Japan Earthquake

The 8.9 earthquake centered off the coast of Japan was the seventh largest in the history of the world. Hundreds are believed dead; the only thing preventing hundreds of thousands of deaths is that Japan is a wealthy, industrialized country with buildings that are made to withstand earthquakes for the most part.

If this had occurred in China or Indonesia, the death toll would have run into the hundreds of thousands if not millions of people.

Seven earthquakes over magnitude 8 have rocked Japan since 1891. In 1923, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake killed 147,000 people in and around Tokyo, mainly due to fires that raged through wooden and paper houses. In 1995, despite strict building codes in modern city areas, more than 6,000 people died in the Kobe earthquake, predominantly in poorer, working class districts where the government had failed to implement the higher standards.

The entire Pacific Rim was put on high alert last night after a tsunami warning was issued throughout the region. Tsunamis were feared across the Pacific, because the earthquake was almost as powerful as the 9.1-sized quake off Indonesia that set off the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004, killing more than 200,000 people.

The waves that sped across the Pacific at speeds of up to 800 kilometres per hour were so powerful that they reached California early yesterday morning local time, where they pummelled the harbour at Crescent City in the state’s north. Residents had heeded the blaring evacuation sirens, and this saved lives, but the tsunamis ripped chunks off wooden docks and destroyed or damaged two dozen or so boats. One man who tried taking photographs of the tsunami on a beach about 20 kilometres south of town was swept out to sea. Federal seismologists said the 3-metre swells that roared into Crescent City were the largest to hit the United States on Friday—higher than the 2-metre surges that hit Hawaii. The rest of the California shoreline quickly began seeing surges after that. By then, all residents in low-lying areas had been urged to evacuate, and officials closed some schools and coastal roads as a precaution.

A seismologist says this earthquake belongs in a completely different class from the usual kind of earthquake.

He happened to turn on the television 10 minutes after it struck and started watching the coverage. The initial reports were that it was a magnitude 7.9 quake. Kent said it is common to underestimate the strength of powerful quakes until better assessments are made. Then he saw footage of the tsunami hitting Japan.

“I was looking at the tsunami wave and I said there was no way that was a 7.9,” Kent said. “I knew it was going to creep up to the 9 just by looking at the tsunami.”

From the point of an earthquake, Japan seemed well-prepared for what happened, Kent said. Many of the structural safety features worked to protect people against earthquakes.

“There is no other nation that is greater prepared than Japan for large earthquakes,” he said.

But it’s the following tsunami that did so much of the damage.

As people know, a nuclear plant exploded.

More about it.


Video showing a tsunami's destruction: