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2011 Tohoku earthquake
- The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami was the largest earthquake ever to strike Japan (magnitude 9.0). It hit at 14:46 on March 11th, 2011. The earthquake triggered a tsunami up to 40.5 meters (133 ft) high that moved up to 10 km (6 mi) inland.
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What was the biggest earthquake in Japan?
What were some major Japanese quakes in the last 30 years?
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When was the Great Kanto earthquake?
1. 1923 Great Kanto earthquake ~ 142,800 deaths At 11:58 AM on September 1st, 1923 a magnitude 7.9 quake struck Oshima Island in Sagami Bay (near Yokohama & Tokyo). Incredibly, the quake lasted more than 4 minutes.
- Overview
- The earthquake and tsunami
The magnitude of the earthquake that caused a devastating tsunami in 2011 was 9.0. The earthquake occurred at 2:46 PM on March 11.
Where was the epicenter of the Great Sendai Earthquake?
The 2011 earthquake's epicenter was located some 80 miles (130 km) east of Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, and the focus occurred 18.6 miles (about 30 km) below the floor of the western Pacific Ocean.
What was the death toll of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in 2011?
The official total for the number of those confirmed dead or listed as missing from the 2011 disaster was about 18,500. Other estimates gave a final toll of at least 20,000. The great majority of those killed were drowning victims of the tsunami waves.
What effects did the Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 have?
The magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck at 2:46 pm. (The early estimate of magnitude 8.9 was later revised upward.) 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 part of the subduction zone measuring approximately 190 miles (300 km) long by 95 miles (150 km) wide lurched as much as 164 feet (50 metres) to the east-southeast and thrust upward about 33 feet (10 metres). The March 11 temblor was felt as far away as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia; Kao-hsiung, Taiwan; and Beijing, China. It was preceded by several foreshocks, including a magnitude-7.2 event centred approximately 25 miles (40 km) away from the epicentre of the main quake. Hundreds of aftershocks, dozens of magnitude 6.0 or greater and two of magnitude 7.0 or greater, followed in the days and weeks after the main quake. (Nearly two years later, on December 7, 2012, a magnitude-7.3 tremor originated from the same plate boundary region. The quake caused no injuries and little damage.) The March 11, 2011, earthquake was the strongest to strike the region since the beginning of record keeping in the late 19th century, and it is considered one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded. It was later reported that a satellite orbiting at the outer edge of Earth’s atmosphere that day had detected infrasonics (very low-frequency sound waves) from the quake.
The sudden horizontal and vertical thrusting of the Pacific Plate, which has been slowly advancing under the Eurasian Plate near Japan, displaced the water above and spawned a series of highly destructive tsunami waves. A wave measuring some 33 feet high inundated the coast and flooded parts of the city of Sendai, including its airport and the surrounding countryside. According to some reports, one wave penetrated some 6 miles (10 km) inland after causing the Natori River, which separates Sendai from the city of Natori to the south, to overflow. Damaging tsunami waves struck the coasts of Iwate prefecture, just north of Miyagi prefecture, and Fukushima, Ibaraki, and Chiba, the prefectures extending along the Pacific coast south of Miyagi. In addition to Sendai, other communities hard-hit by the tsunami included Kamaishi and Miyako in Iwate; Ishinomaki, Kesennuma, and Shiogama in Miyagi; and Kitaibaraki and Hitachinaka in Ibaraki. As the floodwaters retreated back to the sea, they carried with them enormous quantities of debris, as well as thousands of victims caught in the deluge. Large stretches of land were left submerged under seawater, particularly in lower-lying areas.
The earthquake triggered tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific basin. The tsunami raced outward from the epicentre at speeds that approached about 500 miles (800 km) per hour. It generated waves 11 to 12 feet (3.3 to 3.6 metres) high along the coasts of Kauai and Hawaii in the Hawaiian Islands chain and 5-foot (1.5-metre) waves along the island of Shemya in the Aleutian Islands chain. Several hours later 9-foot (2.7-metre) tsunami waves struck the coasts of California and Oregon in North America. Finally, some 18 hours after the quake, waves roughly 1 foot (0.3 metre) high reached the coast of Antarctica and caused a portion of the Sulzberger Ice Shelf to break off its outer edge.
Britannica Quiz
Jan 22, 2024 · That year, on March 11, the magnitude 9.1 temblor deep within the Pacific Ocean unleashed a catastrophic tsunami that hit Japan, killing around 20,000 people and leaving half a million homeless....
1 day ago · Fukushima accident, accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi (“Number One”) plant in northern Japan, the second worst nuclear accident (after the Chernobyl disaster of 1986) in the history of nuclear power generation. The site is on Japan’s Pacific coast, in northeastern Fukushima prefecture about 100 km (60 miles) south of Sendai.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Fukushima accident was an accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi (“Number One”) nuclear power plant in Japan. It is the second worst nuclear...
- An earthquake and tsunami led to power loss in the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Without power, the cooling systems failed in three reactors, and their...
- Immediately after the Fukushima accident in 2011, radiation levels increased in food, water, and the ocean near the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Becaus...
- Nobody died as a direct result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. However, in 2018 one worker in charge of measuring radiation at the plant died of...
Magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami reaching 128 feet (39 meters), causing the level-7 nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Costliest natural disaster in recorded world history, estimated at up to $235 billion by the World Bank. 18,297 dead, 2,533 missing and 6,157 injured confirmed by Japanese National Police Agency on ...
DeathsName Or DescriptionType Of DisasterDate105,385 [1]Earthquake and Tsunami1 Sep 192321,959 (Official)Earthquake and Tsunami15 June 189619,113 (Official confirmed)Typhoon and Tidal wave17 Sep 182815,897 [2]Earthquake and Tsunami11 Mar 2011Jan 1, 2024 · The worst earthquake to hit the country in 50 years killed more than 6,400 and caused an estimated $100 billion in damage.
The date was September 1, 1923, and the event was the Great Kanto Earthquake, at the time considered the worst natural disaster ever to strike quake-prone Japan. The initial jolt was followed a...
