Japan Tsunami

• How is a tsunami formed?

rapid movement of the ocean floor displaces a column of water

series of waves travel outwards

as the wave approaches land, its energy is compressed into a smaller space - forcing it to gain height

• When?

March 11th 2011 at 14:46

• Where?

North coast of Tokyo - affected a 200 miles stretch - Minamisanriku was the nearest settlement

Focus: 32km underwater

Epicentre: 70km east of Oshika Peninsula

• Magnitude?

9.0 on the Richter Scale

• Tsunami?

Yes, waves up to 38.9m travelling 10km inland

• 5,000 people injured & over 15,000 deaths
• 8,500 poeple missing & 300,000 refugees
• 100,000 children separeted from families - school day
• 125,000 building damaged or destroyed - 4,700 destroyed houses & 50,000 damaged houses
• 4 million households in NE Japan left without electricity and 1.5 million without water
• severe structural damage - roads, railways, fires, dam collapse washing away 1,800 homes
• 15 ports in disaster area - all reopened by 29th March 2011
• airport closed
• 25 million tons of rubble and debris
• soil liquification - 30 homes and 1,000 other buildings damaged
• tsunami simply washed over some of the 12m high walls that surround 40% of Japan;s coasts
• at least 100 tsunami evacuation points were hit

• several nuclear power stations shut down automatically
• 3 suffered esplosions
• residents within 20km of Fukishima 1 and 10km of Fukishima 2 were evacuated
• US Governmnet recommended everyone within 80km to be evacuated
• oil refineries shut down

Japanese Red Cross:

• providing first aid and emergency heath care
• distrinuting relief items
• 85 medical teams deployed (inc. 735 staff members)
• 65,000 blankets distributed
• 1,400 entried on website to help find family members
• cost about $300 billion - possibly the most expensive natural disaster on record