1933 Sanriku Earthquake damage at Kamaishi 01

The occurred on the

Sanriku coast The is a coastal region on the Pacific Ocean, extending from southern Aomori Prefecture, through Iwate Prefecture and northern Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Honshū, which is Japan's main island. The name comes from the historical region of ...

of the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku reta ...

of Honshū, Japan on March 2 with a

moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

of 8.4. The associated

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

caused widespread devastation.

Earthquake

The epicenter was located offshore, east of the city of Kamaishi, Iwate. The main shock occurred at 02:31 AM local time on March 3, 1933 (17:31 UTC March 2, 1933) and measured 8.4 on the moment magnitude scale. It was in approximately the same location as the

1896 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 whi ...

and it occurred far enough away from the town that shaking did little damage. Approximately three hours after the main shock there was a magnitude 6.8 aftershock, followed by 76 more aftershocks (with a magnitude of 5.0 or greater) over a period of six months. This was an intraplate event that occurred within the Pacific Plate, and the focal mechanism showed normal faulting.

Damage

Although little damage was produced from the shock, the

, which was recorded to reach the height of at Ōfunato, Iwate, caused extensive damage, and destroyed many homes and caused numerous casualties. The tsunami destroyed over 7,000 homes along the northern Japanese coastline, of which over 4,885 were washed away. The tsunami was also recorded in Hawaii with a height of , and also resulted in slight damage. The death toll came to 1,522 people confirmed dead, 1,542 missing, and 12,053 injured. Hardest hit was the town of Tarō, Iwate (now part of Miyako city), with 98% of its houses destroyed and 42% of its population killed.Corkill, Edan,
Heights of survival
, '' Japan Times'', 12 June 2011, pp. 9–10.

Notes

External links

Historic video footage of devastation following 1933 Sanriku Earthquake
* {{Earthquakes in Japan

Sanriku , sometimes known as , lies on the northeastern side of the island of Honshu, corresponding to today's Aomori, Iwate and parts of Miyagi Prefecture and has a long history. The 36 bays of this irregular coastline tend to amplify the destructivenes ...

March 1933 events 1930s tsunamis Earthquakes in the Empire of Japan Tsunamis in Japan Earthquakes of the Showa period 1933 disasters in Japan

Earthquake

Damage

See also

Notes

External links