Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake shook northeastern Japan, unleashing a savage tsunami.

The effects of the great earthquake were felt around the world, from Norway's fjords to Antarctica's ice sheet. Tsunami debris continues to wash up on North American

beaches two years later.

Earthquake • Started on a Friday at 2:46 p.m. local time. • It was centered on the seafloor 45 miles (72

kilometers) east of Tohoku, at a depth of 20 miles (32 km) below the surface.

• The shaking lasted about six minutes

ForeshocksThe biggest one was a 7.2 MW.

On 9 March, about 40 kilometres, from the main earthquake's location.

Casualties15,883 deaths6,150 injured2,651 missing

Aftershocks A 7.7 happened 30 minutes following the first quake

Total DamageFlooding, landslides, fires, building and infrastructure

damage, nuclear incidents including radiation releases

Tsunami • The Earthquake started a tsunami warning for Japan's Pacific

coast and other countries, including New Zealand, Australia, Russia, Guam, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Hawaii, Northern Mariana Islands (USA) and Taiwan

• It warned that the wave could be as much as 10 meters high.• A 0.5 meter high wave hit Japan's northern coast.• In some areas the waves reached 10 km inland.• At 9:28 p.m (HST) the National Weather Service issued a tsunami

warning until 7 a.m. for all of Hawaii.• A wave two meters high reached California

Nuclear Disaster• The Fukushima nuclear disaster began on March 11 2011,

just hours after the initial wave.

The tsunami caused a cooling system failure at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which resulted in a level 7 nuclear meltdown and release of radioactive materials. About 300 tons of radioactive water continues to leak from the plant every day into the Pacific Ocean, affecting fish and other marine life.

The Cause

• East of Japan, the Pacific plate dives beneath the overriding Eurasian plate. The temblor completely released centuries of built up stress between the two tectonic plate.

In a subduction zone, one plate slides beneath another into the mantle, the hotter layer beneath the crust.

The great plates stick and slip, causing earthquakes.

Amazing Facts• The earthquake shifted Earth on its axis of rotation by

redistributing mass, like putting a dent in a wobbling top. The temblor also shortened the length of day by about a microsecond.

• More than 1,000 aftershocks have hit Japan since the earthquake, the largest a magnitude 7.9.

• About 250 miles (400 km) of Japan's northern Honshu coastline dropped by 2 feet (0.6 meters).

• The jolt moved Japan's main island of Honshu eastward by 8 feet (2.4 meters).

• The Pacific Plate slid westward near the epicenter by 79 feet (24 m).

• In Antarctica, the seismic waves from the earthquake sped up the Whillans Ice Stream, jolting it by about 1.5 feet (0.5 meters).

• The tsunami broke icebergs off the Sulzberger Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

• As the tsunami crossed the Pacific Ocean, a 5-foot high (1.5 m) high wave killed more than 110,000 nesting seabirds at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.

• In Norway, water in some fjords pointing northeast toward Japan (up and over the pole) sloshed back and forth as seismic waves from the earthquake raced through.

• The earthquake produced a low-frequency rumble called infrasound, which traveled into space and was detected by the Goce satellite.

Thanks for watching

• Allison Vides• Angie Alvarado• Catherine Sánchez• Guadalupe Sáenz

• 6to “C”