of 28 April 2011, killed 378 elementary, middle-school, and high school students and left 158 others missing. One elementary school in Ishinomaki, Miyagi, Okawa Elementary, lost 74 of 108 students and 10 of 13 teachers and staff.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry has confirmed the deaths of nineteen foreigners. Among them are two English teachers from the United States affiliated with the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program; a Canadian missionary in Shiogama; and citizens of China, North and South Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan and the Philippines.
By 9:30 UTC on 11 March, Google Person Finder, which was previously used in the Haitian, Chilean, and Christchurch, New Zealand earthquakes, was collecting information about survivors and their locations. The Next of Kin Registry (NOKR) is assisting the Japanese government in locating next of kin for those missing or deceased.
Japanese funerals are normally elaborate Buddhist ceremonies which entail cremation. The thousands of bodies, however, exceeded the capacity of available crematoriums and morgues, many of them damaged, and there were shortages of both kerosene—each cremation requires 50 liters—and dry ice for preservation. The single crematorium in Higashimatsushima, for example, could only handle four bodies a day, although hundreds were found there. Governments and the military were forced to bury many bodies in hastily dug mass graves with rudimentary or no rites, although relatives of the deceased were promised that they would be cremated later.
The tsunami is reported to have caused several deaths outside of Japan. One man was killed in Jayapura, Papua, Indonesia after being swept out to sea. A man who is said to have been attempting to photograph the oncoming tsunami at the mouth of the Klamath River, south of Crescent City, California, was swept out to sea. His body was found on April 2 along Ocean Beach in Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon, some to the north.
As of 27 May 2011, three Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members had died while conducting relief operations in Tōhoku.
==Damage and effects
damage and effect
The degree and extent of damage caused by the earthquake and resulting tsunami were enormous, with most of the damage being caused by the tsunami. Video footage of the towns worst affected shows little more than piles of rubble, with almost no parts of any structures left standing. Estimates of the cost of the damage range well into the tens of billions of US dollars; before-and-after satellite photographs of devastated regions show immense damage to many regions. Although Japan has invested the equivalent of billions of dollars on anti-tsunami seawalls which line at least 40% of its 34,751 km (21,593 mi) coastline and stand up to 12 m (39 ft) high, the tsunami simply washed over the top of some seawalls, collapsing some in the process.
Japan's National Police Agency said on 3 April 2011, that 45,700 buildings were destroyed and 144,300 were damaged by the quake and tsunami. The damaged buildings included 29,500 structures in Miyagi Prefecture, 12,500 in Iwate Prefecture and 2,400 in Fukushima Prefecture. Three hundred hospitals with 20 beds or more in Tōhoku were damaged by the disaster, with 11 being completely destroyed. The earthquake and tsunami created an estimated 25 million tons of rubble and debris in Japan.
An estimated 230,000 automobiles and trucks were damaged or destroyed in the disaster. As of the end of May 2011, residents of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures had requested deregistration of 15,000 vehicles, meaning that the owners of those vehicles were writing them off as unrepairable or unsalvageable.
Ports
All of Japan's ports were briefly closed after the earthquake, though the ones in Tokyo and southwards soon re-opened. Fifteen ports were located in the disaster zone. The north-eastern ports of Hachinohe, Sendai, Ishinomaki and Onahama were destroyed, while Chiba port (which serves the hydrocarbon industry) and Japan's ninth-largest container port at Kashima were also affected though less severely. The ports at Hitachinaka, Hitachi, Soma, Shiogama, Kesennuma, Ofunato, Kamashi and Miyako were also damaged and closed to ships. All 15 ports reopened to limited ship traffic by 29 March 2011.
The Port of Tokyo suffered slight damage; the effects of the quake included visible smoke rising from a building in the port with parts of the port areas being flooded, including soil liquefaction in Tokyo Disneyland's carpark.
Dams and water
The Fujinuma irrigation dam in Sukagawa ruptured, causing flooding and washing away 1800 homes. Eight people were missing and four bodies were discovered by the morning. Reportedly, some locals had attempted to repair leaks in the dam before it completely failed. On 12 March, 252 dams were inspected and it was discovered that six embankment dams had shallow cracks on their crests. The reservoir at one concrete gravity dam suffered a small non-serious slope failure. All damaged dams are functioning with no problems. Four dams within the quake area were unreachable. When the roads clear, experts will be dispatched to conduct further investigations.
In the immediate aftermath of the calamity, at least 1.5 million households were reported to have lost access to water supplies. By 21 March 2011, this number fell to 1.04 million. Several nuclear and conventional power plants went offline after the earthquake, reducing TEPCO's total capacity by 21 GW. Rolling blackouts began on 14 March due to power shortages caused by the earthquake. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which normally provides approximately 40 GW of electricity, announced that it can currently provide only about 30 GW. This is because 40% of the electricity used in the greater Tokyo area is now supplied by reactors in the Niigata and Fukushima prefectures. The reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi and Fukushima Dai-ni plants were automatically taken offline when the first earthquake occurred and have sustained major damage related to the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Rolling blackouts of three hours are expected to last until the end of April and will affect the Tokyo, Kanagawa, Eastern Shizuoka, Yamanashi, Chiba, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tochigi, and Gunma prefectures. Voluntary reduced electricity use by consumers in the Kanto area helped reduce the predicted frequency and duration of the blackouts. By 21 March 2011, the number of households in the north without electricity fell to 242,927.
Tōhoku Electric Power cannot currently provide the Kanto region with additional power, because TEP's power plants were also damaged in the earthquake. Kansai Electric Power Company (Kepco) cannot share electricity, because its system operates at 60 hertz, whereas TEPCO and TEP operate their systems at 50 hertz; this is due to early industrial and infrastructure development in the 1880s that left Japan without a unified national power grid. Two substations, one in Shizuoka Prefecture and one in Nagano Prefecture, can convert between frequencies and transfer electricity from Kansai to Kanto and Tōhoku, but their capacity to do so is limited to 1 GW. With the damage to so many power plants, it could be years before electricity productions levels in eastern Japan return to pre-quake levels.
In effort to help alleviate the shortage, three steel manufacturers in the Kanto region are contributing electricity produced by their in-house conventional power stations to TEPCO for distribution to the general public. Sumitomo Metal Industries can produce up to 500 MW, JFE Steel 400 MW, and Nippon Steel 500 MW of electric power Auto and auto parts makers in Kanto and Tohoku agreed in May 2011 to operate their factories on Saturdays and Sundays and close on Thursdays and Fridays to assist in alleviating the electricity shortage during the summer of 2011.
Oil, gas and coal
A 220,000-barrel-per-day It was extinguished after ten days, killing or injuring six people, and destroying storage tanks. Others halted production due to safety checks and power loss.
In Sendai, a 145,000-barrel-per-day refinery owned by the largest refiner in Japan,
JX Nippon Oil & Energy, was also set ablaze by the quake. Workers were evacuated, but tsunami warnings hindered efforts to extinguish the fire until 14 March, when officials planned to do so.
The city-owned plant for importing liquefied natural gas in Sendai was severely damaged, and supplies were halted for at least a month.
Nuclear power plants
overheated, causing meltdowns that eventually led to explosions, which released large amounts of radioactive material into the air.]]
The Fukushima I, Fukushima II, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant and Tōkai nuclear power stations, consisting of a total eleven reactors, were automatically shut down following the earthquake. Higashidōri, also on the northeast coast, was already shut down for a periodic inspection. Cooling is needed to remove decay heat after a reactor has been shut down, and to maintain spent fuel pools. The backup cooling process is powered by emergency diesel generators at the plants and at Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant. At Fukushima I and II tsunami waves overtopped seawalls and destroyed diesel backup power systems, leading to severe problems at Fukushima I, including three large explosions and radioactive leakage. Over 200,000 people were evacuated.
The April 7 aftershock caused the loss of external power to Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and Higashidori Nuclear Power Plant but backup generators were functional. Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant lost 3 of 4 external power lines and lost cooling function for as much as 80 minutes. A spill of a couple liters of radioactive water occurred at Onagawa.
Europe's Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger addressed the European Parliament on 15 March, explaining that the nuclear disaster was an "apocalypse". As the nuclear crisis entered a second month, experts recognized that Fukushima I is not the worst nuclear accident ever, but it is the most complicated.
Later analysis indicated three reactors (Units 1, 2, and 3) had suffered meltdowns and continued to leak coolant water. Officials from the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported that radiation levels inside the plant were up to 1,000 times normal levels, and that radiation levels outside the plant were up to 8 times normal levels. Later, a state of emergency was also declared at the Fukushima II nuclear power plant about 11 km (7 mi) south. This brought the total number of problematic reactors to six.
It was reported that radioactive iodine was detected in the tap water in Fukushima, Toshigi, Gunma, Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, and Niigata, and radioactive cesium in the tap water in Fukushima, Tochigi and Gunma. Radioactive cesium, iodine, and strontium were also detected in the soil in some places in Fukushima. There may be a need to replace the contaminated soil. Food products were also found contaminated by radioactive matter in several places in Japan. On April 5, 2011, the government of the Ibaraki Prefecture banned the fishing of sand lance after discovering that this species was contaminated by radioactive cesium above legal limits.
Incidents elsewhere
A fire occurred in the turbine section of the
Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant following the earthquake. The blaze was in a building housing the turbine, which is sited separately from the plant's reactor, The plant was shut down as a precaution.
On 13 March the lowest-level state of emergency was declared regarding the Onagawa plant as radioactivity readings temporarily exceeded allowed levels in the area of the plant. Tohoku Electric Power Co. stated this may have been due to radiation from the Fukushima I nuclear accidents but was not from the Onagawa plant itself.
As a result of the April 7 aftershock, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant lost 3 of 4 external power lines and lost cooling function for as much as 80 minutes. A spill of a couple liters of radioactive water occurred at Onagawa. however, the Japan Atomic Power Company stated that there was a second operational pump sustaining the cooling systems, but that two of three diesel generators used to power the cooling system were out of order.
Wind power
None of
Japan's commercial wind turbines, totaling over 2300 MW in
nameplate capacity, failed as a result of the earthquake and tsunami, including the Kamisu offshore wind farm directly hit by the tsunami.
Transport
Japan's transport network suffered severe disruptions. Many sections of Tōhoku Expressway serving northern Japan were damaged. The expressway did not reopen to general public use until 24 March 2011. All railway services were suspended in Tokyo, with an estimated 20,000 people stranded at major stations across the city. In the hours after the earthquake, some train services were resumed. Most Tokyo area train lines resumed full service by the next day—12 March. Twenty thousand stranded visitors spent the night of 11–12 March inside Tokyo Disneyland.
A tsunami wave flooded Sendai Airport at 15:55 JST,
Various train services around Japan were also canceled, with JR East suspending all services for the rest of the day. Four trains on coastal lines were reported as being out of contact with operators; one, a four-car train on the Senseki Line, was found to have derailed, and its occupants were rescued shortly after 8 am the next morning. Sixty-two of 70 JR East train lines suffered damage to some degree;
There were no derailments of Shinkansen bullet train services in and out of Tokyo, but their services were also suspended.
The Tōhoku Shinkansen line was worst hit, with JR East estimating that 1,100 sections of the line, varying from collapsed station roofs to bent power pylons, will need repairs. Services on the Tōhoku Shinkansen partially resumed only in Kantō area on 15 March, with one round-trip service per hour between Tokyo and Nasu-Shiobara, and Tōhoku area service partially resumed on 22 March between Morioka and Shin-Aomori. Services on Akita Shinkansen resumed with limited numbers of trains on 18 March.
Minami-Kesennuma Station on the Kesennuma Line was obliterated save for its platform; anecdotal evidence suggests severe damage to the line as well as other coastal lines (including the Ishinomaki Line and Senseki Line).
The rolling blackouts brought on by the crises at the nuclear power plants in Fukushima had a profound effect on the rail networks around Tokyo starting on 14 March. Major railways began running trains at 10–20 minute intervals, rather than the usual 3–5 minute intervals, operating some lines only at rush hour and completely shutting down others; notably, the Tokaido Main Line, Yokosuka Line, Sobu Main Line and Chūō-Sōbu Line were all stopped for the day. This led to near-paralysis within the capital, with long lines at train stations and many people unable to come to work or get home. Railway operators gradually increased capacity over the next few days, until running at approximately 80% capacity by 17 March and relieving the worst of the passenger congestion.
Telecommunications
Cellular and landline phone service suffered major disruptions in the affected area. On the day of the quake, American broadcaster NPR was unable to reach anyone in Sendai with working phone or Internet. Internet services were largely unaffected in areas where basic infrastructure remained, despite the earthquake having damaged portions of several undersea cable systems landing in the affected regions; these systems were able to reroute around affected segments onto redundant links. Within Japan, only a few websites were initially unreachable. Several Wi-Fi hotspot providers have reacted to the quake by providing free access to their networks, T-Mobile and VoIP companies such as netTALK and Vonage have offered free calls to (and in some cases, from) Japan for a limited time, as did Germany's Deutsche Telekom.
Space center
JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) evacuated the
Tsukuba Space Center in
Tsukuba, Ibaraki. The Center, which houses a control room for part of the
International Space Station, has been shut down, with some damage reported.
The Tsukuba control center resumed full operations for the space station's Kibo laboratory and the HTV cargo craft on March 21.
Cultural Properties
at
Tokiwa shrine in
Mito City]]
Five hundred and forty-nine Cultural Properties were damaged, including five National Treasures (at Zuigan-ji, Ōsaki Hachiman-gū, Shiramizu Amidadō, and Seihaku-ji); one hundred and forty-three Important Cultural Properties (including at Sendai Tōshō-gū, the Kōdōkan, and Entsū-in, with its western decorative motifs); one hundred and twenty Monuments of Japan (including Matsushima, Takata-matsubara, Yūbikan and the Site of Tagajō); seven Groups of Traditional Buildings; and three Important Tangible Folk Cultural Properties. Stone monuments at the UNESCO World Heritage Site: Shrines and Temples of Nikkō were toppled. In Tokyo, there was damage to Koishikawa Kōrakuen, Rikugien, Hamarikyū Onshi Teien, and the walls of Edo Castle. Information on the condition of collections held by museums, libraries and archives is still incomplete. There was no damage to the Historic Monuments and Sites of Hiraizumi in Iwate prefecture, and the recommendation for their inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List in June has been seized upon as a symbol of international recognition and recovery.
Aftermath
The aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami included both a humanitarian crisis and a major economic impact. The tsunami resulted in over 300,000 refugees in the Tōhoku region, and shortages of food, water, shelter, medicine and fuel for survivors. In response the Japanese government mobilized the Self-Defence Forces, whilst many countries sent search and rescue teams to help search for survivors. Aid organizations both in Japan and worldwide also responded, with the Japanese Red Cross reporting $1 billion in donations. The economic impact included both immediate problems, with industrial production suspended in many factories, and the longer term issue of the cost of rebuilding which has been estimated at ¥10 trillion ($122 billion). (This is a summary only – see main article for supporting references.)
Media coverage
Japan's national public broadcaster, NHK, and Japan Satellite Television suspended their usual programming to provide ongoing coverage of the situation. Various other nationwide Japanese TV networks also broadcast uninterrupted coverage of the disaster. Ustream Asia broadcast live feeds of NHK, Tokyo Broadcasting System, Fuji TV, TV Asahi, TV Kanagawa, and CNN on the Internet starting on 12 March 2011. YokosoNews, an Internet webcast in Japan, dedicated its broadcast to the latest news gathered from Japanese news stations, translating them in real time to English.
NHK has been noted for its calmness, in comparison to foreign television news such as CNN and Fox News Channel, whose coverage has contained factual errors and raised alarm among foreign residents of Japan. The same critics note that the Japanese news media has been at times overly cautious to avoid panic and reliant on confusing statements by experts and officials.
In this national crisis, the Japanese government provided Japanese sign language (JSL) interpreting at the press conferences related to the earthquake and tsunami. Television broadcasts of the press conferences of Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano included simultaneous JSL interpreters standing next to the Japanese flag on the same platform.
Scientific and research response
A large amount of data was collected that provides "the possibility to model in great detail what happened during the rupture of an earthquake."
Seismologists had anticipated that the "big one" would strike the same place as the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake—in the Sagami Trough, southwest of Tokyo. Since 1976, when Katsuhiko Ishibashi said a large earthquake in the Suruga Trough was forthcoming, the government tracked plate movements, in preparation for the so-called Tokai earthquake. Occurring 373 km (232 mi) northeast of Tokyo, the Tōhoku earthquake came as a surprise to seismologists, since the Japan Trench was known for creating large quakes, but was not expected to generate quakes above an 8.0 magnitude. NHK used ; was used by Kyodo News, Tokyo Shimbun and Chunichi Shimbun; was used by Yomiuri Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun and TV Asahi, and was used by Nippon Television, Tokyo FM and TV Asahi.|name="fn_1"|group="fn"}}
}}
References
}}
External links
Shindo scale map troughout Japan on 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami from Japan Meteorological Agency (Japanese)
Countdown to Catastrophe: MegaQuake – Japan and Beyond (documentary)
Earthquake Report from United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Poster of the Great Tohoku Earthquake from United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Scientific information about the Tohoku earthquake
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Japan Earthquake 2011 All Partners Access Network (APAN)
Japan Incident Map at Esri
Map of Tsunami Innundation Areas in Japan from
ReliefWeb
Japan Disaster: Most Shocking Pics – slideshow by Life
Massive earthquake hits Japan Photos from The Boston Globe
Japan Earthquake: before and after aerial and satellite images from ABC News, credited to Post-earthquake images of Japan
Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami The New York Times
Diverse satellite imagery taken under the aegis of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters
110311 JapanEarthquake at the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP Federation)
2011 Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami at Google Crisis Response
Red Earthquake and Tsunami Alert in Japan at the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS)
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Datafeeds gathering and Japan Data Profile inputs for Common Operational Datasets at CrisisCommons
Japan: Earthquake and Tsunami – Mar 2011 ReliefWeb
Map of the Damage From the Japanese Earthquake The New York Times
Japan in Crisis: A Series of Interviews with Scholars by Peter Shea at the University of Minnesota
Special: The Tohoku-Oki Earthquake, Japan - free-access scientific papers from Science magazine
Tsunami videos
;
Minami Sanriku
video of tsunami, shot from Shizugawa High School (志津川高校): |accessdate=21 April 2011}}
another video from a similar vantage point as above, showing a wider-angle view of some parts:
video of tsunami, shot from Shizugawa Junior High School (志津川中学校): |accessdate=21 April 2011}}
;
Miyako
cars tossed and ships tipping over: |date=11 March 2011 |accessdate=201-04-25}}
;
Kamaishi
From a hillside: |date=11 March 2011 |accessdate=27 April 2011}}
From the Post Office building near the waterfront: |date=11 March 2011 |accessdate=27 April 2011}}
;
Kesennuma
from the waterfront: |date=11 March 2011 |accessdate=27 April 2011}}
;
Shiogama
spilling into the streets: |date=11 March 2011 |accessdate=27 April 2011}}
same incident as above, shot from rooftop parking lot: |date=11 March 2011 |accessdate=27 April 2011}}
;
Sendai
spreading across farmland towards a road, near the Miyagi Prefecture Route 10 (県道10号) bridge across the Natori River: |date=11 March 2011 |accessdate=28 April 2011}}
Sendai Airport: cars and aircraft being washed away:
Gross, Richard. (2011, March 19) “Japan Earthquake May Have Shifted Earth’s Axis” NPR online, http://www.npr.org/2011/03/18/134658880/Japan-Earthquake-May-Have-Changed-Earths-Axis
Tohoku
Category:Earthquakes in Japan
Earthquake
Earthquake
Category:Civilian nuclear power accidents
Category:History of Midway Atoll
Category:History of Tokyo
Category:Megathrust earthquakes in Japan
Category:Natural disasters in British Columbia
Category:Natural disasters in California
Category:Natural disasters in Chile
Category:Natural disasters in Hawaii
Category:Natural disasters in Oregon
Category:Natural disasters in Papua New Guinea
Category:Natural disasters in Peru
Category:Natural disasters in Washington (state)
Category:Nuclear energy in Japan
Category:Sendai
Category:Tōhoku region
Category:Tsunamis in Japan
Category:Tsunamis in the United States
