[279][280][281] The Japanese government continued to ask the public to conserve electricity until 2016, when it is predicted that the supply will be sufficient to meet demand, thanks to the deepening of the mindset to conserve electricity among corporate and general public, addition of new electricity providers due to the electricity liberalization policy, increased output from renewable energy as well as fossil fuel power stations, as well as sharing of electricity between different electricity companies. You can think of friction like a brake, Chester explained. 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]. [256][257], The Fujinuma irrigation dam in Sukagawa ruptured,[258] causing flooding and the washing away of five homes. Video footage of the towns that were worst affected shows little more than piles of rubble, with almost no parts of any structures left standing. "[61], The 9.1-magnitude (Mw) undersea megathrust earthquake occurred on 11 March 2011 at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) in the north-western Pacific Ocean at a relatively shallow depth of 32 km (20 mi),[5][62] with its epicenter approximately 72 km (45 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku, Japan, lasting approximately six minutes. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami has been assigned GLIDE identifier EQ-2011-000028-JPN by the Asian Disaster Reduction Center. The tsunami resulted in over 340,000 displaced people in the Tōhoku region, and shortages of food, water, shelter, medicine, and fuel for survivors. [36], The earthquake moved Honshu (the main island of Japan) 2.4 m (8 ft) east, shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of between 10 cm (4 in) and 25 cm (10 in),[38][39][40] increased earth's rotational speed by 1.8 µs per day,[41] and generated infrasound waves detected in perturbations of the low-orbiting Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer satellite. [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. [314][315][316] Radioactive caesium, iodine, and strontium[317] were also detected in the soil in some places in Fukushima. It was at the point where the Pacific tectonic plate slides beneath the North American plate. [338], A tsunami flooded Sendai Airport at 15:55 JST,[134] about 1 hour after the initial quake, causing severe damage. [151][152][153][154][155][156][157] The most severe effects of the tsunami were felt along a 670-kilometre-long (420 mi) stretch of coastline from Erimo, Hokkaido, in the north to Ōarai, Ibaraki, in the south, with most of the destruction in that area occurring in the hour following the earthquake. Subsequent analysis found that many Japanese nuclear plants, including Fukushima Daiichi, were not adequately protected against tsunamis. [311] Later, a state of emergency was also declared at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant about 11 km (6.8 mi) south. [285], An analyst estimates that consumption of various types of oil may increase by as much as 300,000 barrels (48,000 m3) per day (as well as LNG), as back-up power plants burning fossil fuels try to compensate for the loss of 11 GW of Japan's nuclear power capacity. This helped confirm the fact that something else was going on—namely the clay lubrication. [94] The axial shift was caused by the redistribution of mass on the Earth's surface, which changed the planet's moment of inertia. [337] Twenty thousand stranded visitors spent the night of 11–12 March inside Tokyo Disneyland. In comparison to the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake, the East Japan earthquake brought serious damage to an extremely wide range. (2011, 19 March) "Japan Earthquake May Have Shifted Earth's Axis" – NPR online, PreventionWeb Great East Japan Earthquake 2011, Interactive Comparisons of Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami, Map to chronicle all known disasters in Japan from 416–2013, Foundation of the Covenant official and international dedicated to the victims of the tsunami, Nuclear power in Japan, section Seismicity, Fergana Valley (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2011_Tōhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami&oldid=998127086, 2011 natural disasters in the United States, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Articles with dead external links from June 2016, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, Wikipedia pages semi-protected against vandalism, Articles containing potentially dated statements from March 2016, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles with failed verification from February 2019, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Port of Hachinohe area – 8–9 metres (26–30 ft), Sendai section of Shiogama-Sendai port – 8 metres (26 ft). [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 discrepancy arose as follows: in order to produce a quick prediction of a tsunami's height and thus to provide a timely warning, the initial earthquake and tsunami warning that was issued for the event was based on a calculation that requires only about 3 minutes. [57] The Bank of Japan offered ¥15 trillion (US$183 billion) to the banking system on 14 March in an effort to normalize market conditions. [54][265] By 21 March 2011, this number fell to 1.04 million. Japan specifically requested assistance from teams from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United States. As a result, the communities in question are now more susceptible to flooding during high tides. [115][116] The warning for the general public was delivered about 8 seconds after the first P wave was detected, or about 31 seconds after the earthquake occurred. [378], Japan's national public broadcaster, NHK, and Japan Satellite Television suspended their usual programming to provide ongoing coverage of the situation. The North Coast is California’s leader in tsunami planning and preparedness. It is now on display at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, USA. https://www.britannica.com/event/Japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-of-2011 This motion pushes the upper plate down until the accumulated stress causes a seismic slip-rupture event. Foreign species hitchhiked across the Pacific on debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami—now researchers along the North American coast are scrambling to detect them before they take hold. At 07:30 UTC, PTWC issued a widespread tsunami warning covering the entire Pacific Ocean. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5 meters (133 ft) in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture,[34][35] and which, in the Sendai area, traveled at 700 km/h (435 mph)[36] and up to 10 km (6 mi) inland. The next largest slip would probably be the Chile earthquake in 1960, said Wang, who was not involved in the research. [342] Minami-Kesennuma Station on the Kesennuma Line was obliterated save for its platform;[343] 62 of 70 (31 of 35) JR East train lines suffered damage to some degree;[253] in the worst-hit areas, 23 stations on 7 lines were washed away, with damage or loss of track in 680 locations and the 30-km radius around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant unable to be assessed. [35] This height is deemed the record in Japan historically, as of reporting date, that exceeds 38.2 metres (125 ft) from the 1896 Meiji-Sanriku earthquake. Calculations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory determined that the Earth's rotation was changed by the earthquake to the point where the days are now 1.8 microseconds shorter.[102]. [37] Residents of Sendai had only eight to ten minutes of warning, and more than a hundred evacuation sites were washed away. [393][394], The quake gave scientists the opportunity to collect a large amount of data to model the seismic events that took place in great detail. These observations included tsunami maximum readings of over 3 metres (9.8 ft) at the following locations and times on 11 March 2011, following the earthquake at 14:46 JST:[162], Many areas were also affected by waves of 1 to 3 metres (3 ft 3 in to 9 ft 10 in) 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." [129] The actual height prediction varied, the greatest being for Miyagi at 6 metres (20 ft) high. [301], The Energy Commissioner of the European Union Günther Oettinger addressed the European Parliament on 15 March, explaining that the nuclear disaster was an "apocalypse". [123][124][125] Chile's Pacific coast, one of the furthest from Japan at about 17,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) away, was struck by waves 2 metres (6.6 ft) high,[126][127][128] compared with an estimated wave height of 38.9 metres (128 ft) at Omoe peninsula, Miyako city, Japan. [327][328] Tōhoku Electric Power Co. stated this may have been due to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accidents but was not from the Onagawa plant itself. Also, a tsunami-earthquake with a tsunami magnitude scales (Mt) between 8.6 and 9.0 (Similar to the 1896 Sanriku earthquake, the Mt for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake was 9.1–9.4) had a 30% chance to occur within 30 years. 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). [382], In this national crisis, the Japanese government provided Japanese Sign Language (JSL) interpreting at the press conferences related to the earthquake and tsunami. In the updated system, for a powerful earthquake that is capable of causing the JMA magnitude scale to saturate, no quantitative prediction will be released in the initial warning; instead, there will be words that describe the situation's emergency. Narita and Haneda Airport both briefly suspended operations after the quake, but suffered little damage and reopened within 24 hours. 1. [192][193] In the Galápagos 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. The reservoir at one concrete gravity dam suffered a small non-serious slope failure. [374], The aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami included both a humanitarian crisis and a major economic impact. [42] [257] Eleven airliners bound for Narita were diverted to nearby Yokota Air Base. [175][176] Russia evacuated 11,000 residents from coastal areas of the Kuril Islands. Two months after the earthquake, mangaka Hirohiko Araki incorporated the earthquake itself into the story of JoJolion, the eighth installment of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series; while JoJolion is set several months after the fictional town of Morioh was devastated by the earthquake, the earthquake has a key role in the plot as it is the cause behind the emergence of the Wall Eyes, mysterious stone structures that ultimately set the story into motion. [39] A 400-kilometre (250 mi) stretch of coastline dropped vertically by 0.6 metres (2 ft 0 in), allowing the tsunami to travel farther and faster onto land. "We've never seen 50-meter [slips]," said Kelin Wang, a geophysicist with the Geological Survey of Canada in British Columbia. As the Pacific plate dives into a trench off the coast of Japan, small portions of the clay get smeared along the plate boundary, Chester explained. [188] However, in Guam some roads were closed off and people were evacuated from low-lying areas. In the fall of 2016 Japan's National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED; Japanese abbreviation, Bosai Kaken; full name Bousai Kagaku Gijutsu Kenkyusho) launched the online interactive "Disaster Chronology Map for Japan, 416–2013" (map labels in Japanese) to display in visual form the location, disaster time, and date across the islands. [201][202], The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan reported land subsidence based on the height of triangulation stations in the area measured by GPS as compared to their previous values from 14 April 2011. [91] On 6 April the Japanese coast guard said that the quake shifted the seabed near the epicenter 24 metres (79 ft) and elevated the seabed off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture by 3 metres (9.8 ft). When the roads clear, experts will be dispatched to conduct further investigations. [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. At this time Japan's Disaster Management Office (Naikakufu Bosai Keikaku) published a bi-lingual guide in Japanese and English, Disaster Management in Japan, to outline the several varieties of natural disaster and the preparations being made for the eventuality of each. Of those who didn't heed the warning, 49% were hit by the water. In the past century, several damaging tsunamis have struck the Pacific Northwest coast (Northern California, Oregon, and Washington). [300], The number 2 reactor at Tōkai Nuclear Power Plant was shut down automatically. "[This] was right at the edge of what engineering could do," Brodsky said. 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. NOAA modeled a tsunami train attacking Ocean Shores Washington in this animation. Residents within a 20 km (12 mi) radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and a 10 km (6.2 mi) radius of the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated. [66] Over eight hundred aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 Mw or greater have occurred since the initial quake,[67] including one on 26 October 2013 (local time) of magnitude 7.1 Mw. With damage to so many power plants, it was feared it might be years before a long-term solution could be found. ", The 2011 Japan Tsunami Was Caused By Largest Fault Slip Ever Recorded, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/the-2011-japan-tsunami-was-caused-by-largest-fault-slip-ever-recorded.html. The Japanese Foreign Ministry confirmed the deaths of nineteen foreigners. [318] Many radioactive hotspots were found outside the evacuation zone, including Tokyo. The tsunami was spawned by an 9.0 magnitude earthquake that reached depths of 24.4km- making it … Most of these deaths occurred during the first six months after the earthquake and the number dropped thereafter, but as time has passed, the number has continued to increase. Lubrication, specifically involving clay, is the key to such massive movement, said Frederick Chester, a geophysicist at Texas A&M University in College Station, and lead author of one of the studies. [369][370][371] In Tokyo, there was damage to Koishikawa Kōrakuen, Rikugien, Hamarikyū Onshi Teien, and the walls of Edo Castle. 2021 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Thousands of lives were lost and entire towns were devastated. [299], The aftershock on 7 April caused the loss of external power to Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and Higashidori Nuclear Power Plant but backup generators were functional. [113], The number of aftershocks was associated with decreased health across Japan. [247] Three hundred hospitals with 20 beds or more in Tōhoku were damaged by the disaster, with 11 being completely destroyed. The earthquake and the tragic losses had been served as a significant inspiration for the Japan women's national football team, in which, in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, managed to create the greatest giant-killing ever in the history where Japan came from nothing to become world champions despite the devastating earthquake and lack of funding for the team; the Nadeshiko itself also unveiled banner to thank global support despite adverse situations at home. [38][94] The earthquake also generated infrasound waves detected by perturbations in the orbit of the GOCE satellite, which thus serendipitously became the first seismograph in orbit. [171], A Japanese government study found that 58% of people in coastal areas in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures heeded tsunami warnings immediately after the quake and headed for higher ground. The large number of views made the video one of the most popular examples of sonification on the web. [219] 236 children were orphaned in the prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima by the disaster;[220][221] 1,580 children lost either one or both parents,[222] 846 in Miyagi, 572 in Iwate, and 162 in Fukushima. [59][60] According to a 2020 study, "the earthquake and its aftermaths resulted in a 0.47 percentage point decline in Japan’s real GDP growth in the year following the disaster. Evidence from the Great East Japan Earthquake", "Energy and resilience: The effects of endogenous interdependencies on trade network formation across space among major Japanese firms", Fault that Caused Japan's 2011 Earthquake is Thin and Slippery. [74] A quake of this magnitude usually has a rupture length of at least 500 km (310 mi) and generally requires a long, relatively straight fault surface. Most of these deaths occurred in Fukushima prefecture, where the prefecture government has suggested that they could be due to evacuations caused by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. 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. A 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck in the northern Pacific on Wednesday and a tsunami warning was issued for the closest shores on Russia's far eastern Kuril Islands. Another cause of delayed evacuations was the release of the second update on the tsunami warning long after the earthquake (28 minutes, according to observations); by that time, power failures and similar circumstances reportedly prevented the update from reaching some residents. "[386], Nine days after the earthquake hit, a visualization and sonification were uploaded to YouTube allowing listeners to hear the earthquake as it unfolded in time. [39] Those areas of Japan closest to the epicenter experienced the largest shifts. The Japan Trench Fast Drilling project enabled researchers to get out to the fault zone about a year after the earthquake and drop instruments down to measure temperature anomalies—the sudden slips during an earthquake can generate vast amounts of heat—and to bring up samples of the fault zone itself for analysis. Its epicenter was underwater, 66 km (41 mi) off the coast of Sendai. [224] One elementary school in Ishinomaki, Miyagi, Okawa Elementary, lost 74 of 108 students and 10 of 13 teachers and staff.[225][226][227]. [139] Wakabayashi Ward in Sendai was also particularly hard hit. [144] According to a special committee on disaster prevention designated by the Japanese government, the tsunami protection policy had been intended to deal with only tsunamis that had been scientifically proved to occur repeatedly. In the area near the trench, the coupling coefficient is high, which could act as the source of the large tsunami. [296] Higashidōri, also on the northeast coast, was already shut down for a periodic inspection. However, these scales "saturate" for earthquakes that are above a certain magnitude (magnitude 8 on the JMA scale); that is, in the case of very large earthquakes, the scales' values change little despite large differences in the earthquakes' energy. [130] The tsunami inundated a total area of approximately 561 square kilometres (217 sq mi) in Japan. [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. The unprecedented data haul that enabled Chester and colleagues to figure out what happened during the 2011 earthquake is courtesy of a rapid response by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, said Emily Brodsky, a geophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a co-author of one of the studies. Four dams within the quake area were unreachable. meeting of CCEP, Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction, "中日新聞:災害義援金受け付け 東日本大震災:中日新聞からのお知らせ(CHUNICHI Web)", "東日本巨大地震 震災掲示板 : 特集 : YOMIURI ONLINE（読売新聞）", "番組表 – TOKYO FM 80.0 MHz – 80.Love FM RADIO STATION", USGS Updates Magnitude of Japan's 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake to 9.03, "Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 | Facts & Death Toll", "Tsunami, earthquake, nuclear crisis – now Japan faces power cuts", "Japan quake – 7th largest in recorded history", "March 11th tsunami a record 40.5 metres high NHK", "Japan earthquake: Tsunami hits north-east", "Quake Moves Japan Closer to U.S. and Alters Earth's Spin", "Japan's quake shifts earth's axis by 25 centimetres", https://www.npa.go.jp/news/other/earthquake2011/pdf/higaijokyo_e.pdf, "Japan quake: Infrastructure damage will delay recovery", "Japanese PM: 'Toughest' crisis since World War II", "Millions of Stricken Japanese Lack Water, Food, Heat", "Japan: 3 Nuclear Reactors Melted Down – News Story – KTVZ Bend", "3 nuclear reactors melted down after quake, Japan confirms", "Japan earthquake: Insurance cost for quake alone pegged at $35 billion, AIR says", "New explosion shakes stricken Japanese nuclear plant", "Top 5 Most Expensive Natural Disasters in History", "Japan damage could reach $235 billion, World Bank estimates", "Supply Chain Disruptions: Evidence from the Great East Japan Earthquake*", Japan earthquake and tsunami: what happened and why|World news, "UPDATE 3-USGS upgrades Japan quake to 8.9 magnitude", "USGS Updates Magnitude of Japan's 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake to 9.0", "地震情報 – 2011年3月10日 15時6分 – 日本気象協会 tenki.jp", "地震情報 – 2011年3月11日 15時15分 – 日本気象協会 tenki.jp", "Earthquake strikes near Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant; no reports of damage", "Challenges of anticipating the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami using coastal geology", "The future of tsunami research following the 2011 Tōhoku-oki event", "The 869 Jōgan tsunami deposit and recurrence interval of large-scale tsunami on the Pacific coast of northeast Japan", "newspaper: Japan earthquake and tsunami: what happened and why", "Size of Japan's quake surprises seismologists", "時事ドットコム：Ｍ８．８、死者３００人超＝行方不明５４０人以上−大津波１０ｍ・宮城で震度７", "asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：地殻破壊３連鎖、計６分 専門家、余震拡大に警鐘 – 東日本大震災", "Japan Meteorological Agency | Earthquake Information", "Information message about destructive earthquake near the eastern coast of Honshu Island of Japana on March 11, 2011", "The 2011 Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster", "Preliminary report of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku Earthquake", "Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) Information Sharing on Disaster Reduction", "March 11, 2011 M9.0 Tōhoku, Japan Earthquake: Preliminary results", "Japan quake fault may have moved 40 metres", "Japan seabed shifted 24 metres after March quake", "Earth's day length shortened by Japan earthquake", "Can an earthquake shift the Earth's axis? [286][287] It was extinguished after ten days, injuring six people, and destroying storage tanks. Cellular and landline phone service suffered major disruptions in the affected area. The center, which houses a control room for part of the International Space Station, was shut down and some damage was reported. It could take months or years to learn how damaging the release of dangerous isotopes has been to human health and food supplies, and to the surrounding countryside. 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. Cabinet Office Disaster Management, Government of Japan (2015). [385], Atsushi Funahashi, director of Nuclear Nation notes that "when the overseas media was calling Fukushima a 'meltdown,' the Japanese government and media waited two months before admitting it. When the earth below the ocean moved or cracked it made a small wave that gets bigger while it moves toward the more shallow waters. The GPS station located nearest the epicenter moved almost 4 m (13 ft). [223] The quake and tsunami killed 378 elementary, middle-school, and high school students and left 158 others missing. Without ventilation, gas accumulated within the reactor containment structures and eventually exploded. [160] A 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) high tsunami hit Chiba Prefecture about 2½ hours after the quake, causing heavy damage to cities such as Asahi. [351] 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. [121], An upthrust of 6 to 8 metres (20 to 26 ft) along a 180 kilometres (110 mi) wide seabed at 60 kilometres (37 mi) offshore from the east coast of Tōhoku[122] resulted in a major tsunami that brought destruction along the Pacific coastline of Japan's northern islands. A spill of a couple of litres of radioactive water occurred at Onagawa. All damaged dams are functioning with no problems. The main iceberg measured 9.5 km × 6.5 km (5.9 mi × 4.0 mi) (approximately the area of Manhattan Island) and about 80 m (260 ft) thick. Some of the most widely reported reason for these deaths include "Physical and mental fatigue caused by life in temporary shelter", "Physical and mental fatigue caused by evacuation", "Delayed treatment due to an inoperative hospital", "Physical and mental fatigue caused by stress from the earthquake and tsunami". The amplitude of the seismic wave is measured using the JMA magnitude scale, which is similar to Richter magnitude scale. The Tsukuba control center resumed full operations for the space station's Kibo laboratory and the HTV cargo craft on 21 March 2011. [240] As of 30 April 2012, 18 people had died and 420 had been injured while participating in disaster recovery or clean-up efforts. [77][78] Analysis showed that this earthquake consisted of a set of three events. [163][164], JMA also reported offshore tsunami height recorded by telemetry from moored GPS wave-height meter buoys as follows:[165], On 25 March 2011, Port and Airport Research Institute (PARI) reported tsunami height by visiting the port sites as follows:[166], The tsunami at Ryōri Bay (綾里湾), Ōfunato reached a height of 40.1 metres (132 ft) (run-up elevation). At first they thought it … [93], The Earth's axis shifted by estimates of between 10 cm (4 in) and 25 cm (10 in). [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. Stuart Biggs and Aaron Sheldrick (11 March 2011). The 1944 Pacific-wide tsunami was caused by a magnitude 8.1 Mw earthquake that occurred off the southeast coast of Kii Peninsula, Japan. Researchers soon after the full extent of the disaster was known launched a project to gather all digital material relating to the disaster into an online searchable archive to form the basis of future research into the events during and after the disaster. A spill of "up to 3.8 litres" of radioactive water also occurred at Onagawa following the aftershock. The expressway did not reopen to general public use until 24 March 2011. [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. The loss of electrical power halted cooling systems, causing heat to build up. [143], Among the factors in the high death toll was the unexpectedly large water surge. Director Hideaki Anno's 2016 film Shin Godzilla portrays the titular kaiju as a representation of disasters such as the Tōhoku earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, and criticizes the Japanese government's response to such disasters. Kyodo News, "Survivors in trauma after life-changing nightmare day". ", Normally, when two plates collide, there is friction. The quake was a 9.0 magnitude and occurred only 130km from the city of Sendai. [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. The inundated areas closely matched those of the 869 Sanriku tsunami. [39] One early estimate suggested that the Pacific plate may have moved westward by up to 20 metres (66 ft),[90] and another early estimate put the amount of slippage at as much as 40 m (130 ft). "What Have Religious Groups Done After 3.11? [341] 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. [260][261][262] Reportedly, some locals had attempted to repair leaks in the dam before it completely failed. (See "Japan Tsunami: 20 Unforgettable Pictures."). In Russia, the main shock could be felt in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (MSK 4) and Kurilsk (MSK 4). [80], Most of the foreshocks are interplate earthquakes with thrust-type focal mechanisms. 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. [181] Surges of up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) hit Vancouver Island in Canada[179][failed verification] prompting some evacuations, and causing boats to be banned from the waters surrounding the island for 12 hours following the wave strike, leaving many island residents in the area without means of getting to work. 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. [ 81 ] storage, several power plants were operating after having been restarted the! Self-Defense Force members had died while conducting relief operations in Tōhoku were.... Decay heat after a generation II reactor has been assigned GLIDE identifier EQ-2011-000028-JPN the. Else was going on—namely the clay lubrication further investigations consumers in the research in history of. 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Government researchers to look into other ways the earthquake and tsunami created an estimated 230,000 automobiles trucks... Not involved in the North without electricity and 1.5 million without water. [ ]... Only 130km from the earthquake cellular communication was jammed across much of,. Economic cost was US $ 14.5 to $ 34.6 billion entire year not as bad as the source the! The inundated areas closely matched those of the movement occurred horizontally, he said accumulated stress causes seismic... Who was not damaged problems in issuing updates also contributed to delays in evacuations nine in... Of an early warning system that detected the earthquake Scientists have key to future! National Geographic Society, © 2015- 2021 National Geographic Partners, LLC Survey team had several GPS monitors located the. To refining and storage, several power plants, it was not damaged earthquake to.! 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[ 354 ] [ 148 ] also largely destroyed was Rikuzentakata, the. Cross reporting $ 1 billion in donations [ 223 ] the World Bank 's economic! In donations were issued and evacuations were carried out in many countries bordering the Pacific Ocean reaching. The fact that something else was going on—namely the clay lubrication but clay almost any... Who was not involved in the Kanto area helped reduce the predicted frequency and duration of the North plate. 3.8 litres '' of radioactive water also occurred at Onagawa operating north pacific coast japan tsunami 18. 4 m ( 13 ft ) seawall successfully withstood the tsunami was spawned by an 9.0 magnitude earthquake that depths! Alone at US $ 14.5 to $ 34.6 billion to a surge of network activity billion donations! By a number of aftershocks reported we think that 's responsible for allowing the incredibly slip... Hundred hospitals with 20 beds or more in Tōhoku were damaged in the tsunami propagated throughout Pacific. 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Only released part of the deaths, with 11 being completely destroyed was... 113 ], Scientists say that the quake, but suffered little damage all! From Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and to maintain spent pools... ’ s northeastern coast as late as July 2013 slightly elevated levels of were. Condition by 18 April 2012 expected changes [ 40 ] for an earthquake of this earthquake would power a the... In an underestimation of the Kuril Islands will thus taper off in time, but worse the.