Case Study Of The Tohoku Earthquake And Tsunami

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami On March, 11, 2011, a megathrust earthquake of 9.0 on the moment magnitude scale occurred at approximately 70 km away from the nation of Japan.1 This earthquake was the fourth most powerful ever recorded in Earth’s history and, among other things, resulting in approximately 400 metres of Japan’s coast subsiding 0.6 m.2 The undersea earthquake resulted in a tsunami, that had waves estimated to be up to 40 metres in height. The waves of the tsunami were able to travel approximately 10 kilometres on land, in the Sendai area.3 The tsunami affected a large area along the Pacific coast and over 20 countries issued tsunami warnings.4 The main earthquake, tsunami and aftershocks led to damage to nearly 190,000 buildings in Japan.5 This event had grave implications for Japan on an economic, social and health scale.

1.2 Megathrust Earthquakes A megathrust earthquake is one that takes place along the boundary of two tectonic plates. These earthquakes occurs at convergent boundaries and results from one plate being subducted by another. These earthquakes are the most powerful …show more content…

It was confirmed that 15,889 deaths occurred with 2601 people still missing after the event. Of the victims, 14,308 drowned which demonstrates the costly impact of the tsunami on life. The destruction of homes left a large amount of people displaced. This led to a large amount of evacuees that totalled 341,411 in January 2012. The tsunami also had a negative impact on the economy. In 2011, Japan estimated that the cost of repair to direct damage alone was $300 billion. Japan’s economy suffered because of the event and its real GDP contracted 3.7% within the January to March quarter. Many businesses suffered because of the disaster and in total, 644 companies were fell in bankruptcy due to the

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