The 2011 earthquake of the pacific coast f Tohoku was a magnitude 9.0 undersea, megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occured at 14:46 local time on Friday 11th of March 2011.
The epicentre was approximately 70km (43.496 miles) east of the Oshika peninsula o Tohoku and the hypocentre at an underwateter depth of approximately 30 km.
This is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded to have hit Japan and the fourth - most powerful earthquake in the world since records began in 1900.
The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that reached the heights of up to 40.5 metres.
the earthquake moved Honshu (te main island of Japan) 2.4m east and shifted the Earth on its axis by between 10cm and 25cm.
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Primary Effects:
15,853 people were found dead, 6023 people were injured from the disaster.
Buildings were swept away by the tsunami.
Around 300,000 buildings were either destroyed by the earthquake or swept away by the tsunami.
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Secondary effects:
Over 1 million buildings were damaged by the double disaster (earthquake/tsunami),
The Japanese authorities estimated that 25 million tonnes of debris was made from the double disaster
At least 1.5 million households were eported t have lost access to water supplies and electricity.
Several nuclear and fossil fuel power plants were offline after the earthquake, this meant power shortages in the area and the power shortages caused blackout in the area's affected.
People had to be evacuated from towns and cities effected in case of buildings collapse or another earthquake.
Japan declared a state of emergancy after the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant.
Officials from the Japanese nuclear and industrial safety agency reported radiation levels inside the power plant to be 1,000 times higher than normal levels and the radiation spread outside of the plant.
Food had to be rationed as the radiation contaminated supplies meaning fewer supplies reached by people
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Responses:
Search teams were sent out to search for the missing people, over 3,000 people remain missing and are presumed dead.
Aid was given by 116 countries and 28 international organisations.
Houses ad buildings had t be rebuilt and mos buildings in the area affected had to be built from scratch as they were damaged beyond repair.
Food and medical aid was sent in from other countries while Japan recovered from the double disaster.
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