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The effect of the tsunami on Japan
Tsunami causes
The effect of the tsunami on Japan
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Tsunamis, commonly called tidal waves by the general public, are large sea waves or surges. These waves can carry a lot of energy from one side of the globe to the other, reeking havoc where ever they make landfall, and as shown by the December 26, 2004 SE Asian event, tsunami's can claim thousands of lives and cause millions of dollars worth of damage to property.
* Many people picture large, breaking waves when they hear the word tsunami. This is usually not the case, however.
* Most tsunamis make landfall as little more than a gigantic surge, as if the tide just moved in way too far way too fast.
* This surging nature of tsunamis is mostly due to the extremely long wavelength, generally on the order of 100-200km.
* A tsunami can turn into a locally, large and breaking wave if the wave energy is concentrated, shortening the wavelength and increasing the amplitude.
* This often happens if the wave enters a bay, fjord or similar feature.
* Tsunamis can be regional, like the recent tsunami in SE Asia, or localized, like the megatsunami in Lituya Bay, Alaska in 1958.
* Regional scale tsunamis are general caused by crustal rebound after a large earthquake, usually associated with a subduction zone
* Localized tsunamis are also generally associated with earthquakes, but the physical cause of the wave is usually due to a landslide or pyroclastic flow.
There are several geologic events that can trigger the propagation of a tsunami
* Earthquakes: generally tectonic rebound at or near a subduction zone, when there is a vertical component to crustal movement that displaces a large volume of the overlying water
* Landslides: often earthquake or volcanically triggered, can be purely submarine or the slide could begin on land and slide into the water (i.e. a collapsing volcano)
* Volcanic activity: usually subaerial, could be pyroclastic flows, lahars, nuees ardants, or collapse of the mountain side
* Impact of a large meteor or asteroid
* A tsunami behaves as a shallow water wave.
* Tsunami's travel in much the same way as your garden variety, wind-propagated water waves: with some combination of transverse and longitudinal movement.
Earthquakes are a natural part of the Earth’s evolution. Scientific evidence leads many geologists to believe that all of the land on Earth was at one point in time connected. Because of plate tectonic movements or earthquakes, continental drift occurred separating the one massive piece of land in to the seven major continents today. Further evidence supports this theory, starting with the Mid-Atlantic ridge, a large mass of plate tectonics, which are increasing the size of the Atlantic Ocean while shrinking the Pacific. Some scientists believe that the major plate moveme...
Imagine if a 9.0 earthquake struck the West Coast today, resulting in a giant tsunami. Coastal towns would be washed away or completely isolated, and electricity would be lost (FOX5). There would be $70 billion in damage and people would only have 15 minutest to evacuate or move to higher ground resulting in 10,000 deaths (FOX5). This sounds like a plot for a scary movie, but this is actually a reality. The Oregon Coast in located on a subduction zone, which makes it very susceptible to major earthquakes and tsunamis. With the Cascadia subduction zone running along he West Coast the threat of a major tsunami is very real.
Tsunamis can kill 230,000–280,000 people and rogue waves kill very little people. The only similarity they have is they are destructive and they’re formed in
The tsunami in Thailand that occurred on December 26, 2004, was by far the largest tsunami catastrophe in human history. It was triggered by a magnitude 9.1-9.3 earthquake along the Indian-Australian subduction zone off the northern coast of Sumatra. The tsunami waves traveled primarily in the east to west direction and caused major damage along the coasts of southern Thailand. Unpredictably, it was a violent earthquake beneath the sea that initiated the massive waves and struck more than a dozen countries in Southern Asia. It also destroyed thousands of miles of coastline and even submerged entire islands permanently. Throughout the region, the tsunami killed more than 150,000 people, and a million more were hurt, homeless, and without food or drinkable water, making it perhaps the most destructive tsunami in the modern history. In spite of peninsular Thailand's location facing the northern part of this subduction zone, the lack of any written historical records, together with the lack of any major local seismic activity, the tsunami caused thousands of fatalities and huge economic losses in the popular tourist regions in Thailand. Immediately after the disaster, numerous organizations and individual citizens have helped out and contributed to this devastating tsunami. Indeed, the tsunami in Thailand was a worldwide event, with significant wave action felt around the world. In this context, I am focusing more on the key features of the tsunami’s natural causes, the psychological effects on citizens, the perspective of socio-economic impacts and the consequences of the tsunami calamity.
Predicting tsunamis is not a precise art; unlike some natural disasters, tsunamis are not climate based and do not happen during a particular season. In the case of the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami, an ocean-based sensors and a warning system in place could have been an enormous help. At the time of the tsunami, there were no ocean-based sensors in place in the Indian Ocean—which lead to a lack of knowledge of the tsunami, resulting in a lack of a plan to move to higher ground resulting in 230,000 were killed due to the Boxing Day
In the article “A Tsunami, Where?” (2015). On June 2013 a storm have hit the East Coast in the U.S that results in tsunami. Over 30 tide gauges have reported similar tsunami conditions. The highest capacity was recorded in Newport located in Rhode Island. In addition, Conditions showed a conceivable torrent, even to the individuals who did not have the guide of the tide gages. Brian Coen was spearfishing at Barnegat Inlet in Ocean County, New Jersey he saw a solid outrush of water as the tide went out. Outrush conveyed jumpers over submerged rocks that serve as a barrier, the strong waves carried the three drivers but only two were harmed. However, Ebersole reviewed that before long, the current switched at the same pace. A close-by gage recorded
TOHOKU, Japan, Friday, Mar. 11 -Yesterday, a 9.0 magnitude Earthquake struck the east of Tohoku, Japan. The epicentre of the earthquake was located approximately 72 km east of Tohoku (38.3 degrees North latitude and 142.4 degrees East longitude), or 130 km east of Sendai as shown by the X in figure 3 below. The focus of the earthquake was 24.4 km under the epicentre. The earthquake therefore caused a tsunami due to the displacing of water above the Pacific Plate. The earthquake and tsunami together have caused approximately 20,000 deaths, 6152 injuries and 2500 people missing. Approximately 90% of these deaths were by drowning. Approximately 140,000 people have been displaced and over 500,000 buildings and structures have been destroyed or damaged. The early warning system of Japan stopped many bullet trains, and many residents received texted warnings of the earthquake and tsunami on their mobile phones giving them time to evacuate. Figures 1 and 2 show exactly how destructive the tsunami caused by the Tohoku Earthquake was.
Earthquakes are best described as a shaking or vibration of the ground caused by breaking of rock. Sometimes they are very strong and other times you would hardly notice them. This shaking occurs when stress that builds up in the crust is suddenly released as the crust breaks free and/or slides against the other pieces of crust. Earthquakes may also be thought of as the breaking of a popsicle stick by applying pressure to both ends at the same time. Should you try this experiment , you will feel the pressure build up as you apply more force until the stick snaps. When the stick snaps you will feel an instant of pain at your fingers as the stress reduces and energy waves move throughout the stick. When the earth's crust is placed under similar types of stress, binding as the stress builds, it will also snap and release the energy into the surrounding rocks, 'ooch'. Thinking about earthquakes will become more clear if you try another experiment.
Tsunamis caused by the Earthquake leads to flooding along the coastal environment. This damages any homes. Flooding caused new lakes or sag ponds on the land. Increasing groundwater flow from springs and displacing stream channel. ("Flood Consequences")
Additionally, this earthquake occurred on a thrust fault. This fault was a subduction zone slip which occurred primarily beneath the ocean were the Pacific plate plunges underneath the North American plate. This sudden upward movement of the sea floor along the rupturing fault generated a massive tsunami. This vertical deformation
An earthquake occurs abruptly and causes severs damage to people, property, landscape and more. A great mega-thrust earthquake, known as the Great Tohoku Earthquake has shaken Japan at 5:46:24 UTC on March 11, 2011. It caused a severe disaster, including tsunami and nuclear radiation exposure.. This mega-quake located at the latitude 38.297 degree North and longitude of 142.372 degree East, near the east coast of Honshu, Japan (USGS, 2013). An earthquake and tsunami waves caused widespread damage to many areas of Japan. People in Japan are still recovering from the damages.
Unlike a tsunami being a giant wave that sinks a piece of land, a flood is a temporary overflow of water on usually dry land. Floods can come from heavy rain, storm surges, waterway block and many more. They can occur in a slow pace, taking days, or happen at an instant, becoming a flash flood (Flood).
They are the earth’s crust; they move very slowly every year. As the tectonic plates slide over each other they cause earthquakes. Earthquakes produce various damaging effects this includes damage to structures of buildings, bridges and other standing formations which then...
There was a multitude of causes of the disaster in Japan. The first cause was a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred off the coast of Japan. Japan is located in “The Ring of Fire,” an area in the Pacific Ocean that has multiple faults and earthquakes (Pedersen 13). Tectonic plates shifted off the North Pacific coast of Japan and created a massive earthquake. The next cause was a thirty-three foot wall of water that swept over cities and farmland in Japan (Branigan 2). Martin Fackler, a journalist, stated, “The quake churned up a devastating tsunami” (Fackler 3). The tsunami reached speeds of 497 miles per hour while approaching Japan (Fackler 3). The third and final reason of the disaster was that the cooling systems at multiple nuclear power plants failed. At Fukushima, a nuclear power plant in Sendai, Japan, the radioactive rods began to overheat due to the absence of water, which cools it. Explosions occurred at three of the reactors, which spewed radiation into the air (“Comparing nuclear power plant crises”). In conclusion, the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant issues were the causes of the disaster in Japan, but they also had a myriad of effects.
Seismic waves are energy waves that are caused by the sudden breaking of rock in the earth’s crust, or because of an explosion caused by man; these waves travel through the earth and can be recorded by seismographs. There are many different types of seismic waves, but the two main types are surface waves, which can only move on the earth’s surface like a sort of ocean wave, and body waves, that travel through the earth’s innermost layers. Earthquakes make up both surface and body waves. Both surface and body waves can be broken down to two main