2011 TŌHOKU

EARTHQUAKE
AND TSUNAMI

PRESENTED BY
GROUP-F
Content:
 Basic information
 Geophysical effects
 Foreshocks and aftershocks
 Early prediction and detection
 Tsunamis
 Effects, damage and causalities.
 Nuclear reactor at Fukushima
 Relief and rebuilding efforts
 Response to earthquake
 Conclusion 2
Basic information
• Earthquake:
• Date: 2011
• Time: 14.46 JST
• Epicenter: East of Tohuku,
Japan
• Magnitude: 9.0
• Max Intensity: 9
• Duration: 6 minutes
• Occurrence: Convergence
for between Pacific plate 3

and North American plate.

• Recorded near the east coast of Honshu, Japan
o 129 km away from Sendai, Japan
o 177km away from Fukushima and Yamagata
o 373 km away from Tokyo

• Depth of only 32km- which made it a very shallow

focus.

• The tsunami was created by the earthquake

• a huge wave of 14m was created.
• hit the coast of Honshu and flooded Japan
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What resulted in earthquake?
 The Eurasian, Filipino and North
American plates all meet just off Japan’s
southern coastlines.
 The 2011 event resulted from thrust
faulting on the subduction zone plate
boundary between the pacific and North
American plates.
 Japan has a history of major
earthquakes such as the Great Kanto
earthquake in 1923 and kobe
earthquake in 1995.
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 Japan is located on a
complex plate boundary.
Numerous plates meet
underneath the islands.
The cause of 2011
earthquake was the stress
that was released from the
subduction of the pacific
plate under the Okhotosk
plate.

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 MECHANISM:

• The Pacific Plate is subducting under

the plate beneath northern Honshu.
• The Pacific plate, which moves at a
rate of 8 to 9 cm (3.1 to 3.5 in) per
year, dips under Honshu's underlying
plate, building large amounts of
elastic energy

ENERGY RELEASED:

• The surface energy of the seismic waves

from the earthquake was calculated to be
1.9×10^17 joules, which is nearly double
that of the 9.1 Mw 2004 Indian Ocean
earthquake and tsunami that killed
230,000 people
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Mechanism of 2011 Tohoku earthquake

FORESHOCK:
• Foreshocks are relatively smaller
earthquakes that precede the largest
earthquake in a series, which is termed
the ‘main shock’.
• One of the first major foreshocks was
a 7.2 Mw event on 9 March,
approximately 40 km (25 mi) from the
epicenter of the 11 March earthquake,
with another three on the same day in
excess of 6.0 Mw.
• Initially, seismologists regarded the Mg
7.3 foreshock as the main shock rather
than a foreshock of another greater
earthquake.
AFTERSHOCK:
• Over eight hundred aftershocks of
magnitude 4.5 Mw or greater have
occurred since the initial quake, including
one on 26th October 2013 (local time) of
magnitude 7.1 Mw.
• Aftershocks follow Omori's law, which
states that the rate of aftershocks
declines with the reciprocal of the time
since the main quake. The aftershocks
will thus taper off in time, but could
continue for years.
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 EARLY PREDICTION AND DETECTION

• Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system

aims at mitigating an earthquake
disaster by giving people enough time to
take appropriate safety measures in
advance of strong shaking. It has been
operational nationwide in Japan by JMA Hypocentre

since October, 2007.

• EEW is issued for public for earthquakes
of magnitude greater than 5 on Japan’s
seismic scale
• These warnings were helpful in reducing
disasters by stopping high speed rails
and factory assembly lines well within
the time.
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Mechanism of Earthquake Early Warning
 EARTHQUAKE WARNING SYSTEMS

• One minute before the earthquake was felt in Tokyo, the Earthquake Early
Warning system, which includes more than 4,000 seismometers deployed
across Japan, sent out warnings of impending strong shaking to millions.

• The warning for the general public was delivered about eight seconds after
the first P wave was detected, or about 31 seconds before the earthquake
occurred.

• Earthquake Early Warning systems although predicted the magnitude to be

7.9, whereas it turned out to be as severe as 9.1
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Tsunami waves hitting coastline of Japan
Animation of Tsunami waves
TSUNAMI: -
• An upthrust of 6 to 8 meters along a 180 km wide
seabed at 60 km offshore from the east coast of
Tōhoku resulted in a major tsunami that brought
destruction along the Pacific coastline of Japan's
northern islands.
• The tsunami propagated throughout the Pacific
Ocean region reaching the entire Pacific coast of
North and South America from Alaska to Chile.
• The waves reached up to 40.5m height travelling at
700kmph in Tohoku’s Iwate Prefecture. The waters
rushed up to 10km inland.
• Tsunami waves overtopped several sea walls which
were around 12 to 15 meters in height and even
damaged many of them.
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The tsunami was generated due to sudden upward movement of the
ocean crust. This created an displacement of water that spreads out and
away from the fault line.

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Social effects
• A humanitarian disaster, with 19759 deaths, 6152
injured, 2562 people missing.
• The region most directly affected by the earthquake
and tsunami was relatively sparsely populated.
• Hundreds of thousands of people have been made
homeless.
• Loss of property and personal items.
• An estimated 250000 people were temporarily forced
into emergency shelters.

PRESENTATION TITLE 14
• Food water and fuel were in short supply.
• People unable to work.
• Much of the country was experiencing rolling blackouts due
to loss of electricity from the damaged nuclear plants.
• Abnormal radiation levels reported in tap water, vegetables
and milk with concerns that fish may also be affected.

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Geophysical effects
• Japan shifted by as much as 2.4 meters closer to North
America.
• Soil liquefaction was evident in areas of reclaimed land.
• The speed of the Earth's rotation increased, shortening the
day by 1.8 microseconds.
• 400-kilometre (250 mi) stretch of coastline dropped
vertically by 0.6 metres (2 ft 0 in), allowing the tsunami to
travel farther and faster onto land.
• One early estimate suggested that the Pacific plate may
have moved westward by up to 20 metres (66 ft), and
another early estimate put the amount of slippage at as
much as 40 m (130 ft). 16
• The Earth's axis shifted by estimates of between 10 cm (4 in)
and 25 cm (10 in).This deviation led to a number of small
planetary changes, including the length of a day, the tilt of the
Earth.
• The speed of the Earth's rotation increased, shortening the day
by 1.8 microseconds due to the redistribution of Earth's mass.
The axial shift was caused by the redistribution of mass on the
Earth's surface, which changed the planet's moment of inertia.
• Because of conservation of angular momentum, such changes
of inertia result in small changes to the Earth's rate of rotation.

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Environmental effects
• Drinking water contaminated due to the power plant
explosion and release of radioactive material.
• Due to structural damage fire and gas leakages increases.
• The tsunami carried and lot of material from land to ocean
which increased the water pollution and harms fish and
other sea animals.
• Tress and other vegetation were lost after the earthquake
and tsunami.
• Radiation and fires destroy crops and other plants.
• The release of radiation and other gases.
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Sendai coastline, before and after the disaster. The Sendai Airport, before and after the disaster.
Casualities
 Key statistics

 The official figures released in 2021 reported 19,759 deaths, 6,242

injured, and 2,553 people missing. The leading causes of death were

drowning (90.64% or 14,308 bodies), burning (0.9% or 145 bodies)

and others (4.2% or 667 bodies, mostly crushed by heavy objects).

 Injuries related to nuclear exposure or the discharge of radioactive

water in Fukushima are difficult to trace as 60% of the 20,000 workers

on-site declined to participate in state-sponsored free health checks.

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For the purpose of relief fund, an "earthquake-related death"
was defined to include "Physical and mental fatigue caused by
life in temporary shelter", "Physical and mental fatigue caused
by evacuation", "Delayed treatment due to an inoperative
hospital", "Physical and mental fatigue caused by stress from
the earthquake and tsunami". A few cases of suicide are also
included.
Among all deaths
Age

<9 3.0%
10–19 2.7%
20–29 3.4%
30–39 5.5%
40–49 7.3%
50–59 12.3%
60–69 19.2%
70–79 24.5%
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>80 22.1%
Places with most deaths
Prefecture Municipality Deaths Missing
Miyagi Ishinomaki City 3,553 418
Iwate Rikuzentakata City 1,606 202
Miyagi Kesennuma City 1,218 214
Higashimatsushima C
Miyagi 1,132 23
ity
Fukushima Minamisoma City 1,050 111
Iwate Kamaishi City 994 152
Miyagi Natori City 954 38
Miyagi Sendai City 923 27
Iwate Ōtsuchi Town 856 416
Miyagi Yamamoto Town 701 17
Iwate Yamada Town 687 145
Miyagi Minamisanriku Town 620 211
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Miyagi Onagawa Town 615 257
DAMAGE :
The cost of the damage range well into the tens of billions
of US dollars.
• Japan's billion-dollar anti-tsunami seawalls that stands
up to 12m, covering 40% of its coastline, the tsunami
simply washed over the top of some seawalls,
collapsing some in the process.

• Japan's National Police Agency said that 45,700

buildings were destroyed and 144,300 were damaged
by the quake and tsunami.
A fire that broke out in Tokyo
• Fire breakout happened in some of the affected areas.

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 • Weather: Low temperature and snowfall were
major concerns after the earthquake. In
Ishinomaki, the city which suffered the most
deaths, a temperature of 0 °C was measured.

• Waste: The tsunami produced huge amounts of

debris: estimates of 5 million tonnes of waste
were reported by the Japanese Ministry of the
Environment. Some of this waste, mostly plastic
Satellite image shows and styrofoam washed up on the coasts of
snowfall on agricultural
fields in Sendai area Canada and the United States in late
24 2011.
• Ports: A total of 319 fishing ports, about
10% of Japan's fishing ports, were damaged
in the disaster. Most were restored to
operating condition by 18 April 2012.
• Electricity: around 4.4 million households
A damaged crane stands next to a
served by Tōhoku Electric Power (TEP) in ship lifted onto the docks at Sendai's
port
northeastern Japan were left without
electricity. Several nuclear and conventional
power plants went offline, reducing the
Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO)
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total capacity by 21 GW.
Dam failure at Fujinuma
Aftermath
 The aftermath of the earthquake and
tsunami included both a humanitarian
crisis and a major economic impact.
 The tsunami resulted in over 340,000
displaced people in the Tōhoku
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 26

($122 billion).
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Damages caused due to earthquake
 Notable were fires in several cities, including a petrochemical plant in
Sendai, a portion of the city of Miyagi prefecture, northeast of
Sendai, and an oil refinery at Ichihara in Chiba prefecture, near
Tokyo.
 In Fukushima, Ibaraki, and Chiba prefectures thousands of homes
were completely or partially destroyed by the temblor and
aftershocks.
 Infrastructure also was heavily affected throughout eastern Tōhoku,
as roads and rail lines were damaged, electric power was knocked
out, and water and sewerage systems were disrupted.
 In Fukushima a dam burst close to the prefectural capital, Fukushima
city.

PRESENTATION TITLE 28
Nuclear reactor at Fukushima
 The plant is made of 6 different reactors.
 Prior to the earthquake reactors 4,5,6
were shutdown for maintenance.
 The remaining reactors were shutdown
automatically as a safety measure after
earthquake.
 The subsequent 14m of tsunami flooded
the reactors.
 This took out the backup generators to
run the water pumps to keep the
reactors cool.

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• The main shock and tsunami was the status of several
nuclear power stations in the Tōhoku region.
• The reactors at the three nuclear power plants closest to
the quake’s epicentre were shut down automatically
following the temblor, which also cut the main power to
those plants and their cooling systems.
• However, inundation by the tsunami waves damaged the
backup generators at some of those plants, most notably at
the Fukushima Daiichi (“Number One”) plant.
• With power gone, the cooling systems failed in three
reactors within the first few days of the disaster, and their
cores subsequently overheated, leading to partial
meltdowns of the fuel rods.
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 Because of concerns over possible radiation exposure,
Japanese officials established an 18-mile (30-km) no-fly
zone around the facility, and an area of 12.5 miles (20 km)
around the plant was evacuated.
 The evacuation zone was later extended to the 18-mile no-
fly radius, within which residents were asked to leave or
remain indoors.
 The appearance of increased levels of radiation in some
local food and water supplies prompted officials in Japan
and overseas to issue warnings about their consumption.

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Relief and rebuilding efforts

 Several countries, including Australia, China, India, New

Zealand, South Korea, and the United States, sent search-
and-rescue teams, and dozens of other countries and
major international relief organizations such as the Red
Cross and Red Crescent pledged financial and material
support to Japan.
 In addition, a large number of private and
nongovernmental organizations within Japan and
worldwide soon established relief funds to aid victims and
assist with rescue and recovery efforts.

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Response to 2011 earthquake
 Tsunami warning:

 JMA has expanded its seismic/tsunami monitoring network

by installing broadband seismometers and an offshore
tsunami monitoring system, to increase its capability for
quicker and more accurate estimation of earthquake
magnitude and tsunami.

 JMA has introduced methods to quickly highlight the

possibility of underestimation in magnitude estimation and
issues an initial tsunami warning based on the largest
seismic fault expected in the area where the earthquake
was triggered 34
Structural vulnerability to tsunamis
 Fig.1 shows an example of a tsunami fragility curve
obtained in the 2011 Tohoku event.
 This fragility curve was obtained using the form of
probability of structural destruction as a function of
measured tsunami flow depth. As observed in the tsunami
fragility curves, structures were especially vulnerable when
the local flow depth exceeded 2 m, while a 6 m flow depth
would cause everything to be washed away. This finding
can inform land-use planning, so that residential areas will
not be inundated more than 2 m.
 Also, we found high-rise RC buildings with robust columns
and walls withstood tsunami flow depths over 2 m and can 35

be used for vertical evacuation.

Fig.1 Tsunami fragality curves for structural
destruction (washed away structures).

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Post tsunami reconstruction look
 In April 2011, one month after the event occurred, the
central government decided a policy of coastal protection
such as seawalls and breakwaters , which would be
designed to ensure their performance to a potential
tsunami level of up to the approximately 150 year
recurrence interval.

 In this sense, the government policy of designing coastal

protection is for the 150 year tsunami level, the so-called
‘Level 1’ or ‘Prevention Level’, ensuring that coastal
protection will prevent be tsunamis from penetrating inland
to protect lives and properties (or economic activities).
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 The largest-possible tsunami level of the more than
150 year recurrence interval, the so-called extreme
event (such as the 2011 Tohoku event), the
government refers to this as ‘Level 2’ or
‘Preparedness/Mitigation Level’ to protect human lives
and to reduce the losses and damage.

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Evaluation of reconstruction plan
 Sendai city determined a reconstruction plan to reduce the tsunami flow
depth to less than 2 m in the populated area with a conceptual image of
multiple coastal protection (figure 4).

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 Figure 5a indicates the plan view for the multiple protection of Sendai city with
a 7.2 m seawall and river dyke and 6 m elevated prefectural road. The seawall’s
height was determined by considering historical tsunami heights in the past 150
years and storm surge heights in the past 50 years (Level 1).
 For the largest possible tsunami (Level 2), the city secures multiple facilities of
coastal forest, artificial hill, raised road and evacuation sites to protect citizens’
lives.

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Thank you

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