TOHUKU EARTHQUAKE 2011
Japan is made up of 4 main islands and over 400 smaller islands in the Pacific
Ocean. Japan is in East Asia and is located on the boundary of 3 tectonic plates:
Philippines, Eurasian and the Pacific plate.
Is a HIC.
Life expectancy if 85 years – top 10 in the world.
98% of Japanese popula-on have access to clean drinking water.
GDP of $39,312 USD per person.
2.6 doctors per 1000 people.
15.2 years expected in school.
1.5 deaths per 1000 births – infant mortality rate.
Is an ageing popula-on due to low fer-lity rates – 1.34 births per woman.
The earthquake occurred on Friday 11th March at 14:46
Japanese -me, with the epicentre 129km east of Sendai (city with a popula-on of
1.082 million). It was a magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale and occurred at a depth
of 30km.
Is on a destruc-ve subduc-on boundary between the Pacific plate and the
Eurasian plate – has a slightly different fault line to a usual destruc-ve boundary
so the con-nental plate has built up pressure and been pushed upwards – s-ck
slip boundary – when this pressure was released the resul-ng impact wads a
tsunami with waves up to 40km high – moved 10km inland.
PRIMARY IMPACTS
o Ground shaking: parts of Japan were shi?ed 2.4 metres further east.
o Ground subsidence: a 400km stretch of coastline dropped ver-cally by 0.6 metres, which
allowed the tsunami to go over coastal defences and travel further and faster inland.
o Soil liquefac-on: occurred in land around Tokyo, which caused damage to over 1000
buildings.
o 15,845 people were killed, 3,375 people were missing and 5,894 people were injured.
o 128,479 proper-es were destroyed, 3,918 roads were damaged, and 78 bridges were
damaged.
o Around 4.4 million households in North-East Japan were le? without electricity.
o 300 hospitals were damaged and 11 were destroyed.
o Many landslides occurred due to the movement of the tectonic plates and the earthquakes.
The movement of the land also caused large scale damage to other structures such as dams
– in the Shirakawa- city region a dam ruptured and killed 13 people, with 2 people missing.
SECONDARY IMPACTS
o Tsunami caused by 5-8 metre upthrust along a 180km sec-on of seabed 60km off the east
coast of the Tohoku region of Japan – reached a maximum height of 39km at Miyako city and
waves up to 2m high hit the coast of Chile on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
Japan is made up of 4 main islands and over 400 smaller islands in the Pacific
Ocean. Japan is in East Asia and is located on the boundary of 3 tectonic plates:
Philippines, Eurasian and the Pacific plate.
Is a HIC.
Life expectancy if 85 years – top 10 in the world.
98% of Japanese popula-on have access to clean drinking water.
GDP of $39,312 USD per person.
2.6 doctors per 1000 people.
15.2 years expected in school.
1.5 deaths per 1000 births – infant mortality rate.
Is an ageing popula-on due to low fer-lity rates – 1.34 births per woman.
The earthquake occurred on Friday 11th March at 14:46
Japanese -me, with the epicentre 129km east of Sendai (city with a popula-on of
1.082 million). It was a magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale and occurred at a depth
of 30km.
Is on a destruc-ve subduc-on boundary between the Pacific plate and the
Eurasian plate – has a slightly different fault line to a usual destruc-ve boundary
so the con-nental plate has built up pressure and been pushed upwards – s-ck
slip boundary – when this pressure was released the resul-ng impact wads a
tsunami with waves up to 40km high – moved 10km inland.
PRIMARY IMPACTS
o Ground shaking: parts of Japan were shi?ed 2.4 metres further east.
o Ground subsidence: a 400km stretch of coastline dropped ver-cally by 0.6 metres, which
allowed the tsunami to go over coastal defences and travel further and faster inland.
o Soil liquefac-on: occurred in land around Tokyo, which caused damage to over 1000
buildings.
o 15,845 people were killed, 3,375 people were missing and 5,894 people were injured.
o 128,479 proper-es were destroyed, 3,918 roads were damaged, and 78 bridges were
damaged.
o Around 4.4 million households in North-East Japan were le? without electricity.
o 300 hospitals were damaged and 11 were destroyed.
o Many landslides occurred due to the movement of the tectonic plates and the earthquakes.
The movement of the land also caused large scale damage to other structures such as dams
– in the Shirakawa- city region a dam ruptured and killed 13 people, with 2 people missing.
SECONDARY IMPACTS
o Tsunami caused by 5-8 metre upthrust along a 180km sec-on of seabed 60km off the east
coast of the Tohoku region of Japan – reached a maximum height of 39km at Miyako city and
waves up to 2m high hit the coast of Chile on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
