Hazards - Japan Tsunami Flashcards
Background information
1) Where is the Japan situated on? And between which plates?
2) What does its location make Japan?
Japan is situated on a subduction zone (destructive boundary) between the Eurasian, North American and Pacific Plates.
Therefore Japan is very vulnerable to eathquakes due to its location.
Background information
1) What happened in Japan before the earthquake and state the characteristics?
2) Define foreshock
Two day prior to the earthquake, Japan experienced a foreshock of around 7.2 magnitude; a sign of a larger earthquake.
Foreshock: earthquake that precedes larger eathquakes in the same location.
Background information
1)When did the Japan earthquake occur?
2)Where exactly did it do the most damage?
On Friday 11th March 2011 at 2:46pm, an earthquake struck 70m off the coast of Sendai, with a magnitude of 9.0.
Background information
What did the earthquake do to Japan and the earth in terms of location?
The earthquake shifted Japan by 50m and changed the axis of the Earth by 10cm.
Background information
What was the secondary impact of the earthquake?
The secondary impact of the earthquake was a huge tsunami (ranging from 1 to 10m) struck the coast of Sendai; there were also many aftershocks.
Primary effects
1) Why did the earthquake cause less damage to the infrastructure?
2) How many houses were collapsed?
3) How many homes were left without electricity and water?
- The earthquake caused limited damage due to buildings being built from earthquake proof adaptions.
- Over 100,000 homes collapsed.
- 700,000 homes were left to collapse.
- 4.4 million homes were left without electricity.
- 1.5 million homes were left without water.
Primary effects
- How many fishing ports were damaged?
- How many buildings were destroyed?
- What was the total damage cost?
- 10% of fishing ports were damaged.
- 127,000 buildings were completely destroyed.
- The total damage caused a cost of $300 billion; the most costliest disaster in history.
Primary effects
What happened to the coasts od Sendai, despite it being protected by large sea walls?
Despite the large coasts being protected by large sea walls, there were still too small to act as a barrier and it completely destroyed the coasts of Sendai as the property and infrastructure was washed away.
Secondary effects
What happened to the Fukushima Power plant?
The Fukushima Power Plant: although it was turned off during the event, it was still damaged by the flooding and the cooling systems didn’t work and resulted into 3 meltdowns.
As the tsunami flooded the back generators, people feared that themselves, the land and crops was contaminated with radiation.
Secondary effects
The Japanese government’s preparation and response to the event reduced the long-term effects.
What were the secondary effects?
The Japanese government’s preparation and response to the event reduced the long-term effects.
- Increase in unemployment.
- Severe trauma from the event.
- 56 bridges and 26 railsways were damaged
- Caused several ice slabs to calve and damage California’s property.
- The tsunami took 10 minutes to reach the coast with waves upto 38m high; causes secondary effects as the waves carried lots of debris and sediment that further destroyed the areas and displaced 3,282 people.
Secondary effects
- 56 ——— and — railways were washed along the —— coast of Honshu; this ————— the aid that was arriving.
- Further afield, tsunami caused lots of massive —- ——— to calve (break away) from —————– Ice Shelf and damaged the ————— property.
- 56 bridges and 26 railways were washed along the east coast of Honshu; this hindered the aid that was arriving.
- Further afield, tsunami caused lots of massive ice slabs to calve (break away) from Sutzberger Ice Shelf and damaged the California’s property.
Short-term responses
- How long did it take for warnings to be issued?
- Nuclear ——– ———— were shut down.
- The army, search and rescue teams were ———— quickly.
- —- countries pledged money, gave water and food, and ————– ———— .
- Warnings were issued within 3 minutes.
- Nuclear power stations were shut down.
- The army, search and rescue teams were deployed quickly.
- 91 countries pledged money, gave water and food, and temporary shelters.
Short-term responses
- A task force was set up to eatch the Japanese ————— ————
- Tsunami sirens were set off to give people at least 20 minutes to reach – —— ———–, but it wasn’t enough time for some people.
- PM Naoto Kan held a ——– —————– to urge the population to —— ——-
- A task force was set up to eatch the Japanese econimic market.
- Tsunami sirens were set off to give people at least 20 minutes to reach a high ground, but it wasn’t enough time for some people.
- PM Naoto Kan held a press conference to urge the population to stay calm.
Short-term responses
- What did The Japan Meterological Agency (JMA) do?
- How many people were evacuated from a 20km radius around FUkushima plant?
- What did the AT & T (An American Telecommunications corporation) do?
- The Japan Meterological Agency (JMA) supplied information of the event and urged people of coastal areas to avoid going into their homes due to a large tsunami.
- 140,00 residents were evacuated from a 20km radius around Fukushima Plant.
- AT & T (An American Telecommunications corporation) maintained wireless and telepohone networks to people communicate free of charge.
Long term responses
What were the long-term responses?
- The Japanese government tried really hard to rebuild places and this has been very quick.
- many locals have grouped together to create businesses to try and help their communities recover.
- Japanese banks offered a lot of money to stabilise the Yen; by using Yen the government was able to allocate funds and support the affected areas.
- Charities such as World Vision Helped community building within the temporary shelter, installed boreholes, emergency water storage, solar panels for emergueny power in future disasters, providing temporary class rooms and child friendly spaces (to give emotional support to recover from trauma, areas to play, learn and feel secured).
