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Japan - Living in tectonically active locations - Earthquakes - Coggle…
Japan - Living in tectonically active locations - Earthquakes
tectonic setting -
Japan experiences 400 earthquakes every day
since 2000 23 earthquakes of 7.0 MW have occurred in japan causing nearly 16,000 fatalities
risk of tsunamis are brought with earthquakes
The Great East Japan Earthquake: Tohoku -
11 March 2011 - 9.0 MW earthquake occurred along the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates.
epicentre was 70km offshore of North east Honshu island.
undersea megathrust earthquake
a 400 km stretch of coastline dropped vertically by 0.6m
Tsunami waves reach Antartica, breaking off 125km2 of ice as giant icebergs
many aftershocks some of which were 7.0 MW and 8.0 MW
sea bed rose by about 7m and moves westwards by 40-50m
causes tsunami due to huge displacement of water and these waves were found as far as California and Oregon
the earth shifted on its axis by 10-25 cm (global impact)
social impacts
claimed nearly 16,000 lives and injured 6000 people
90% of deaths were from drowning
children separated from families
some 2000 young people were either orphaned or lost one of their parents
destruction of crematoria, morgues and power infrastructure, created problems of how to dispose of the dead bodies.
economic impacts
cost of reconstruction, estimated between US$200 billion or 5 times the amount
official figure of 45,700. buildings destroyed with a further 143,300 damaged, 230,000 vehicles were either destroyed or damaged
4.4 million households and thousands of businesses lost electricity. Because of the immediate shutdown of 11 nuclear reactors
23 train stations were swept away while others suffered severe damage such as collapsed roofs
25 million tonnes of debris was created by the earthquake causing a costly clean up
political impacts
the Japanese government injected billions of yen into the economy to bring some stability
large popular movement against nuclear power developed after the earthquake
political fallout from the Fukushima nuclear accident spread around the world:
anti-nuclear lobby in Germany used the incident to support their arguments against nuclear power