Tohoku case study
Formation
Magnitude of 9
Lasted for 6 minutes
East coast of Japan
Pacific plate was forced under Eurasian plate
Destructive plate boundary
Pacific plate slipped up 5-10m, causing a tsunami
Shifted world's axis by 10cm
Impacts
People within a 20km radius of the earthquake were evacuated
15,000 dead
4,400,000 in blackout
1,500,000 with no water
300 hospitals damaged
300,000 homes damaged
11 hospitals damaged
230,000 homes destroyed
Nuclear power plant leak
Radioactive soil within 30km radius of Fukushima power plant leak
Responses
Prime minister set up emergency command centre
Shut down nuclear power plant
US & China offered AID
Ordered fossil fuels to replace nuclear power
Upgraded tsunami defences
Set up reconstruction council
Helicopter rescue cruise
Prefabricated temporary housing
Evaluation
Occurred at 14:46 on 11th March 2011
Magnitude 9
15,000 deaths
Tsunami occurred half an hour after earthquake
Tsunami was 11m high
People stopped buying from Japan which lead to market crash
Japan is a HIC so they were prepared
Japan has 1,500 earthquakes per year
Military sent out to distribute AID and keep order
$300 billion spent
Shortened Earth's days by 1.8 microsecs