Japanese Tohuku Earthquake 2011 by Eoin McKenna

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake shook north-eastern Japan,

unleashing a huge tsunami. The earthquake started on a Friday at 2:46 p.m. local
time. It was centred on the seafloor 72 kilometres east of Tohoku, at a depth of 24
kilometres below the surface. The shaking lasted about six minutes.

The 2011 Tohoku earthquake struck offshore of Japan, where two of Earth's tectonic

plates collided. The Pacific plate had slid beneath the Eurasian plate into the mantle,
the hotter layer beneath the crust. The great plates are rough and stick together,
building up energy that was released as the earthquake and the effects of the
great earthquake were felt around the world, from Norway's fjords to Antarctica's ice
sheets. Tsunami debris has continued to wash up on North American beaches years
later.

In Japan, residents are still recovering from the disaster. As of February 2017, there
were still about 150,000 evacuees who lost their homes and 50,000 of them were
still living in temporary housing. More than 120,000 buildings were destroyed,
278,000 were half-destroyed and 726,000 were partially destroyed. The direct
financial damage from the disaster is estimated to be about $199 billion dollars,
according to the Japanese government. The total economic cost could reach up to
$235 billion, the World Bank estimated, making it the costliest natural disaster in the
world’s history. The number of confirmed deaths is 15,894 as of June 10, 2016,
according to the reconstruction agency. More than 2,500 people are still reported
missing.

The tsunami caused a cooling system failure at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power
Plant, which resulted in a level 7 nuclear meltdown and small release of radioactive
materials. The electrical power and backup generators were overwhelmed by the
tsunami, and the plant lost its cooling capabilities. Very low levels of radioactive
chemicals that leaked from Fukushima have been detected along the North American
coast offshore Canada and California. Trace amounts of cesium-134 and cesium-137
were found in seawater collected in 2014 and 2015. 

Residents of Tokyo received a minute of warning before the earthquake hit the city,
thanks to Japan's earthquake early warning system. The country's early warning
system prevented many deaths from the earthquake, by stopping high-speed trains
and factory assembly lines. People in Japan also received texted alerts of the
earthquake and tsunami warnings on their phones.
One dog was rescued from a roof after being spotted drifting in the sea on a small
raft that was a piece of corrugated iron. He was reunited with its owner more than
three weeks after the tsunami. The dog was rescued off the coast of Kesennuma, and
was so excited to be reunited with his owner.