The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes, causing a tsunami. It is sometimes known in Japan as the , among other names. The disaster is often referred to in both Japanese and English as simply 3.11 (read in Japanese). It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to in Miyako in Tōhoku's

Iwate Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture at , with a population of 1,210,534 (as of October 1, 2020). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefectur ...

, Yomiuri Shimbun evening edition 2-11-04-15 page 15, nearby Aneyoshi fishery port (姉吉漁港)(Google map E39 31 57.8, N 142 3 7.6) 2011-04-15
大震災の津波、宮古で38.9 m…明治三陸上回る
by okayasu Akio (岡安章夫) and which, in the

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...

area, traveled at and up to inland. Residents of Sendai had only eight to ten minutes of warning, and more than a hundred evacuation sites were washed away. The snowfall which accompanied the tsunami and the freezing temperature hindered rescue works greatly; for instance, Ishinomaki, the city with most deaths, was as the tsunami hit. The official figures released in 2021 reported and , and a report from 2015 indicated 228,863 people were still living away from their home in either temporary housing or due to permanent relocation. The tsunami caused the

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...

, primarily the meltdowns of three of its reactors, the discharge of radioactive water in Fukushima and the associated evacuation zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents. Many electrical generators ran out of fuel. The loss of electrical power halted cooling systems, causing heat to build up. The heat build-up caused the generation of hydrogen gas. Without ventilation, gas accumulated within the upper refueling hall and eventually exploded causing the refueling hall's blast panels to be forcefully ejected from the structure. Residents within a radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and a radius of the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated. Early estimates placed insured losses from the earthquake alone at US$14.5 to $34.6 billion. The

Bank of Japan The is the central bank of Japan.Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric. (2005). "Nihon Ginkō" in The bank is often called for short. It has its headquarters in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. History Like most modern Japanese instituti ...

offered ¥15 trillion (US$183 billion) to the banking system on 14 March 2011 in an effort to normalize market conditions. The World Bank's estimated economic cost was US$235 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in history. According to a 2020 study, "the earthquake and its aftermaths resulted in a 0.47 percentage point decline in Japan's real GDP growth in the year following the disaster."

Earthquake

The magnitude 9.1 ( M_w) undersea megathrust earthquake occurred on 11 March 2011 at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) in the north-western Pacific Ocean at a relatively shallow depth of , with its epicenter approximately east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku, Japan, lasting approximately six minutes. The earthquake was initially reported as 7.9 M_w by the USGS before it was quickly upgraded to 8.8 M_w, then to 8.9 M_w, and then finally to 9.0 M_w. On 11 July 2016, the USGS further upgraded the earthquake to 9.1.

was the nearest major city to the earthquake, from the epicenter; the earthquake occurred northeast of Tokyo. The main earthquake was preceded by a number of large foreshocks, with hundreds of

aftershock In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in the same area of the main shock, caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthquakes can have hundreds to thousand ...

s reported. One of the first major foreshocks was a 7.2 M_w event on 9 March, approximately from the epicenter of the 11 March earthquake, with another three on the same day in excess of 6.0 M_w. Following the main earthquake on 11 March, a 7.4 M_w aftershock was reported at 15:08 JST (6:06 UTC), succeeded by a 7.9 M_w at 15:15 JST (6:16 UTC) and a 7.7 M_w at 15:26 JST (6:26 UTC). Over eight hundred aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 M_w or greater have occurred since the initial quake, including one on 26 October 2013 (local time) of magnitude 7.1 M_w. Aftershocks follow

Omori's law In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in the same area of the main shock, caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthquakes can have hundreds to thousa ...

, 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. C0001xgp wcmt smt

The earthquake moved Honshu (the main island of Japan) east, shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of between and , increased earth's rotational speed by 1.8 µs per day, and generated infrasound waves detected in perturbations of the low-orbiting Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer satellite. Initially, the earthquake caused sinking of part of Honshu's Pacific coast by up to roughly a metre, but after about three years, the coast rose back and kept on rising to exceed its original height.

Geology

2011_Tohoku_earthquake_mechanism_main_en

This megathrust earthquake was a recurrence of the mechanism of the earlier 869 Sanriku earthquake, which has been estimated as having a magnitude of at least 8.4 M_w, which also created a large tsunami that inundated the Sendai plain. Three tsunami deposits have been identified within the Holocene sequence of the plain, all formed within the last 3,000 years, suggesting an 800 to 1,100 year recurrence interval for large tsunamigenic earthquakes. In 2001 it was reckoned that there was a high likelihood of a large tsunami hitting the Sendai plain as more than 1,100 years had then elapsed. In 2007, the probability of an earthquake with a magnitude of M_w 8.1–8.3 was estimated as 99% within the following 30 years. This earthquake occurred where the

Pacific Plate The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and Iza ...

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 Elastic energy is the mechanical potential energy stored in the configuration of a material or physical system as it is subjected to elastic deformation by work performed upon it. Elastic energy occurs when objects are impermanently compressed, ...

. This motion pushes the upper plate down until the accumulated stress causes a seismic slip-rupture event. The break caused the sea floor to rise by several metres. A quake of this magnitude usually has a rupture length of at least and generally requires a long, relatively straight fault surface. Because the plate boundary and

subduction zone Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

in the area of the Honshu rupture is not very straight, it is unusual for the magnitude of its earthquake to exceed 8.5 M_w; the magnitude of this earthquake was a surprise to some seismologists. The hypocentral region of this earthquake extended from offshore

to offshore Ibaraki Prefecture. The Japanese Meteorological Agency said that the earthquake may have ruptured the fault zone from Iwate to Ibaraki with a length of and a width of . Analysis showed that this earthquake consisted of a set of three events. Other major earthquakes with tsunamis struck the Sanriku Coast region in 1896 and in 1933. The source area of this earthquake has a relatively high coupling coefficient surrounded by areas of relatively low coupling coefficients in the west, north, and south. From the averaged coupling coefficient of 0.5–0.8 in the source area and the seismic moment, it was estimated that the slip deficit of this earthquake was accumulated over a period of 260–880 years, which is consistent with the recurrence interval of such great earthquakes estimated from the tsunami deposit data. The seismic moment of this earthquake accounts for about 93% of the estimated cumulative moment from 1926 to March 2011. Hence, earthquakes in this area with magnitudes of about 7 since 1926 had only released part of the accumulated energy. In the area near the trench, the coupling coefficient is high, which could act as the source of the large tsunami. Most of the foreshocks are interplate earthquakes with thrust-type focal mechanisms. Both interplate and intraplate earthquakes appeared in the aftershocks offshore Sanriku coast with considerable proportions.

Energy

The

surface energy In surface science, surface free energy (also interfacial free energy or surface energy) quantifies the disruption of intermolecular bonds that occurs when a surface is created. In solid-state physics, surfaces must be intrinsically less energe ...

of the seismic waves from the earthquake was calculated to be joules, which is nearly double that of the 9.1 M_w

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

that killed 230,000 people. If harnessed, the seismic energy from this earthquake would power a city the size of Los Angeles for an entire year. The seismic moment (M₀), which represents a physical size for the event, was calculated by the USGS at 3.9×10²² joules, slightly less than the 2004 Indian Ocean quake. Japan's National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) calculated a peak ground acceleration of 2.99 ''g'' (29.33 m/s²). The largest individual recording in Japan was 2.7 '' g'', in Miyagi Prefecture, 75 km from the epicentre; the highest reading in the Tokyo metropolitan area was 0.16 ''g''.

Intensity

The strong ground motion registered at the maximum of 7 on the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale in Kurihara,

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...

. Three other prefectures—

Fukushima may refer to: Japan * Fukushima Prefecture, Japanese prefecture **Fukushima, Fukushima, capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan *** Fukushima University, national university in Japan *** Fukushima Station (Fukushima) in Fukushima, Fukushim ...

, Ibaraki and Tochigi—recorded an 6 upper on the JMA scale. Seismic stations in Iwate, Gunma, Saitama and Chiba Prefecture measured a 6 lower, recording an 5 upper in Tokyo.

Geophysical effects

Portions of northeastern Japan shifted by as much as closer to North America, making some sections of Japan's landmass wider than before. Those areas of Japan closest to the epicenter experienced the largest shifts. A stretch of coastline dropped vertically by , 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 , and another early estimate put the amount of slippage at as much as 40 m (130 ft). On 6 April the Japanese coast guard said that the quake shifted the seabed near the epicenter and elevated the seabed off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture by . A report by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, published in '' Science'' on 2 December 2011, concluded that the seabed in the area between the epicenter and the Japan Trench moved east-southeast and rose about as a result of the quake. The report also stated that the quake had caused several major landslides on the seabed in the affected area. The Earth's axis shifted by estimates of between and . This deviation led to a number of small planetary changes, including the length of a day, the tilt of the Earth, and the Chandler wobble. 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 The moment of inertia, otherwise known as the mass moment of inertia, angular mass, second moment of mass, or most accurately, rotational inertia, of a rigid body is a quantity that determines the torque needed for a desired angular acceler ...

. Because of conservation of angular momentum, such changes of inertia result in small changes to the Earth's rate of rotation. These are expected changes for an earthquake of this magnitude. The earthquake also generated infrasound waves detected by perturbations in the orbit of the GOCE satellite, which thus serendipitously became the first seismograph in orbit. Seiches observed in Sognefjorden, Norway were attributed to distant

S wave __NOTOC__ In seismology and other areas involving elastic waves, S waves, secondary waves, or shear waves (sometimes called elastic S waves) are a type of elastic wave and are one of the two main types of elastic body waves, so named because th ...

s and Love waves generated by the earthquake. These seiches began to occur roughly half an hour after the main shock hit Japan, and continued to occur for 3 hours, during which waves of up to 1.5 meters high were observed.

Soil liquefaction Soil liquefaction occurs when a cohesionless saturated or partially saturated soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress such as shaking during an earthquake or other sudden change in stress condition, in ...

was evident in areas of reclaimed land around Tokyo, particularly in Urayasu, Chiba City, Funabashi, Narashino (all in Chiba Prefecture) and in the

Koto Koto may refer to: * Koto (band), an Italian synth pop group * Koto (instrument), a Japanese musical instrument * Koto (kana), a ligature of two Japanese katakana * Koto (traditional clothing), a traditional dress made by Afro-Surinamese women * ...

, Edogawa,

Minato Minato (港 or 湊) is Japanese for 'harbor', and may refer to: Places * Minato, Tokyo or Minato City, a special ward in Tokyo, Japan * Minato-ku, Nagoya, a ward of Nagoya, Japan * Minato-ku, Osaka, a ward of Osaka, Japan * Minato (湊), a neig ...

, Chūō, and Ōta Wards of Tokyo. Approximately 30 homes or buildings were destroyed and 1,046 other buildings were damaged to varying degrees. Nearby Haneda Airport, built mostly on reclaimed land, was not damaged.

Odaiba today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially built in this area for defensive purposes in the 1850s. Reclaimed land offshore Shinagawa was dramatically expanded durin ...

also experienced liquefaction, but damage was minimal. Soil-liquefaction at Shinkiba after 2011 Tohoku Pacific Ocean offshore earthquake

Shinmoedake, a volcano in

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

, erupted three days after the earthquake. The volcano had previously erupted in January 2011; it is not known if the later eruption was linked to the earthquake. In Antarctica, the seismic waves from the earthquake were reported to have caused the Whillans Ice Stream to slip by about . The first sign international researchers had that the earthquake caused such a dramatic change in the Earth's rotation came from the United States Geological Survey which monitors Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) stations across the world. The Survey team had several GPS monitors located near the scene of the earthquake. The GPS station located nearest the epicenter moved almost . This motivated government researchers to look into other ways the earthquake may have had large scale effects on the planet. Calculations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory determined that the Earth's rotation was changed by the earthquake to the point where the days are now 1.8 microseconds shorter.

Aftershocks

2011 Earthquake and Tsunami near Sendai, Japan

Japan experienced over 1,000 aftershocks since the earthquake, with 80 registering over magnitude 6.0 M_w and several of which have been over magnitude 7.0 M_w. A magnitude 7.4 M_w at 15:08 (JST), 7.9 M_w at 15:15 and a 7.7 M_w quake at 15:26 all occurred on 11 March. A month later, a major aftershock struck offshore on 7 April with a magnitude of 7.1 M_w. Its epicenter was underwater, off the coast of Sendai. The Japan Meteorological Agency assigned a magnitude of 7.4 M_JMA, while the U.S. Geological Survey lowered it to 7.1 M_w. At least four people were killed, and electricity was cut off across much of northern Japan including the loss of external power to

Higashidōri Nuclear Power Plant The is located in the village of Higashidōri, Aomori, Higashidōri in northeastern Aomori Prefecture, on the Shimokita Peninsula, facing the Pacific Ocean. The plant has not generated electricity since Japan's 2011 nationwide nuclear shutdown i ...

and

Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant The is a nuclear reprocessing plant with an annual capacity of 800 tons of uranium or 8 tons of plutonium. It is owned by Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited (JNFL) and is part of the Rokkasho complex located in the village of Rokkasho in northeast ...

. Four days later on 11 April, another magnitude 7.1 M_w aftershock struck Fukushima, causing additional damage and killing a total of three people. On 7 December 2012 a large aftershock of magnitude 7.3 M_w caused a minor tsunami, and again on 26 October 2013 a small tsunami was recorded after a 7.1 M_w aftershock. As of 16 March 2012 aftershocks continued, totaling 1887 events over magnitude 4.0; a regularly updated map showing all shocks of magnitude 4.5 and above near or off the east coast of Honshu in the last seven days showed over 20 events. there had been 869 aftershocks of 5.0 M_w or greater, 118 of 6.0 M_w or greater, and 9 over 7.0 M_w as reported by the Japanese Meteorological Agency. The number of aftershocks was associated with decreased health across Japan. On 13 February 2021, a magnitude 7.1–7.3 earthquake struck off the coast of Sendai. It caused some damage in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. One person was killed, and 185 were injured.

Land subsidence

Subsidence in Shin-Urayasu Sta after 2011 Sendai earthquake

The

Geospatial Information Authority of Japan The , or GSI, is the national institution responsible for surveying and mapping the national land of Japan. The former name of the organization from 1949 until March 2010 was Geographical Survey Institute; despite the rename, it retains the same ...

reported land

subsidence Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope move ...

based on the height of triangulation stations in the area measured by

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

as compared to their previous values from 14 April 2011. * Miyako, Iwate – * Yamada, Iwate – * Ōtsuchi, Iwate – * Kamaishi, Iwate – * Ōfunato, Iwate – *

Rikuzentakata, Iwate is a city located in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. In the census of 2010, the city had a population of 23,302 (2005: 24,709), and a population density of 100 persons per km². The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami caused extensive damage to the cit ...

– * Kesennuma, Miyagi – * Minamisanriku, Miyagi – * Oshika Peninsula, Miyagi – Values announced by

, news report by Yomiuri Shimbun 15 April 2011 ver. 13S page 33 * Ishinomaki, Miyagi – * Higashimatsushima, Miyagi – * Iwanuma, Miyagi – * Sōma, Fukushima – Scientists say that the subsidence is permanent. As a result, the communities in question are now more susceptible to flooding during high tides.

Earthquake Warning System

One minute before the earthquake was felt in Tokyo, the

Earthquake Early Warning An earthquake warning system or earthquake early warning system is a system of accelerometers, seismometers, communication, computers, and alarms that is devised for notifying adjoining regions of a substantial earthquake while it is in progr ...

system, which includes more than 1,000 seismometers in Japan, sent out warnings of impending strong shaking to millions. It is believed that the early warning by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) saved many lives. The warning for the general public was delivered about eight seconds after the first P wave was detected, or about 31 seconds after the earthquake occurred. However, the estimated intensities were smaller than the actual ones in some places, especially in Kanto, Koshinetsu, and Northern Tōhoku regions where the populace warning did not trigger. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, reasons for the underestimation include a saturated magnitude scale when using maximum amplitude as input, failure to fully take into account the area of the hypocenter, and the initial amplitude of the earthquake being less than that which would be predicted by an empirical relationship. There were also cases where large differences between estimated intensities by the Earthquake Early Warning system and the actual intensities occurred in the aftershocks and triggered earthquakes. Such discrepancies in the warning were attributed by the JMA to the system's inability to distinguish between two different earthquakes that happened at around same time, as well as to the reduced number of reporting seismometers due to power outages and connection fails. The system's software was subsequently modified to handle this kind of situation.

Tsunami

An upthrust of along a wide seabed at offshore from the east coast of Tōhoku resulted in a major tsunami that brought destruction along the Pacific coastline of Japan's northern islands. Thousands of lives were lost and entire towns were devastated. The tsunami propagated throughout the Pacific Ocean region reaching the entire Pacific coast of North and South America from Alaska to Chile. Warnings were issued and evacuations were carried out in many countries bordering the Pacific. Although the tsunami affected many of these places, the heights of the waves were minor. Chile's Pacific coast, one of the farthest from Japan at about away, was struck by waves high, compared with an estimated wave height of at Omoe peninsula, Miyako city, Japan.

Japan

The

tsunami warning A tsunami warning system (TWS) is used to detect tsunamis in advance and issue the warnings to prevent loss of life and damage to property. It is made up of two equally important components: a network of sensors to detect tsunamis and a communica ...

issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency was the most serious on its warning scale; it was rated as a "major tsunami", being at least high. The actual height prediction varied, the greatest being for Miyagi at high. The tsunami inundated a total area of approximately in Japan. 2011-Sendai-Tsunami-DART-21413-AB

The earthquake took place at 14:46 JST (UTC 05:46) around from the nearest point on Japan's coastline, and initial estimates indicated the tsunami would have taken 10 to 30 minutes to reach the areas first affected, and then areas farther north and south based on the geography of the coastline. At 15:55 JST, a tsunami was observed flooding Sendai Airport, which is located near the coast of

, with waves sweeping away cars and planes and flooding various buildings as they traveled inland. The impact of the tsunami in and around Sendai Airport was filmed by an NHK News helicopter, showing a number of vehicles on local roads trying to escape the approaching wave and being engulfed by it. A tsunami hit

. Wakabayashi Ward in Sendai was also particularly hard hit. At least 101 designated tsunami evacuation sites were hit by the wave. Devastation after tsunami in Rikuzentakata

Devastation after tsunami in Rikuzentakata

Like the

, the damage by surging water, though much more localized, was far more deadly and destructive than the actual quake. Entire towns were destroyed in tsunami-hit areas in Japan, including 9,500 missing in

Minamisanriku is a town in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , it had an estimated population of 12,516, and a population density of 77 persons per km² in 4504 households. The total area of the town is . It is a resort town on a coastline of wooded islands and moun ...

; one thousand bodies had been recovered in the town by 14 March 2011. Among the factors in the high death toll was the unexpectedly large water surge. The sea walls in several cities had been built to protect against tsunamis of much lower heights. Also, many people caught in the tsunami thought they were on high enough ground to be safe. According to a special committee on disaster prevention designated by the Japanese government, the tsunami protection policy had been intended to deal with only tsunamis that had been scientifically proved to occur repeatedly. The committee advised that future policy should be to protect against the highest possible tsunami. Because tsunami walls had been overtopped, the committee also suggested, besides building taller tsunami walls, also teaching citizens how to evacuate if a large-scale tsunami should strike. SendaiAirportMarch16

Large parts of Kuji and the southern section of

Ōfunato is a city located in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 35,452, and a population density of 110 persons per km2 in 14,895 households. The total area of the city is . Geography Ōfunato is located in southeastern ...

including the port area were almost entirely destroyed. Also largely destroyed was Rikuzentakata, where the tsunami was three stories high. Other cities destroyed or heavily damaged by the tsunami include Kamaishi, Miyako,

Ōtsuchi An is a large wooden war mallet used by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The ōtsuchi had a shaft of about much like the ono (war axe). It was mainly used for door breaching.Yamada (in Iwate Prefecture),

Namie is a town located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. the town has a population of 1,238 in 794 households, although the official registered population was 17,114 in 6853 households. The total area of the town is . The town was evacuated as a resul ...

, Sōma, and Minamisōma (in Fukushima Prefecture) and Shichigahama, Higashimatsushima, Onagawa, Natori, Ishinomaki, and

Kesennuma is a city in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 59,803 and a population density of in 26,390 households. The total area of the city is . Large sections of the city were destroyed by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake an ...

(in Miyagi Prefecture). The most severe effects of the tsunami were felt along a stretch of coastline from

Erimo, Hokkaido is a town located in Hidaka Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Erimo is famous for its strong winds, kelp (''konbu''), and its scenic cape, Cape Erimo (''Erimo-misaki''). The cape was made famous by Shinichi Mori's enka song ''Erimo Misaki''. It is ...

, in the north to Ōarai, Ibaraki, in the south, with most of the destruction in that area occurring in the hour following the earthquake. Near Ōarai, people captured images of a huge whirlpool that had been generated by the tsunami. The tsunami washed away the sole bridge to Miyatojima, Miyagi, isolating the island's 900 residents. A high tsunami hit Chiba Prefecture about 2½ hours after the quake, causing heavy damage to cities such as Asahi. On 13 March 2011, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) published details of tsunami observations recorded around the coastline of Japan following the earthquake. These observations included tsunami maximum readings of over at the following locations and times on 11 March 2011, following the earthquake at 14:46 JST: Tsunami map Tohoku2011

* 15:12 JST – off Kamaishi – * 15:15 JST –

– or higher * 15:20 JST – Ishinomaki-shi Ayukawa – or higher * 15:21 JST – Miyako – or higher * 15:21 JST – Kamaishi – or higher * 15:44 JST – Erimo-cho Shoya – * 15:50 JST – Sōma – or higher * 16:52 JST – Ōarai – Many areas were also affected by waves of in height, and the JMA bulletin also included the caveat that ''"At some parts of the coasts, tsunamis may be higher than those observed at the observation sites."'' The timing of the earliest recorded tsunami maximum readings ranged from 15:12 to 15:21, between 26 and 35 minutes after the earthquake had struck. The bulletin also included initial tsunami observation details, as well as more detailed maps for the coastlines affected by the tsunami waves. JMA also reported offshore tsunami height recorded by telemetry from moored

wave-height meter buoys as follows: * offshore of central Iwate ( Miyako) – * offshore of northern Iwate ( Kuji) – * offshore of northern Miyagi (

) – On 25 March 2011, Port and Airport Research Institute (PARI) reported tsunami height by visiting the port sites as follows: * Port of Hachinohe – * Port of Hachinohe area – * Port of Kuji – * Port of Kamaishi – * Port of

– * Run up height, port of

area – * Fishery port of Onagawa – * Port of Ishinomaki – * Shiogama section of Shiogama-

port – * Sendai section of Shiogama-Sendai port – * Sendai Airport area – The tsunami at Ryōri Bay (), Ōfunato reached a height of (run-up elevation). Fishing equipment was scattered on the high cliff above the bay. At Tarō, Iwate, the tsunami reached a height of up the slope of a mountain some away from the coastline. Also, at the slope of a nearby mountain from away at Aneyoshi fishery port () of Omoe peninsula () in Miyako, Iwate, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology found estimated tsunami run up height of . This height is deemed the record in Japan historically, as of reporting date, that exceeds from the

1896 Meiji-Sanriku earthquake The was one of the most destructive seismic events in Japanese history. The 8.5 magnitude earthquake occurred at 19:32 (local time) on June 15, 1896, approximately off the coast of Iwate Prefecture, Honshu. It resulted in two tsunami waves whic ...

. It was also estimated that the tsunami reached heights of up to in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture. The inundated areas closely matched those of the 869 Sanriku tsunami. A Japanese government study found that 58% of people in coastal areas in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures heeded tsunami warnings immediately after the quake and headed for higher ground. Of those who attempted to evacuate after hearing the warning, only five percent were caught in the tsunami. Of those who didn't heed the warning, 49% were hit by the water. Delayed evacuations in response to the warnings had a number of causes. The tsunami height that had been initially predicted by the tsunami warning system was lower than the actual tsunami height; this error contributed to the delayed escape of some residents. The discrepancy arose as follows: in order to produce a quick prediction of a tsunami's height and thus to provide a timely warning, the initial earthquake and tsunami warning that was issued for the event was based on a calculation that requires only about three minutes. This calculation is, in turn, based on the maximum amplitude of the seismic wave. The amplitude of the seismic wave is measured using the JMA magnitude scale, which is similar to Richter magnitude scale. However, these scales "saturate" for earthquakes that are above a certain magnitude (magnitude 8 on the JMA scale); that is, in the case of very large earthquakes, the scales' values change little despite large differences in the earthquakes' energy. This resulted in an underestimation of the tsunami's height in initial reports. Problems in issuing updates also contributed to delays in evacuations. The warning system was supposed to be updated about 15 minutes after the earthquake occurred, by which time the calculation for the moment magnitude scale would normally be completed. However, the strong quake had exceeded the measurement limit of all of the teleseismometers within Japan, and thus it was impossible to calculate the moment magnitude based on data from those seismometers. Another cause of delayed evacuations was the release of the second update on the tsunami warning long after the earthquake (28 minutes, according to observations); by that time, power failures and similar circumstances reportedly prevented the update from reaching some residents. Also, observed data from tidal meters that were located off the coast were not fully reflected in the second warning. Furthermore, shortly after the earthquake, some wave meters reported a fluctuation of "", and this value was broadcast throughout the mass media and the warning system, which caused some residents to underestimate the danger of their situation and even delayed or suspended their evacuation. In response to the aforementioned shortcomings in the tsunami warning system, JMA began an investigation in 2011 and updated their system in 2013. In the updated system, for a powerful earthquake that is capable of causing the JMA magnitude scale to saturate, no quantitative prediction will be released in the initial warning; instead, there will be words that describe the situation's emergency. There are plans to install new teleseismometers with the ability to measure larger earthquakes, which would allow the calculation of a quake's moment magnitude scale in a timely manner. JMA also implemented a simpler empirical method to integrate, into a tsunami warning, data from GPS tidal meters as well as from undersea water pressure meters, and there are plans to install more of these meters and to develop further technology to utilize data observed by them. To prevent under-reporting of tsunami heights, early quantitative observation data that are smaller than the expected amplitude will be overridden and the public will instead be told that the situation is under observation. About 90 seconds after an earthquake, an additional report on the possibility of a tsunami will also be included in observation reports, in order to warn people before the JMA magnitude can be calculated.

Elsewhere across the Pacific

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in Hawaii issued tsunami watches and announcements for locations in the Pacific. At 07:30 UTC, PTWC issued a widespread tsunami warning covering the entire Pacific Ocean. Russia evacuated 11,000 residents from coastal areas of the Kuril Islands. The United States National Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for the coastal areas in most of California, all of Oregon, and the western part of Alaska, and a tsunami advisory covering the Pacific coastlines of most of Alaska, and all of Washington and British Columbia, Canada. In California and Oregon, up to tsunami waves hit some areas, damaging docks and harbors and causing over US$10 million in damage. In Curry County, Oregon, US$7 million in damage occurred including the destruction of of docks at the

Brookings Brookings may refer to: Organizations * Brookings Institution, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. Places * Brookings, Oregon, USA * Brookings, South Dakota, USA * Brookings County, South Dakota, USA ...

harbor; the county received over US$1 million in FEMA emergency grants from the US Federal Government. Surges of up to hit Vancouver Island in Canada prompting some evacuations, and causing boats to be banned from the waters surrounding the island for 12 hours following the wave strike, leaving many island residents in the area without means of getting to work. In the Philippines, waves up to high hit the eastern seaboard of the country. Some houses along the coast in

Jayapura, Indonesia Jayapura (formerly Dutch: ''Hollandia'') is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of Papua. It is situated on the northern coast of New Guinea island and covers an area of . The city borders the Pacific Ocean and Yos Sudarso ...

were destroyed. Authorities in Wewak, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea evacuated 100 patients from the city's Boram Hospital before it was hit by waves, causing an estimated US$4 million in damage. Hawaii estimated damage to public infrastructure alone at US$3 million, with damage to private properties, including resort hotels such as Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, estimated at tens of millions of dollars.Nakaso, Dan (14 March 201
Tsunami damage estimate for Hawaii now tens of millions
''Star Advertiser''. Retrieved 15 March 2011. It was reported that a wave completely submerged

Midway Atoll Midway Atoll (colloquial: Midway Islands; haw, Kauihelani, translation=the backbone of heaven; haw, Pihemanu, translation=the loud din of birds, label=none) is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. Midway Atoll is an insular area of the Unit ...

's reef inlets and Spit Island, killing more than 110,000 nesting seabirds at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. Some other South Pacific countries, including Tonga and New Zealand, and US territories American Samoa and Guam, experienced larger-than-normal waves, but did not report any major damage. However, in Guam some roads were closed off and people were evacuated from low-lying areas. Japanese 2011 Tsunami Boat

Along the Pacific Coast of Mexico and South America, tsunami surges were reported, but in most places caused little or no damage.Minor damage in Latin America by Japan's tsunami
, Channel NewsAsia, 13 March 2011 Peru reported a wave of and more than 300 homes damaged. The surge in Chile was large enough to damage more than 200 houses, with waves of up to . In the Galápagos Islands, 260 families received assistance following a surge which arrived 20 hours after the earthquake, after the tsunami warning had been lifted. There was a great deal of damage to buildings on the islands and one man was injured but there were no reported fatalities. After a high surge hit Chile, it was reported that the reflection from those surges traveled ''back'' across the Pacific, causing a surge in Japan, 47–48 hours after the earthquake, according to observation from multiple tide gauges, including in Onahama, Owase, and Kushimoto. The tsunami broke

iceberg An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially-derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". The ...

s off the

Sulzberger Ice Shelf Sulzberger (German: habitational name for someone from a place called Sulzberg) is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Arthur Hays Sulzberger (1891–1968), publisher of ''The New York Times'' from 1935 to 1961 * Arthur Ochs Sulz ...

in Antarctica, away. The main iceberg measured (approximately the area of

Manhattan Island Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

) and about thick. A total of of ice broke away. As of April 2012, wreckage from the tsunami spread around the world, including a

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

ball which was found in Alaska's

Middleton Island Middleton Island is a small, uninhabited island in the U.S. state of Alaska, located in the Pacific Ocean approximately southwest of Cordova, Alaska, Cordova. The island was briefly home to Middleton Island Air Force Station, an early warning rad ...

and a Japanese motorcycle found in British Columbia, Canada.

Norway

On the day of the earthquake, several fjords in Norway suddenly started to boil and rise, sending freak waves rolling onto nearby shores and mystifying residents. After two years of research, scientists concluded that the massive earthquake also triggered these surprise seiche waves thousands of miles away.

Casualties

Japan

Key statistics

The official figures released in 2021 reported and . 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. Elderly aged over 60 account for 65.8% of all deaths, as shown on the table to the right. In particular, in the Okawa Elementary School tragedy, which 84 drowned, it was discovered that in the wake of the tsunami, young housewives who wanted to pick up their children to high ground, found their voices drowned out by retired, elderly, male villagers, who prefer to stay put at the school, which was a sea-level evacuation site meant for earthquakes, not for tsunami.

Richard Lloyd Parry Richard Lloyd Parry (born 1969) is a British foreign correspondent and writer. He is the Asia Editor of ''The Times'' of London, based in Tokyo, and is the author of the non-fiction books ''In the Time of Madness'', ''People Who Eat Darkness: T ...

concluded the tragedy to be "the ancient dialogue ..between the entreating voices of women, and the oblivious, overbearing dismissiveness of old men". 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. Most of these deaths occurred during the first six months after the earthquake and the number dropped thereafter, but as time has passed, the number has continued to increase. Most of these deaths occurred in Fukushima prefecture, where the prefecture government has suggested that they could be due to evacuations caused by the

. Within the Fukushima prefecture, these indirect casualties have already resulted in more deaths than the number of people killed directly by earthquake and tsunami.

Others

Save the Children reports that as many as 100,000 children were uprooted from their homes, some of whom were separated from their families because the earthquake occurred during the school day. 236 children were orphaned in the prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and

by the disaster; 1,580 children lost either one or both parents, 846 in Miyagi, 572 in Iwate, and 162 in Fukushima. The quake and tsunami killed 378 elementary, middle-school, and high school students and left 158 others missing. One elementary school in Ishinomaki, Miyagi,

Okawa Elementary School was an educational institution in Ishinomaki, Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The school was destroyed in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. 74 of its 108 students, who had been sheltering in the school on the instructions of t ...

, lost 74 of 108 students and 10 of 13 teachers in the tsunami due to poor decision making in evacuation. The Japanese Foreign Ministry confirmed the deaths of nineteen foreigners. Among them were two English teachers from the United States affiliated with the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program; a Canadian missionary in Shiogama; and citizens of China, North and South Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan and the Philippines. By 9:30 UTC on 11 March 2011, Google Person Finder, which was previously used in the Haitian, Chilean, and Christchurch, New Zealand earthquakes, was collecting information about survivors and their locations.

Japanese funeral The majority of funerals (, ''sōgi'' or , ''sōshiki'') in Japan include a wake, the cremation of the deceased, a burial in a family grave, and a periodic memorial service. According to 2007 statistics, 99.81% of deceased Japanese are cremated ...

s are normally elaborate Buddhist ceremonies that entail cremation. The thousands of bodies, however, exceeded the capacity of available crematoriums and morgues, many of them damaged, and there were shortages of both kerosene—each cremation requires 50 litres—and dry ice for preservation. The single crematorium in Higashimatsushima, for example, could only handle four bodies a day, although hundreds were found there. Governments and the military were forced to bury many bodies in hastily dug mass graves with rudimentary or no rites, although relatives of the deceased were promised that they would be cremated later. As of 27 May 2011, three Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members had died while conducting relief operations in Tōhoku. As of March 2012, the Japanese government had recognized 1,331 deaths as indirectly related to the earthquake, such as caused by harsh living conditions after the disaster. As of 30 April 2012, 18 people had died and 420 had been injured while participating in disaster recovery or clean-up efforts.

Overseas

The tsunami was reported to have caused several deaths outside Japan. One man was killed in

Jayapura Jayapura (formerly Dutch: ''Hollandia'') is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of Papua. It is situated on the northern coast of New Guinea island and covers an area of . The city borders the Pacific Ocean and Yos Sudarso ...

, Papua, Indonesia after being swept out to sea. A man who is said to have been attempting to photograph the oncoming tsunami at the mouth of the Klamath River, south of

Crescent City, California Crescent City (Tolowa: ''Taa-’at-dvn''; Yurok: ''Kohpey''; Wiyot: ''Daluwagh'') is the only incorporated city in Del Norte County, California; it is also the county seat. Named for the crescent-shaped stretch of sandy beach south of the city, ...

, was swept out to sea. His body was found on 2 April 2011 along Ocean Beach in Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon, to the north.

Damage and effects

The degree and extent of damage caused by the earthquake and resulting tsunami were enormous, with most of the damage being caused by the tsunami. Video footage of the towns that were worst affected shows little more than piles of rubble, with almost no parts of any structures left standing. Estimates of the cost of the damage range well into the tens of billions of US dollars; before-and-after satellite photographs of devastated regions show immense damage to many regions. Although Japan has invested the equivalent of billions of dollars on anti-tsunami seawalls which line at least 40% of its 34,751 km (21,593 mi) coastline and stand up to 12 m (39 ft) high, the tsunami simply washed over the top of some seawalls, collapsing some in the process. Effect of 2011 Sendai earthquake in Tokyo (cropped)

Effect of 2011 Sendai earthquake in Tokyo (cropped)

Japan's National Police Agency said on 3 April 2011, that 45,700 buildings were destroyed and 144,300 were damaged by the quake and tsunami. The damaged buildings included 29,500 structures in Miyagi Prefecture, 12,500 in Iwate Prefecture and 2,400 in Fukushima Prefecture. Three hundred hospitals with 20 beds or more in Tōhoku were damaged by the disaster, with 11 being completely destroyed. The earthquake and tsunami created an estimated 24–25 million tons of rubble and debris in Japan. A report by the National Police Agency of Japan on 10 September 2018 listed 121,778 buildings as "total collapsed", with a further 280,926 buildings "half collapsed", and another 699,180 buildings "partially damaged". The earthquake and tsunami also caused extensive and severe structural damage in north-eastern Japan, including heavy damage to roads and railways as well as fires in many areas, and a dam collapse. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, "In the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan." Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million without water. An estimated 230,000 automobiles and trucks were damaged or destroyed in the disaster. As of the end of May 2011, residents of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures had requested the deregistration of 15,000 vehicles, meaning that the owners of those vehicles were writing them off as unrepairable or unsalvageable.

Weather conditions

Low temperature and

snowfall Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

were major concerns after the earthquake. Snow arrived minutes before or after the tsunami, depending on locations. In Ishinomaki, the city which suffered the most deaths, a temperature of 0 °C (32 °F) was measured, and it began to snow within a couple of hours of the earthquake. Major snow fell again on 16 March, and intermittently in the coming weeks. 18 March was the coldest of that month, recording -4 °C to 6 °C (25 °F to 43 °F) in

. Photos of city ruins covered with snow were featured in various photo albums in international media, including NASA.

Waste

The tsunami produced huge amounts of debris: estimates of 5 million tonnes of waste were reported by the

Japanese Ministry of the Environment The is a Cabinet of Japan, Cabinet-level ministry of the government of Japan responsible for global environmental conservation, pollution control, and nature conservation. The ministry was formed in 2001 from the sub-cabinet level Environmental ...

. Some of this waste, mostly plastic and styrofoam washed up on the coasts of Canada and the United States in late 2011. Along the west coast of the United States, this increased the amount of litter by a factor of ten and may have transported alien species.

Ports

All of Japan's ports were briefly shut down after the earthquake, though the ones in Tokyo and southwards soon re-opened. Fifteen ports were located in the disaster zone. The north eastern ports of Hachinohe, Sendai, Ishinomaki and Onahama were destroyed, while the Port of Chiba (which serves the hydrocarbon industry) and Japan's ninth-largest container port at Kashima were also affected, though less severely. The ports at Hitachinaka, Hitachi, Soma, Shiogama, Kesennuma, Ofunato, Kamashi and Miyako were also damaged and closed to ships. All 15 ports reopened to limited ship traffic by 29 March 2011.''

Nihon Keizai Shimbun ''The Nikkei'', also known as , is the flagship publication of Nikkei, Inc. (based in Tokyo) and the world's largest financial newspaper, with a daily circulation exceeding 1.73 million copies. The Nikkei 225, a stock market index for the Tok ...

'', "90 percent of major transport networks back in operation", 29 March 2011. 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. The Port of Tokyo suffered slight damage; the effects of the quake included visible smoke rising from a building in the port with parts of the port areas being flooded, including

soil liquefaction Soil liquefaction occurs when a cohesionless saturated or partially saturated soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress such as shaking during an earthquake or other sudden change in stress condition, in ...

in Tokyo Disneyland's parking lot.

Dams and water problems

The Fujinuma irrigation dam in Sukagawa ruptured, causing flooding and the washing away of five homes. Eight people were missing and four bodies were discovered by the morning. Reportedly, some locals had attempted to repair leaks in the dam before it completely failed. On 12 March 252 dams were inspected and it was discovered that six

embankment dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface and ...

s had shallow cracks on their crests. The reservoir at one concrete

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation to oppose the horizontal pressure of water pushing against it. ...

suffered a small non-serious

slope failure Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments, ...

. All damaged dams are functioning with no problems. Four dams within the quake area were unreachable. When the roads clear, experts will be dispatched to conduct further investigations. In the immediate aftermath of the calamity, at least 1.5 million households were reported to have lost access to water supplies. By 21 March 2011, this number fell to 1.04 million.

Electricity

According to the Japanese trade ministry, around 4.4 million households served by

Tōhoku Electric Power is an electric utility, servicing 7.6 million individual and corporate customers in six prefectures in Tōhoku region plus Niigata Prefecture. It provides electricity at 100 V, 50 Hz, though some area use 60 Hz. Tohoku Electric Power ...

(TEP) in northeastern Japan were left without electricity. Several nuclear and conventional power plants went offline, reducing the

Tokyo Electric Power Company , also known as or TEPCO, is a Japanese electric utility holding company servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisaiw ...

's (TEPCO) total capacity by 21 GW. Rolling blackouts began on 14 March due to power shortages caused by the earthquake. TEPCO, which normally provides approximately 40 GW of electricity, announced that it could only provide about 30 GW, because 40% of the electricity used in the greater Tokyo area was supplied by reactors in the Niigata and

prefectures. The reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Dai-ni plants were automatically taken offline when the first earthquake occurred and sustained major damage from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Rolling blackouts of approximately three hours were experienced throughout April and May while TEPCO scrambled to find a temporary power solution. The blackouts affected Tokyo, Kanagawa, Eastern Shizuoka, Yamanashi,

Chiba Chiba may refer to: Places China * (), town in Jianli County, Jingzhou, Hubei Japan * Chiba (city), capital of Chiba Prefecture ** Chiba Station, a train station * Chiba Prefecture, a sub-national jurisdiction in the Greater Tokyo Area on ...

, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tochigi, and Gunma prefectures. Voluntary reductions in electricity use by consumers in the Kanto area helped reduce the predicted frequency and duration of the blackouts. By 21 March 2011, the number of households in the north without electricity fell to 242,927. Devastation in Minamisōma after tsunami

Tōhoku Electric Power was not able to provide the Kanto region with additional power because TEP's power plants were also damaged in the earthquake. Kansai Electric Power Company (Kepco) could not share electricity, because its system operated at 60 hertz, whereas TEPCO and TEP operate their systems at 50 hertz; the disparity is due to early industrial and infrastructure development in the 1880s that left Japan without a unified national power grid. Two substations, one in Shizuoka Prefecture and one in Nagano Prefecture, were able to convert between frequencies and transfer electricity from Kansai to Kanto and Tōhoku, but their capacity was limited to 1 GW. With damage to so many power plants, it was feared it might be years before a long-term solution could be found. To help alleviate the shortage, three steel manufacturers in the Kanto region contributed electricity produced by their in-house conventional power stations to TEPCO for distribution to the general public. Sumitomo Metal Industries could produce up to 500 MW, JFE Steel 400 MW, and Nippon Steel 500 MW of electric power. Auto and auto parts makers in Kanto and Tōhoku agreed in May 2011 to operate their factories on Saturdays and Sundays and close on Thursdays and Fridays to help alleviate electricity shortages during the summer of 2011. The public and other companies were also encouraged to conserve electricity in the 2011 summer months (

Setsuden Setsuden (Japanese: 節電, lit. “saving electricity” in English) was a national movement in Japan to encourage the Japanese public to conserve electricity during the 2011 summer months, and adopt an overall Sustainable energy, energy sustainabl ...

). The expected electricity crisis in 2011 summer was successfully prevented thanks to all the ''setsuden'' measures. Peak electricity consumption recorded by TEPCO during the period was 49.22GW, which is 10.77GW (18%) lower than the peak consumption in the previous year. Overall electricity consumption during July and August was also 14% less than in the previous year. The peak electricity consumption within TEP's area was 12.46GW during the 2011 summer, 3.11GW (20%) less than the peak consumption in the previous year, and the overall consumption have been reduced by 11% in July with 17% in August compared to previous year.9月定例社長記者会見概要
TEP, 10 September 2011 The Japanese government continued to ask the public to conserve electricity until 2016, when it is predicted that the supply will be sufficient to meet demand, thanks to the deepening of the mindset to conserve electricity among corporate and general public, addition of new electricity providers due to the electricity liberalization policy, increased output from renewable energy as well as fossil fuel power stations, as well as sharing of electricity between different electricity companies.

Oil, gas and coal

A -per-day oil refinery of Cosmo Oil Company was set on fire by the quake at Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, to the east of Tokyo. It was extinguished after ten days, injuring six people, and destroying storage tanks. Other refineries halted production due to safety checks and power loss. In Sendai, a -per-day refinery owned by the largest refiner in Japan,

JX Nippon Oil & Energy , formerly , or NOC or ''Shin-Nisseki'' (新日石) is a Japanese petroleum company. Its businesses include exploration, importation, and refining of crude oil; the manufacture and sale of petroleum products, including fuels and lubricants; and ...

, was also set ablaze by the quake. Workers were evacuated, but tsunami warnings hindered efforts to extinguish the fire until 14 March, when officials planned to do so. An analyst estimates that consumption of various types of oil may increase by as much as per day (as well as LNG), as back-up power plants burning

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...

s try to compensate for the loss of 11 GW of Japan's nuclear power capacity. The city-owned plant for importing liquefied natural gas in Sendai was severely damaged, and supplies were halted for at least a month. In addition to refining and storage, several power plants were damaged. These include Sendai #4, New-Sendai #1 and #2, Haranomachi #1 and #2, Hirono #2 and #4 and Hitachinaka #1.

Nuclear power plants

The Fukushima Daiichi, Fukushima Daini, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant and Tōkai nuclear power stations, consisting of a total eleven reactors, were automatically shut down following the earthquake. Higashidōri, also on the northeast coast, was already shut down for a periodic inspection. Cooling is needed to remove decay heat after a Generation II reactor has been shut down, and to maintain spent fuel pools. The backup cooling process is powered by emergency diesel generators at the plants and at Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant. At Fukushima Daiichi and Daini, tsunami waves overtopped seawalls and destroyed diesel backup power systems, leading to severe problems at Fukushima Daiichi, including three large explosions and radioactive leakage. Subsequent analysis found that many Japanese nuclear plants, including Fukushima Daiichi, were not adequately protected against tsunamis. Over 200,000 people were evacuated. The discharge of radioactive water in Fukushima were confirmed in later analysis at the three reactors at Fukushima I (Units 1, 2, and 3), which suffered meltdowns and continued to leak coolant water. The aftershock on 7 April caused the loss of external power to Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and Higashidori Nuclear Power Plant but backup generators were functional. Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant lost three of its four external power lines and temporarily lost cooling function in its spent fuel pools for "20 to 80 minutes". A spill of "up to 3.8 litres" of radioactive water also occurred at Onagawa following the aftershock.Japan Earthquake: More Nuclear Plants Lose Power
''International Business Times'', Jesse Emspak, 8 April 2011 A report by the IAEA in 2012 found that the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant had remained largely undamaged. In 2013, only two nuclear reactors in Japan had been restarted since the 2011 shutdowns. In February 2019, there were 42 operable reactors in Japan. Of these, only nine reactors in five power plants were operating after having been restarted post-2011.

Fukushima meltdowns

Japan declared a state of emergency following the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in the evacuation of nearby residents. Officials from the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported that radiation levels inside the plant were up to 1,000 times normal levels, and that radiation levels outside the plant were up to eight times normal levels. Later, a state of emergency was also declared at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant about south. Experts described the Fukushima disaster was not as bad as the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

, but worse than the Three Mile Island accident. The discharge of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was later detected in tap water. Radioactive iodine was detected in the tap water in Fukushima, Tochigi, Gunma, Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, and Niigata, and radioactive caesium in the tap water in Fukushima, Tochigi and Gunma. Radioactive caesium, iodine, and strontium were also detected in the soil in some places in Fukushima. There may be a need to replace the contaminated soil. Many radioactive hotspots were found outside the evacuation zone, including Tokyo. Radioactive contamination of food products were detected in several places in Japan. In 2021, the Japanese cabinet finally approved the dumping of radioactive water in Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean over a course of 30 years, with full support of IAEA.

Incidents elsewhere

A fire occurred in the turbine section of the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant following the earthquake. The blaze was in a building housing the turbine, which is sited separately from the plant's reactor, and was soon extinguished. The plant was shut down as a precaution. On 13 March the lowest-level state of emergency was declared regarding the Onagawa plant as radioactivity readings temporarily exceeded allowed levels in the area of the plant. Tōhoku Electric Power Co. stated this may have been due to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accidents but was not from the Onagawa plant itself. As a result of the 7 April aftershock, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant lost three of four external power lines and lost cooling function for as much as 80 minutes. A spill of a couple of litres of radioactive water occurred at Onagawa. The number 2 reactor at

Tōkai Nuclear Power Plant The was Japan's first commercial nuclear power plant. The first unit was built in the early 1960s to the British Magnox design, and generated power from 1966 until it was decommissioned in 1998. A second unit, built at the site in the 1970s, w ...

was shut down automatically. On 14 March it was reported that a cooling system pump for this reactor had stopped working; however, the Japan Atomic Power Company stated that there was a second operational pump sustaining the cooling systems, but that two of three diesel generators used to power the cooling system were out of order.

Transport

Japan's transport network suffered severe disruptions. Many sections of Tōhoku Expressway serving northern Japan were damaged. The expressway did not reopen to general public use until 24 March 2011. All railway services were suspended in Tokyo, with an estimated 20,000 people stranded at major stations across the city. In the hours after the earthquake, some train services were resumed. Most Tokyo area train lines resumed full service by the next day—12 March. Twenty thousand stranded visitors spent the night of 11–12 March inside Tokyo Disneyland. A tsunami flooded Sendai Airport at 15:55 JST, about one hour after the initial quake, causing severe damage. Narita and Haneda Airport both briefly suspended operations after the quake, but suffered little damage and reopened within 24 hours. Eleven airliners bound for Narita were diverted to nearby Yokota Air Base. Shinchi Sta 20110404

Various train services around Japan were also canceled, with

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

suspending all services for the rest of the day. Four trains on coastal lines were reported as being out of contact with operators; one, a four-car train on the Senseki Line, was found to have derailed, and its occupants were rescued shortly after 8 am the next morning.

Minami-Kesennuma Station file:Eki-Minamikesennuma.JPG, 270px, Minami-Kesennuma Station in April 2005 file:Minami-Kesennuma Station after tsunami.jpg , 270px, Minami-Kesennuma after the 2011 earthquake was a East Japan Railway Company, JR East railway station located in ...

on the Kesennuma Line was obliterated save for its platform; 62 of 70 (31 of 35) JR East train lines suffered damage to some degree; in the worst-hit areas, 23 stations on 7 lines were washed away, with damage or loss of track in 680 locations and the 30-km radius around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant unable to be assessed. There were no derailments of Shinkansen bullet train services in and out of Tokyo, but their services were also suspended. The Tokaido Shinkansen resumed limited service late in the day and was back to its normal schedule by the next day, while the Jōetsu and Nagano Shinkansen resumed services late on 12 March. Services on Yamagata Shinkansen resumed with limited numbers of trains on 31 March. Derailments were minimized because of an early warning system that detected the earthquake before it struck. The system automatically stopped all high-speed trains, which minimized the damage. The Tōhoku Shinkansen line was worst hit, with JR East estimating that 1,100 sections of the line, varying from collapsed station roofs to bent power pylons, will need repairs. Services on the Tōhoku Shinkansen partially resumed only in Kantō area on 15 March, with one round-trip service per hour between Tokyo and Nasu-Shiobara, and Tōhoku area service partially resumed on 22 March between Morioka and Shin-Aomori. Services on Akita Shinkansen resumed with limited numbers of trains on 18 March. Service between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori was restored by May, but at lower speeds due to ongoing restoration work; the pre-earthquake timetable was not reinstated until late September. The rolling blackouts brought on by the crises at the nuclear power plants in Fukushima had a profound effect on the rail networks around Tokyo starting on 14 March. Major railways began running trains at 10–20 minute intervals, rather than the usual 3–5 minute intervals, operating some lines only at rush hour and completely shutting down others; notably, the Tōkaidō Main Line, Yokosuka Line, Sōbu Main Line and Chūō-Sōbu Line were all stopped for the day. This led to near-paralysis within the capital, with long lines at train stations and many people unable to come to work or get home. Railway operators gradually increased capacity over the next few days, until running at approximately 80% capacity by 17 March and relieving the worst of the passenger congestion.

Telecommunications

Cellular and landline phone service suffered major disruptions in the affected area. Immediately after the earthquake cellular communication was jammed across much of Japan due to a surge of network activity. On the day of the quake itself American broadcaster NPR was unable to reach anyone in Sendai with a working phone or access to the Internet. Internet services were largely unaffected in areas where basic infrastructure remained, despite the earthquake having damaged portions of several undersea cable systems landing in the affected regions; these systems were able to reroute around affected segments onto redundant links. Within Japan, only a few websites were initially unreachable. Several Wi-Fi hotspot providers reacted to the quake by providing free access to their networks, and some American telecommunications and VoIP companies such as AT&T,

Sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace *Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automotive and motorcycle *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, ...

, Verizon, T-Mobile and VoIP companies such as netTALK and Vonage have offered free calls to (and in some cases, from) Japan for a limited time, as did Germany's

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...

Defense

Matsushima Air Field of the Japan Self-Defense Force in Miyagi Prefecture received a tsunami warning, and the airbase public address 'Tanoy' was used to give the warning: 'A tsunami is coming evacuate to the third floor.' Shortly after the warning the airbase was struck by the tsunami, flooding the base there was no loss of life although the tsunami resulted in damage to all 18

Mitsubishi F-2 The Mitsubishi F-2 is a multirole fighter derived from the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, and manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Lockheed Martin for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, with a 60/40 split in manufacturing betw ...

fighter jets of the 21st Fighter Training Squadron. Twelve of the aircraft were scrapped, while the remaining six were slated for repair at a cost of 80 billion yen ($1 billion), exceeding the original cost of the aircraft. After the tsunami, elements of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force put to sea without orders and started rescuing those who had been washed out to sea. Tsunami plans were for the Japanese Self-Defence Force assets to be led, directed, and coordinated by local civic governments. However, the earthquake destroyed town halls (the seat of local municipal government), police, and fire services in many places, so the military not only had to respond to but also command rescues.

Cultural properties

754

cultural properties Cultural property does not have a universal definition, but it is commonly considered to be tangible (physical, material) items that are part of the cultural heritage of a group or society, as opposed to less tangible cultural expressions. They i ...

were damaged across nineteen prefectures, including five

National Treasures National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(at Zuigan-ji,

Ōsaki Hachiman-gū Osaki is a type of spirit possession of a fox told about in legends of Japan. They are also called osaki-gitsune. They can also alternatively be written 尾先. Other ways of writing them include 尾裂, 御先狐, 尾崎狐, among others. Conce ...

Shiramizu Amidadō , is a chapel located within the Buddhist temple of in the city of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The Amida-dō is a National Treasure and the temple, with its paradise garden, has been designated an National Historic Site. History The te ...

, and

Seihaku-ji , is a Buddhist temple belonging to the Myōshin-ji branch of the Rinzai school of Japanese Zen Buddhism, located in the city of Yamanashi, Japan. Its main image is a statue of Shaka Nyōrai. History Seihaku-ji was founded by Ashikaga Takauji ...

); 160 Important Cultural Properties (including at

Sendai Tōshō-gū is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the ''daimyō'' Date M ...

, the

Kōdōkan The , or ''Kōdōkan'' (講道館), is the headquarters of the worldwide judo community. The ''kōdōkan'' was founded in 1882 by Kanō Jigorō, the founder of judo, and is now an eight-story building in Tokyo. Etymology Literally, ''kō'' ( ...

, and Entsū-in, with its Western decorative motifs); 144

Monuments of Japan is a collective term used by the Japanese government's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties to denote Cultural Properties of JapanIn this article, capitals indicate an official designation as opposed to a simple definition, e.g "Cultura ...

(including

Matsushima is a group of islands in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. There are some 260 tiny islands (''shima'') covered in pines (''matsu'') – hence the name – and it is considered to be one of the Three Views of Japan. Nearby cultural properties ...

Takata-matsubara was a pine grove located on the Pacific seashore of the city of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. It was designated a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty in 1940. and one of the 100 Landscapes of Japan during the Shōwa era. Af ...

, Yūbikan, and the Site of Tagajō); six

Groups of Traditional Buildings is a Japanese category of historic preservation introduced by a 1975 amendment of the law which mandates the protection of groups of traditional buildings which, together with their environment, form a beautiful scene. They can be post towns, castl ...

; and four

Important Tangible Folk Cultural Properties A is administered by the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), and includes tangible properties (structures and works of art or craft); intangible properties (perform ...

. Stone monuments at the UNESCO World Heritage Site: Shrines and Temples of Nikkō were toppled. In Tokyo, there was damage to

Koishikawa Kōrakuen is a district of Bunkyo, Tokyo. It consists of five sub-areas, . In Koishikawa are located two well regarded gardens: the Koishikawa Botanical Garden (operated by the University of Tokyo) in Hakusan, and the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden in Kōra ...

Rikugien is a Tokyo metropolitan park in Bunkyō-ku. The name ''Rikugi-en'' means "Garden of the Six Principles", referring to the six elements in ''waka'' poetry, based on the traditional division of Chinese poetry into six categories. The gardens co ...

, Hamarikyū Onshi Teien, and the walls of

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established the ...

. Information on the condition of collections held by museums, libraries and archives is still incomplete. There was no damage to the Historic Monuments and Sites of Hiraizumi in Iwate Prefecture, and the recommendation for their inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List in June was seized upon as a symbol of international recognition and recovery.

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. In response the Japanese government mobilized the Self-Defence Forces (under Joint Task Force – Tōhoku, led by Lieutenant General

Eiji Kimizuka was the 32nd Chief of Staff of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the ''de facto'' army of Japan. He was promoted to four-star General and assumed the position on August 5, 2011. Career Kimizuka was born and raised in Kanagawa Prefecture. He a ...

), while many countries sent search and rescue teams to help search for survivors. Aid organizations both in Japan and worldwide also responded, with the Japanese Red Cross reporting $1 billion in donations. 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). In comparison to the

1995 Great Hanshin earthquake The , or Kobe earthquake, occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46:53 JST (January 16 at 20:46:53 UTC) in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, including the region known as Hanshin. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and ha ...

, the East Japan earthquake brought serious damage to an extremely wide range. The aftermath of the twin disasters also left Japan's coastal cities and towns with nearly 25 million tons of debris. In Ishinomaki alone, there were 17 trash collection sites long and at least high. An official in the city's government trash disposal department estimated that it would take three years to empty these sites. In April 2015, authorities off the coast of Oregon discovered debris that was thought to be from a boat destroyed during the tsunami. The cargo contained yellowtail jack fish, a species that lives off the coast of Japan, still alive. KGW estimates that more than 1 million tons of debris still remain in the Pacific Ocean. In February 2016, a memorial was inaugurated by two architects for the victims of the disaster, consisting of 6.5-square-metre structure on a hillside between a temple and a cherry tree in Ishinomaki. File:2011TsunamiFireVehicles.jpg, Emergency vehicles staging in the ruins of Otsuchi, Japan following the tsunami File:Anti nuclear rally in Tokyo on Sunday 27 March 2011.JPG, Anti-nuclear protest following the disaster

Scientific and research response

Seismologists anticipated a very large quake would strike in the same place as the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

—in the Sagami Trough, southwest of Tokyo. The Japanese government had tracked plate movements since 1976 in preparation for the so-called Tokai earthquake, predicted to take place in that region. However, occurring as it did north east of Tokyo, the Tōhoku earthquake came as a surprise to seismologists. While the Japan Trench was known for creating large quakes, it had not been expected to generate quakes above an 8.0 magnitude. The Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion set up by the Japanese government then reassessed the long-term risk of trench-type earthquakes around Japan, and it was announced in November 2011 that research on the 869 Sanriku earthquake indicated that a similar earthquake with a magnitude of 8.4–9.0 would take place off the Pacific coast of northeastern Japan, on average, every 600 years. Also, a tsunami-earthquake with a tsunami magnitude scales (Mt) between 8.6 and 9.0 (Similar to the

1896 Sanriku earthquake The was one of the most destructive seismic events in Japanese history. The 8.5 Moment magnitude scale, magnitude earthquake occurred at 19:32 (local time) on June 15, 1896, approximately off the coast of Iwate Prefecture, Honshu. It resulted i ...

, the Mt for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake was 9.1–9.4) had a 30% chance to occur within 30 years. The quake gave scientists the opportunity to collect a large amount of data to model the seismic events that took place in great detail. These data are expected to be used in a variety of ways, providing unprecedented information about how buildings respond to shaking, and other effects. Gravimetric data from the quake have been used to create a model for increased warning time compared to seismic models, as gravity fields travel faster than seismic waves. Researchers have also analysed the economic effects of this earthquake and have developed models of the nationwide propagation via interfirm supply networks of the shock that originated in the Tōhoku region. After the full extent of the disaster was known, researchers soon launched a project to gather all digital material relating to the disaster into an online searchable archive to form the basis of future research into the events during and after the disaster. The Japan Digital Archive is presented in English and Japanese and is hosted at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some of the first research to come from the archive was a 2014 paper from the Digital Methods Initiative in Amsterdam about patterns of Twitter usage around the time of the disaster. After the 2011 disaster, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction held its World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Tohoku in March 2015, which produced the Sendai Framework document to guide efforts by international development agencies to act before disasters instead of reacting to them after the fact. At this time Japan's Disaster Management Office (Naikakufu Bosai Keikaku) published a bi-lingual guide in Japanese and English, ''Disaster Management in Japan'', to outline the several varieties of natural disaster and the preparations being made for the eventuality of each. In the fall of 2016, Japan's National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED; Japanese abbreviation, Bosai Kaken; full name Bousai Kagaku Gijutsu Kenkyusho) launched the online interactive "Disaster Chronology Map for Japan, 416–2013" (map labels in Japanese) to display in visual form the location, disaster time, and date across the islands. The Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project, a scientific expedition conducted in 2012–2013, drilled ocean-floor boreholes through the fault zone of the earthquake and gathered important data about the rupture mechanism and physical properties of the fault that caused the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.Smithsonian.co
Fault that Caused Japan's 2011 Earthquake is Thin and Slippery
5 December 2013Christian Science Monito
Japan's monster quake: Do scientists have key to decode future tremblors?
6 December 2013

Ecological research

The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami had a great environmental impact on Japan's eastern coast. The rarity and magnitude of the earthquake-tsunami prompted researchers Jotaro Urabe, Takao Suzuki, Tatsuki Nishita, and Wataru Makino to study their immediate ecological impacts on intertidal flat communities at Sendai Bay and the Sanriku Ria coast. Pre- and post-event surveys show a reduction in animal taxon richness and change in taxon composition mainly attributed to the tsunami and its physical impacts. In particular, sessile epibenthic animals and endobenthic animals both decreased in taxon richness. Mobile epibenthic animals, such as hermit crabs, were not as affected. Post-surveys also recorded taxa that were not previously recorded before, suggesting that tsunamis have the potential to introduce species and change taxon composition and local community structure. The long term ecological impacts at Sendai Bay and the greater east coast of Japan require further study.

Explanatory notes

References

Sources

External links

Japan's Killer Quake
–

NOVA A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

The M9.0 Great Tohoku Earthquake (northeast Honshu, Japan) of March 11, 2011
from United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Map of Tsunami Inundation Areas in Japan
fro
ReliefWeb

Photos from '' The Boston Globe''
Japan Earthquake: before and after
aerial and satellite images from ABC News, credited t

''The New York Times''
Japan in Crisis: A Series of Interviews with Scholars by Peter Shea at the University of Minnesota

Special: The Tōhoku-Oki Earthquake, Japan
– free-access scientific papers from ''Science'' magazine

* ttp://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/news/tags/index.php/pw:jpnearthquake2011/Great%20East%20Japan%20Earthquake%202011/ PreventionWeb Great East Japan Earthquake 2011* from Fuji News Network
Interactive Comparisons of Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami
at Beslider.com *
Map to chronicle all known disasters in Japan from 416 to 2013
* Flag of Mimasaka Okayama

Foundation of the Covenant official and international dedicated to the victims of the tsunami
under the aegis of the Mimasaka Province (mayor

Seiji Hagiwara is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives of Japan, House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan, Diet (national legislature) representing the Second Dist ...

), in the presence of Senator Élisabeth Lamure {{DEFAULTSORT:Tohoku Earthquake And Tsunami, 2011 2011 disasters in Canada 2011 earthquakes 2011 in Japan 2011 in Tokyo 2011 natural disasters in the United States 2011 tsunamis Articles containing video clips Civilian nuclear power accidents Earthquakes of the Heisei period March 2011 events in Asia Megathrust earthquakes in Japan Midway Atoll Natural disasters in British Columbia Natural disasters in California Natural disasters in Hawaii Natural disasters in Oregon Natural disasters in Papua New Guinea Natural disasters in Peru Natural disasters in Washington (state) Nuclear power in Japan Postwar Japan Sendai

2011 earthquake and tsunami Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *' ...

Tsunamis in Chile Tsunamis in Japan Tsunamis in the United States March 2011 events in Japan Shindo 7 earthquakes 2011 disasters in Japan

Earthquake

Geology

Energy

Intensity

Geophysical effects

Aftershocks

Land subsidence

Earthquake Warning System

Tsunami

Japan

Elsewhere across the Pacific

Norway

Casualties

Japan

Key statistics

Others

Overseas

Damage and effects

Weather conditions

Waste

Ports

Dams and water problems

Electricity

Oil, gas and coal

Nuclear power plants

Fukushima meltdowns

Incidents elsewhere

Transport

Telecommunications

Defense

Cultural properties

Aftermath

Scientific and research response

Ecological research

See also

Explanatory notes

References

Further reading

Sources

External links