The 11 March 2011 magnitude 9.1 Honshu, Japan earthquake (38.322 N, 142.369 E, depth 32 km) generated a devastating local tsunami that struck the Pacific coast of Honshu within about 20 minutes and that was observed all over the Pacific region. As of 30 May 2011, the Japan National Police Agency reports 15,270 persons killed and 8,499 persons missing from the earthquake and tsunami. 115,433 residents are still staying at evacuation shelters. The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami Joint Survey Group reports highest tsunami runup heights at Sendai in the 15-20 m range. On 7 April 2011, a M7.1 (USGS) earthquake aftershock occurred which killed 2 persons, but no tsunami was generated.
The Japan Meteorological Agency’s national tsunami warning center issued a tsunami warning 3 minutes after the earthquake triggering the alerting process that immediately broadcasted by mass media and locally activated sirens and other mitigation countermeasures such as flood gate closures. Live video of the advancing tsunami waves and their impact on structures at the coast was aired by Japan NHK television and seen at the same time globally. Despite Japan’s sustained and globally-recognized excellence in tsunami preparedness, many casualties resulted and again reminded us of the swiftness and destructive power of tsunamis. Waves overtopped tsunami walls and destroyed many structures, especially wooden homes. Nonetheless, some tall reinforced concrete buildings and evacuation platforms did survive and allowed citizens to shelter in place by vertically evacuating. Tsunami waves also caused huge infrastructure damage to the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in the meltdown of core reactors and local emission of dangerous radiation. Like the previous tsunamis, drowning was the main cause of death, with casualties greatest in the elderly.
The tsunami also propagated across the entire Pacific Ocean, with runups up to 5 m and $32.13 million (dollars in 2016; $30.6M dollars in 2011) in damage to harbors and homes in Hawaii 7 hours later, up to 3 m and $100 million (dollars in 2011) in damage plus recovery in California 12 hours later, and up to 3 m heights and more than $6 million (dollars in 2011) in damage 22 hours later in Chile. Outside of Japan, 1 person died in California, USA, and 1 person died in Papua, Indonesia.
The 11 March 2011 Japanese tsunami was the first to cause deaths since the 1993 Sea of Japan magnitude 7.7 earthquake caused 23 deaths and generated a tsunami that caused an additional 208 deaths in Japan. In comparison, the most fatal and damaging tsunami that has ever occurred in the world was the 2004 magnitude 9.1 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami that caused almost 230,000 deaths, $10 billion in damage, and a maximum water height of 50 m.
According to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) (formerly National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) / World Data Center for Marine Geology and Geophysics) Global Historical Event databases, 260 confirmed tsunamis have been generated near Japan since 684 A.D. Of these, 71 (27%) caused deaths. The majority of Japanese tsunamis were generated by earthquakes (94%), the remainder were caused by volcanic eruptions (6%). The most fatal Japanese tsunamis are listed below:
1) Alert Information | International
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9) Post-Earthquake Post-Tsunami Surveys | |
10) Other |
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