long term enviro

• Landmass movement

  • The quake moved parts of North East Japan 2.4 m closer to North America, making parts of the Japanese island landmass wider than before
• Coastline movement

  • A 250 mile stretch of coastline dropped by 0.6 m, allowing the tsunami to travel further inland
• Plate movement

  • Some people estimate that the Pacific plate has slipped westwards by between 20 and 40 m
• Seabed movement

  • The seabed near the epicentre shifted by 24 m and the seabed off the coast of the Miyagi province has moved by 3 m
• Earth axis shift


  • The earthquake shifted the earth's axis by between 10 and 25 cm, shortening the day by 1.8 microseconds
• Liquefaction

  • Liquefaction occurred in many of the parts of Tokyo built on reclaimed land. Around 30 homes were destroyed and 1,046 buildings were damaged by this process alone
• Aftershocks

  • Japan has experienced over 900 aftershocks since the earthquake, some of which were over magnitude 7, killed people, caused damage to electricity supplies and damage to the Higashidori nuclear power plant
• Antarctica

  • In Antarctica the seismic waves from the earthquake were reported to have caused some massive slabs of ice (one about the size of Manhattan Island) to fall from the Sulzberger Ice Shelf