The Effects of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

By Megan

On the historic day of March 11, 2011 Japan faced the strongest earthquake in its history. With a magnitude of 9.1 the earthquake struck below the North Pacific, 130 kilometers away from the largest city in the Tohoku region: Sendei. Although this earthquake was not the only contributor of the thousands of lives lost, there was a tsunami that was triggered by tectonic plates of the earthquake. 

The Tohoku region is located in the north of Japan’s largest island, Honshu. It is known for its six prefectures, mountainous regions, and the amount of historic culture found in its landmarks. In the winter, it gets some of the biggest snowfalls in Japan making it a very popular place for tourists and locals to ski and stay in resorts. Japan is one of the country’s that experience earthquakes and tsunamis commonly due to it being above four major tectonic plates. With these experiences they were able to create shock absorbers, to allow stress not to be imposed on the structure of the building, and many evacuation procedures to ensure the safety of its citizens. Even with all of these safety measures in place, how was there so much damage and loss of lives in this earthquake? 

On the day of the earthquake there was sudden movement in the subduction zone, where tectonic and oceanic plates collide, with the deep-sea trench of Japan. The oceanic plate, in this case the Pacific, is more dense causing it to be forced beneath the continental plate, Okhotsk plate. This movement caused an earthquake to begin at 2:46 pm and not even a half an hour later a tsunami arrived at the coast rising over sea walls. Tsunamis are caused by changes in the shape of the seafloor, which in the case of the Tohoku earthquake hundreds of square kilometers were uplifted, displacing the prior seafloor. This water then created the tsunami which had a height of over 40 meters, and caused more than 18,000 fatalities. 

In addition to the fatalities, the tsunami collided with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. This caused power and cooling systems to be destroyed triggering nuclear meltdowns at three reactors. Furthermore, at one of the reactors a hydrogen explosion occurred releasing radiation into the air. What do these nuclear meltdowns mean to the people that are seeking shelter from the tsunami and earthquake?

 The nuclear meltdowns led to high radioactive releases, which can begin illnesses or bring death. Thankfully this was not the case for the people living here, and instead Japan followed protocol and over 100,000 people were evacuated and no one had died of radiation sickness.

Following the events that occurred, on April 12 the event was ranked at a level 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale by Japan which indicates that it is a major accident with impact on people and the environment, due to the radiation being present for several days with a total outcome of 940 PBq. On April 24th, Japan’s government announced a 2-kilometer exclusion zone from the nuclear plant that had spread to nine municipalities. 

On December 16, after many efforts of the nuclear power plant workers trying to stabilize the plant, Japan had declared a cold shutdown. A cold shutdown is when the atmospheric pressure and temperature hit below 200 degrees fahrenheit, making more time and energy needed to restart the chain reaction after maintenance had been performed. Over a year later, Japan had concluded that the nuclear accident was due to a lack of adequate safety and crisis management by the plant’s operator, and lax oversight by nuclear regulators and collision. 

 Statistics show that 2313 deaths occurred alone from the Fuskushima prefecture being destroyed, and this is additional to the 18,000 lives lost from the earthquake and tsunami. The restoration of Tohoku was made possible with the help of Australia, China, India, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United States through sending search-and-rescue teams, and international relief organizations such as the Red Cross guaranteed financial and material support to Japan. 

At first the rescue work was paused due to the difficulty of getting people and items to the location. This was due to how in addition to the radiation and the exclusion zone was the inclement weather that prevented air operations. Workers in the area where the earthquake had hit had struggled with widespread seas of destruction, so much so that whole towns and cities had been washed away or covered by debris of the natural disaster. Thankfully, some people were fortunate to have been saved in the first couple of days after the tsunami. While the majority of the rescue work had pertained to rescuing the bodies that had washed ashore after being swept into the sea by the tsunami. 

Despite the thousands of lives lost in the highest recorded earthquake in the region, Japan continues to grow from this accident by improving its safety procedures that are implemented on buildings, shelters, and nuclear power plants. 

Works Cited

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