Case Study: Earthquake - Japan

• When: 11th March 2011, 2:46pm

  Magnitude: 9.1

   

  Background:

  ·         Japan lies within one of the most tectonically active regions of the world and experiences over 400 earthquakes every day, thou most of these are not felt by humans.

  ·         The Pacific plate was subducted below the North American plate.

  ·         It was a mega thrust earthquake and the biggest ever recorded in Japan.

  ·         Ground shaking lasted 6 minutes.
• At least 16,000 deaths – estimated though to be closer to 22,000
• Majority of the victims were over the age of 60
• 90% of the deaths were a result of the tsunami
• 300,000 buildings destroyed and 1 million damaged
• Almost 4,000 roads, 78 bridges and 29 railways were damaged
• According to Save the Children 100,000 children were separated from their families, mainly because they were at school
• More than 330,000 had to live in temporary accommodation
• Approximately 531,000 non-Japanese residing in Japan departed the country following the earthquake and tsunami
• When: 11th March 2011, 2:46pm

  Magnitude: 9.1

   

  Background:

  ·         Japan lies within one of the most tectonically active regions of the world and experiences over 400 earthquakes every day, thou most of these are not felt by humans.

  ·         The Pacific plate was subducted below the North American plate.

  ·         It was a mega thrust earthquake and the biggest ever recorded in Japan.

  ·         Ground shaking lasted 6 minutes.
• At least 16,000 deaths – estimated though to be closer to 22,000
• Majority of the victims were over the age of 60
• 90% of the deaths were a result of the tsunami
• 300,000 buildings destroyed and 1 million damaged
• Almost 4,000 roads, 78 bridges and 29 railways were damaged
• According to Save the Children 100,000 children were separated from their families, mainly because they were at school
• More than 330,000 had to live in temporary accommodation
• Approximately 531,000 non-Japanese residing in Japan departed the country following the earthquake and tsunami
• This included approximately 25% of all foreigners living in Tokyo
• 74 pupils and 10 teachers died at Okawa primary school when they failed to evacuate to higher ground
• Estimated cost of the earthquake and reconstruction is £181bn – most expensive natural disaster in history
• The Yen fell sharply immediately after but recouped most of its decline several hours later
• Tokyo stocks fell
• The assembly of goods such as cars overseas was affected by disruption in the supply of parts from Japan
• Earthquake had a negative impact on the oil industry – two refineries were set on fire
• Agriculture affected as salt water contaminated the soil making it impossible to grow crops
• Coastal region job losses estimated to be over 81,500
• Government debt increased


  As they injected billions of Yen into the economy
• This was at a time when they were trying to reduce government debt
• Several years prior, warnings had been made about the poor defences that existed at nuclear power plants in the event of a tsunami
• A movement against nuclear power developed

  Following the tsunami
• The disaster at Fukushima


  Added political weight in European countries where anti-nuclear bodies used the events to reinforce their arguments against nuclear power
• In July 2013 TEPCO admitted that 300 tonnes of radioactive water continued to leak from the plant every day into the Pacific Ocean
• The tsunami left a lot of damage, debris and pollution up to 6 miles inland
• The tsunami caused the erosion of beaches and dunes
• The tsunami


  • Composed of 10 waves
  • 1km apart
  • Up to 40m high
• 40% of Japan's coastline had sea walls 10-12m high, but the wave just went over the top
• The first wave


  • Hit 24 minutes after the earthquake
  • Waves were on average 15m high
• The tsunami destroyed 95% of the vegetation in the affected area
• The tsunami travelled 6 miles inland