Tohoku earthquake JAPAN 2011

Introduction
The 2011 Thoku earthquake and tsunami, literally Eastern Japan Great Earthquake Disaster was caused by a 9.0 magnitude undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 at local time on Friday, 11 March 2011. The epicenter was approximately 72 km east of the Oshika Peninsula of Thoku, with the hypocenter at an underwater depth of approximately 32 km.

Magnitude : 9.0 Date-Time : Friday, March 11, 2011 at 05:46:23 UTC Friday, March 11, 2011 at 02:46:23 PM at epicenter

Location : 38.322N, 142.369E

Depth : 32 km (19.9 miles) set by location program Region : NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances : 129 km (80 miles) E of Sendai, Honshu, Japan 177 km (109 miles) ENE of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan 373 km (231 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan

Geographical location
The nearest major city to the quake was Sendai, on the main island of Honshu, 130 km away. The quake occurred 373 km from Tokyo. The main earthquake was preceded by a number of large foreshocks and aftershocks.

The red point is the epicenter of the earthquake

Tectonic movement
The earthquake was resulted from thrust faulting on or near the subduction zone plate boundary between the Pacific and North America plates. (Convergent movement) The rate of convergence at this plate boundary is about 83 mm/yr (8 cm/year). This is a fairly high convergence rate and this subduction zone is very seismically active.

This map also shows the rate and direction of motion of the Pacific Plate with respect to the Eurasian Plate near the Japan Trench.

Foreshocks
This earthquake was preceded by a series of large foreshocks over the previous two days, beginning on March 9th with an M 7.2 event approximately 40 km from the March 11 earthquake, and continuing with 3 earthquakes greater than M 6 on the same day.

Aftershocks
Japan experienced over 900 aftershocks since the earthquake with about 60 being over 6.0 M and three over 7.0 M. A 7.7 M and a 7.9 M quake occurred on March 11 and the third one on April 7, 2011, with a disputed magnitude.

Magnitude of earthquakes (M5-6=small yellow circles, M6-7 orange circles, M7+ large red circles) off the coast of Honshu, 9-14 March.

Primary effects
The National Police Agency has confirmed 12,915 deaths, 4,711 injured, and 14,921 people missing across eighteen prefectures. Japan's National Police Agency said on 3 April 2011, that 190,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged by the quake and tsunami. The earthquake and tsunami created an estimated 25 million tons of rubble and debris in Japan. Tsunami: The earthquake which was caused by 5 to 8 meters upthrust on 180-km wide seabed at 60 km offshore from the east coast of Thoku resulted in a major tsunami which brought destruction along the Pacificcoastline of Japan's northern islands and resulted in the loss of thousands of lives and devastated entire towns.

Secondary effects
At Fukushima I and II tsunami waves overtopped seawalls and destroyed diesel backup power systems ,so the cooling systems failed, leading to severe problems at Fukushima I, including two large explosions and radioactive leakage. Over 200,000 people were evacuated. Sea water was to cool it. pumped onto the plant to attempt This caused releases of radioactive materials. (The first time happening in an earthquake)

Water In the immediate aftermath of the calamity, at least 1.5 million households were reported to have lost access to water supplies. Electricity: According to Thoku Electric Power, around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity. Several nuclear and conventional power plants went offline after the earthquake, reducing TEPCO's total capacity by 21 GW. Economic effect and the earthquake shocked many markets.

Human preparedness and response

Japan is perched on top of several converging tectonic plates. Geological instabilities cause around 1,000 tremors each year. Tsunamis are triggered by earthquakes, hundreds of which strike Japan each year. So the Japanese government must have been very prepared to the earthquake . They have special building which are built to tackle the earthquake ,seismic stations ,Tsunami shelters ,etc.

Earthquake preparedness is drilled into Japanese children during their school years

Japan has said it will cost as much as 25 trillion yen ($309bn; 189bn) to rebuild the country after the deadly earthquake and tsunami. Japan declared a state of emergency following the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in the evacuation of nearby residents. International teams in rescue effort.

Bibliography
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific12711226 http://earthquake.usgs.gov http://www.iris.edu/hq/retm http://www.guardian.co.uk/search?q=effects+of+Japan+earthquake&section =uk|world http://www.ehow.com/list_7152827_primary-secondary-effectsearthquakes.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami http://www.nationalgeographic.com http://www.google.com/imghp

Good luck Japan ! Thank you for watching.

Done by Oussama Ameur Khallil