Nhicole Angel G.

Arnes

Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011, severe natural disaster that occurred in northeastern Japan
on March 11, 2011. The event began with a powerful earthquake off the northeastern coast of Honshu,
Japan’s main island, which caused widespread damage on land and initiated a series of large tsunami waves
that devastated many coastal areas of the country, most notably in the Tōhoku region (northeastern Honshu).
The tsunami also instigated a major nuclear accident at a power station along the coast.

The Tohoku earthquake caused a tsunami. A tsunami—Japanese for “harbor wave”—is a series of
powerful waves caused by the displacement of a large body of water. Most tsunamis, like the one that
formed off Tohoku, are triggered by underwater tectonic activity, such as earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions. The Tohoku tsunami produced waves up to 40 meters (132 feet) high, More than 450,000 people
became homeless as a result of the tsunami. More than 15,500 people died.

The magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck at 2:46 PM. (The early estimate of magnitude 8.9 was later
revised upward.) The epicentre was located some 80 miles (130 km) east of the city of Sendai, Miyagi
prefecture, and the focus occurred at a depth of 18.6 miles (about 30 km) below the floor of the western
Pacific Ocean.

Undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, 72 km (45 mi) east of the Oshika
Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approximately six minutes, causing a tsunami. It is known in Japan
as the "Great East Japan Earthquake" (東日本大震災, Higashi nihon daishinsai), among other names.The
disaster is often referred to by its numerical date, 3.11 (san ten ichi-ichi).

It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful
earthquake recorded in the world since modern seismography began in 1900.

Source: britannica.com, wikipedia, live science, google.

Earthquake: a seismic wave

- created by the abrupt movement of elements within the Earth

Tsunami: a series of waves

- tsunami is a series of waves caused by earthquakes or undersea volcanic eruptions.