A spill of "up to 3.8 litres" of radioactive water also occurred at Onagawa following the aftershock. [139] Wakabayashi Ward in Sendai was also particularly hard hit. The sea walls in several cities had been built to protect against tsunamis of much lower heights. One man was killed in Jayapura, Papua, Indonesia after being swept out to sea. The Geological Society of London is the UK's learned and professional body for Earth scientists, with over 12,000 members worldwide. Fifteen ports were located in the disaster zone. 1. [282][283][284], A 220,000-barrel (35,000 m3)-per-day[285] oil refinery of Cosmo Oil Company was set on fire by the quake at Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, to the east of Tokyo. The epicenter of the earthquake was about 130 km (81 miles) southeast of Aomori, Tohoku region, with a depth of 60 km (37 miles). In 2001 it was reckoned that there was a high likelihood of a large tsunami hitting the Sendai plain as more than 1,100 years had then elapsed. [255], 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 parking lot. [99], Shinmoedake, a volcano in Kyushu, erupted three days after the earthquake. Stuart Biggs and Aaron Sheldrick (11 March 2011). [184] 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 damage. 4. [114], One minute before the earthquake was felt in Tokyo, the Earthquake Early Warning system, which includes more than 1,000 seismometers in Japan, sent out warnings of impending strong shaking to millions. It was not as bad as the Chernobyl disaster, but worse than the Three Mile Island accident. [228] Among them were two English teachers from the United States affiliated with the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program;[229] a Canadian missionary in Shiogama;[230] and citizens of China, North and South Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan and the Philippines. [257] The Tōkaidō Shinkansen resumed limited service late in the day and was back to its normal schedule by the next day, while the Jōetsu and Nagano Shinkansen resumed services late on 12 March. [37][52] Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, "In the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan. [387], Also, following the earthquake, for the first time in Japanese history, the Emperor addressed the nation in a pre-recorded television broadcast.[388][389]. [158] Near Ōarai, people captured images of a huge whirlpool that had been generated by the tsunami. [10], 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. [38] These data are expected to be used in a variety of ways, providing unprecedented information about how buildings respond to shaking, and other effects. Helen Jung and Jeff Manning, "Waves bring destruction to Oregon's south coast", 「津波 太平洋を往復」Nikkei 2 May 2014 Morning News, Inajima, Tsuyoshi; Okada, Yuji (11 March 2011). An expedition named Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project have been conducted in year 2012–2013 to drill oceanfloor boreholes through the fault-zone of the earthquake and gathered important data about the rupture mechanism and physical properties of the fault that caused the huge earthquake and tsunami which devastated much of northeast Japan.[399][400]. According to the JMA Meteorological Research Institute [ja], reasons for the underestimation include a saturated magnitude scale when using maximum amplitude as input, failure to fully take into account the area of the hypocenter, and the initial amplitude of the earthquake being less than that which would be predicted by an empirical relationship. The Tsukuba control center resumed full operations for the space station's Kibo laboratory and the HTV cargo craft on 21 March 2011. The seismic moment of this earthquake accounts for about 93% of the estimated cumulative moment from 1926 to March 2011. [246], 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. [295], The Fukushima Daiichi, Fukushima Daini, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant and Tōkai nuclear power stations, consisting of a total eleven reactors, were automatically shut down following the earthquake. "Japanese Team Comes of Age, and Lifts a Country (Published 2011)", "What Have Religious Groups Done After 3.11? [110], As of 16 March 2012 aftershocks continued, totaling 1887 events over magnitude 4.0; 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[111] showed over 20 events. The magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck at 2:46 pm. The earthquake lasted 6 minutes … To prevent under-reporting of tsunami heights, early quantitative observation data that are smaller than the expected amplitude will be overridden and the public will instead be told that the situation is under observation. [376], In April 2015, authorities off the coast of Oregon discovered debris that is thought to be from a boat destroyed during the tsunami. Furthermore, shortly after the earthquake, some wave meters reported a fluctuation of "20 centimetres (7.9 in)", and this value was broadcast throughout the mass media and the warning system, which caused some residents to underestimate the danger of their situation and even delayed or suspended their evacuation. It was preceded by a number of foreshocks; one, on the 9th of March, was itself larger than the Kobe earthquake at a magnitude of 7.2, but seismologists were still taken by surprise when the main earthquake hit at 2:46pm on Friday, the 11th of March. By Elisabeth Nadin Ph.D., University of Alaska Fairbanks Tohoku earthquake: a surprise? If harnessed, the seismic energy from this earthquake would power a city the size of Los Angeles for an entire year. The Japan Meteorological Agency named this earthquake the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The ports at Hitachinaka, Hitachi, Soma, Shiogama, Kesennuma, Ofunato, Kamashi and Miyako were also damaged and closed to ships. [271] Voluntary reductions in electricity use by consumers in the Kanto area helped reduce the predicted frequency and duration of the blackouts. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant cooling system was damaged, raising fears of a meltdown. There are plans to install new teleseismometers with the ability to measure larger earthquakes, which would allow the calculation of a quake's moment magnitude scale in a timely manner. [39][74] 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, building large amounts of elastic energy. [242] His body was found on 2 April 2011 along Ocean Beach in Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon, 530 km (330 mi) to the north. Although the tsunami affected many of these places, the heights of the waves were minor. The surface energy of the seismic waves from the earthquake was calculated to be 1.9×1017 joules,[84] which is nearly double that of the 9.1 Mw 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that killed 230,000 people. 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). NHK BS News reported 2011-04-03-02:55 JST, One estimate of 10–15 minutes came from German seismologist Rainer Kind of the, Another estimate of 15–30 minutes came from Vasily V. Titov, director of the. [382], In this national crisis, the Japanese government provided Japanese Sign Language (JSL) interpreting at the press conferences related to the earthquake and tsunami. The large number of views made the video one of the most popular examples of sonification on the web. [108][109], On 7 December 2012 a large aftershock of magnitude 7.3 Mw caused a minor tsunami, and again on 26 October 2013 a small tsunami was recorded after a 7.1 Mw aftershock. [306], Japan declared a state of emergency following the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in the evacuation of nearby residents. 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. This page was last edited on 10 December 2020, at 22:39. Hence, earthquakes in this area with magnitudes of about 7 since 1926 had only released part of the accumulated energy. [269] TEPCO, which normally provides approximately 40 GW of electricity, announced that it could only provide about 30 GW, because 40% of the electricity used in the greater Tokyo area was supplied by reactors in the Niigata and Fukushima prefectures. The tsunami propagated throughout the Pacific Ocean region reaching the entire Pacific coast of North and South America from Alaska to Chile. There have been no immediate reports of damage or casualties as a result of the earthquake. The Japan Digital Archive is presented in English and Japanese and is hosted at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sendai was the nearest major city to the earthquake, 130 km (81 mi) from the epicenter; the earthquake occurred 373 km (232 mi) northeast of Tokyo. [273] Two substations, one in Shizuoka Prefecture and one in Nagano Prefecture, were able to convert between frequencies and transfer electricity from Kansai to Kanto and Tōhoku, but their capacity was limited to 1 GW. Japan specifically requested assistance from teams from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United States. Indian Ocean Earthquake, 26 December 2004. , 2011; Simons et a l. , 2011). Seismologists anticipated a very large quake would strike in the same place as the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake — in the Sagami Trough, southwest of Tokyo. There was a magnitude 7.2 earthquake on the 9th of March, 2 days before the 8.9-9.0 magnitude earthquake of the 11th. [72] In 2007, the probability of an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw 8.1–8.3 was estimated as 99% within the following 30 years.[73]. [182][183], In the Philippines, waves up to 0.5 m (1 ft 8 in) high hit the eastern seaboard of the country. [278] The peak electricity consumption within TEP's area was 12.46GW during the 2011 summer, 3.11GW (20%) less than the peak consumption in the previous year, and the overall consumption have been reduced by 11% in July with 17% in August compared to previous year. [101], The first sign international researchers had that the earthquake caused such a dramatic change in the Earth's rotation came from the United States Geological Survey which monitors Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) stations across the world. Just a few years after the … [55] By summer the Vice-minister for Economy, Trade and Industry, the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, and the head of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy had all lost their jobs. [298] Over 200,000 people were evacuated. This calculation is, in turn, based on the maximum amplitude of the seismic wave. [9] 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. [55][56] Many electrical generators ran out of fuel. Two days of seismic activity made available by the IRIS Consortium were compressed into two minutes of sound. [175][176] Russia evacuated 11,000 residents from coastal areas of the Kuril Islands. A magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck off Japan’s northeastern coast. [100] In Antarctica, the seismic waves from the earthquake were reported to have caused the Whillans Ice Stream to slip by about 0.5 metres (1 ft 8 in). The earthquake is often referred to in Japan as the Great East Japan Earthquake (東日本大震災, Higashi nihon daishinsai)[14][15][fn 1] and is also known as the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake,[30] the Great Sendai Earthquake,[31] the Great Tōhoku Earthquake,[31] and the great earthquake of March 11. The seismic events shown took place on that same day, between 01h41 and 23h59 (GMT). Its epicenter was underwater, 66 km (41 mi) off the coast of Sendai. Kyodo News, "Deaths, people missing set to top 1,600: Edano". A spill of a couple of litres of radioactive water occurred at Onagawa. [259] Eight people were missing and four bodies were discovered by the morning. [37] Residents of Sendai had only eight to ten minutes of warning, and more than a hundred evacuation sites were washed away. Subsequent analysis found that many Japanese nuclear plants, including Fukushima Daiichi, were not adequately protected against tsunamis. Some of the first research to come from the archive was a 2014 paper from the Digital Methods Initiative in Amsterdam about patterns of Twitter usage around the time of the disaster. [238], As of 27 May 2011, three Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members had died while conducting relief operations in Tōhoku. Such discrepancies in the warning were attributed by the JMA to the system's inability to distinguish between two different earthquakes that happened at around same time, as well as to the reduced number of reporting seismometers due to power outages and connection fails. [211], Of the 13,135 fatalities recovered by 11 April 2011, 12,143 or 92.5% died by drowning. This is the fourth largest earthquake in the world and the largest in Japan since instrumental recordings began in 1900. More than 5,000 aftershocks hit Japan in the year after the earthquake, the largest a magnitude 7.9. [51] In addition, some three thousands extra deaths have been identified as "earthquake-related deaths",[209][210] bringing the total number of deaths caused by the disaster to 19,575 as of 2017 September. [112], As of 11 March 2016[update] there had been 869 aftershocks of 5.0 Mw or greater, 118 of 6.0 Mw or greater, and 9 over 7.0 Mw as reported by the Japanese Meteorological Agency. [270] The reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Dai-ni plants were automatically taken offline when the first earthquake occurred and sustained major damage from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. 7.4 MJMA, while the U.S. Geological Survey lowered it to 7.1 magnitude services resumed. 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