JAPAN TSUNAMI

Introduction
Tsunami is Japanese for "harbor wave." It is a series of waves which travel outward on the ocean surface in all directions in a kind of ripple effect.

Tsunami Mechanism
The principal generation mechanism (or cause) of a tsunami is the displacement of a substantial volume of water. Displacement is usually caused by an earthquake, volcanic eruption or coastal landslide.

 In the open ocean, tsunamis may be hard to spot. Long wavelengths can hide the size of the wave, but just like other kinds of waves, changes occur when the wave enters shallow water. The wavelength shortens, and the height increases. The strength of the disturbance, the distance the wave travels and the shape of the coastline combined determine the tsunamis height and ultimately its destructiveness.

The Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami

The 9.0-magnitude (MW) undersea megathrust earthquake occurred on 11 March 2011 in the western Pacific Ocean at a relatively shallow depth of 32 km (19.9 mi), with its epicenter approximately 72 km (45 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula of T hoku, Japan, lasting approximately six minutes. The nearest major city to the quake was Sendai, on the main island of Honshu, 130 km (81 mi) away.

Facts
This earthquake occurred where the Pacific Plate is subducting under the plate beneath northern Honshu; Energy
This earthquake released a surface energy (Me) of 1.90.51017 joules, This is equivalent to 9,320 gigatons of TNT, or approximately 600 million times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb.

Geophysical impacts:
The quake moved portions of northeastern Japan by as much as 2.4 m (7.9 ft) closer to North America; The earthquake shifted the Earth's axis by 25 cm (9.8 in).

Destructive Effects
The earthquake resulted in a major tsunami which brought destruction along the Pacific coastline of Japan's northern islands and resulted in the loss of thousands of lives and devastated entire towns. The tsunami propagated across the Pacific, and warnings were issued and evacuations carried out. Kuji and funato were almost entirely destroyed. Also destroyed was Rikuzentakata, where the tsunami was reportedly three stories high Other cities reportedly destroyed or heavily damaged by the tsunami include Kamaishi, Miyako, tsuchi, and Yamada (in Iwate Prefecture), Namie, S ma and Minamis ma (in Fukushima Prefecture) and Shichigahama, Higashimatsushima, Onagawa, Natori, Ishinomaki, and Kesennuma (in Miyagi Prefecture)

 The National Police Agency confirmed 14,416 deaths, 5,314 injured, and 11,889 people missing across eighteen prefectures.

The Nuclear Power Plants

The Fukushima I, Fukushima II, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant and T kai nuclear power stations, consisting of a total eleven reactors, were automatically shut down following the earthquake. Japan declared a state of emergency following the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in the evacuation of nearby residents.
It was reported that radiation levels inside the plant were up to 1,000 times normal levels, and outside the plant were up to 8 times normal levels. It was also reported that radioactive iodine was detected in the tap water in Fukushima, Toshigi, Gunma, Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, and Niigata, and radioactive cesium in the tap water in Fukushima, Tochigi and Gunma Food products and some fish were also found contaminated by radioactive matter in several places in Japan

Aftermath
included both a humanitarian crisis and a major economic impact.
The tsunami resulted in over 300,000 refugees in the T hoku region, and shortages of food, water, shelter, medicine and fuel for survivors. The economic impact included both immediate problems, with industrial production suspended in many factories, and the longer term issue of the cost of rebuilding which has been estimated at 10 trillion ($122 billion).