Tohoku - earthquake Flashcards
What was the date and magnitude of the earthquake
11 march 2011
9.0 on the richter scale
Where was the epicentre and focus
Epicentre - 43 miles east of Tohoku
Focus - 20 miles below the surface
How long was the earthquake and what did it cause
6 minutes long
Caused a tsunami which was over 40 metres high at certain places
What was the cause of the earthquake
How much energy did it release
The oceanic Pacific plate being forced under the continental Eurasian plate
It release 600 million times the energy of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb
Short term impacts on people
16,000 people died, 6,000 injured, 130,000 people displaced, 2,500 remained missing
Nuclear meltdown - a 9 metre wave flooded the Fukushima power plant, this caused people to lose energy and there were 4.4 million people without power in North-East Japan
330,000 buildings, 2,100 roads, 56 bridges and 26 railways destroyed
300 hospitals damaged, 11 destroyed
Short term impacts on environment
Fore and aftershocks - over 800 earthquake around 4.5 on the Richter scale were recorded following the earthquake
Tsunami - devastated towns, caused damage to environment up to 6 miles in land
Land fall - coastal areas experienced the ground up to 50cm on the coasts
Long Term impacts on people
Cost the economy US$235 billion (most expensive natural disaster in history)
Nuclear meltdown of seven reactors in Fukushima power plant, radiation was 8x its normal
Long term impacts on environment
The quake moved parts of Japan 2.4 metres closer to America
a 250 mile stretch of coastline dropped 0.6 metres, allowing the tsunami to travel further inland
Pacific plate slipped Westwards 20-40 metres
Seabed near the epicentre moved24 metres
Moved the earths access shortening the days by 1.8 microseconds
Liquefaction occurred in most of Tokyo built on reclaimed land which damaged 1046 buildings
Responses
Rescue services and the army went to affected areas to clear roads and create pathways
Doctors and nurses were flown from other parts of the country to help and many patients were flown far out of the emergency area to receive treatment
The army built shelters to house the 300,000 left homeless
The government set up a budget of 23 trillion yen to rebuild houses in the worst effected area
The Japanese received over $1 billion in donations from the Red Cross and 30,000 emergency relief kits and 14,000 sleeping kits
Future strategies
Predicting earthquakes - £70 million was spent on lasers to detect micro movements
Practicing for earthquakes - every year on the first of September, an earthquake and tsunami drill takes place
Earthquake proof buildings - billions of pounds were spent to re-enforce buildings
Setting up early warning systems
