TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE, JAPAN (2011) - MEDC
Impact of the earthquake

Impact of the earthquake

Management and Responses

• Magnitude 9- biggest earthquake in japan • Destructive plate boundary- pacific plate is moving at a rate of 90mm per year and is being subducted beneath
Okhotsk micro plate.
• 11th march 2011- 2:46pm local time
• 17 miles below the surface (focus) it was a shallow focus
• There were lots of earthquakes- over
700 some with a magnitude as high as
6
• The tsunami took 22 hours to reach some places
• Earthquake happened near the japan trench • It was a mega thrust earthquakeknown as the Great East Japan earthquake • Epicenter was 43 miles east of Tohoku
• It triggered a tsunami up to 40m high, in some cases travelled 6 miles inland
• 30% of the worlds earthquakes happen in Japan
• Second earthquake was 100x bigger than the first

Social
• 15,883 deaths and 2.651 people are still missing • 92.5% of deaths were caused by drowning ,
65% were aged 60+
• 1.2 million homes without power
• 1.4 million homes without water
• 4,700 destroyed houses
• 582 roads cut off and 32 bridges destroyed
• Tokyo’s major airports halted flights, though Haneda Airport was later reported to have reopened several runways. All
Tokyo area trains were halted, while the shinkansen bullet train service was suspended. Environmental
• Nuclear power plant caused radiation leaks
• Radioactive water leaked from the plant into the Pacific Ocean, affecting fish and other marine life
Economic
• The world bank estimated that the total economic cost of $235 billion- the most expensive natural disaster
• Nuclear power plant was ruined
• Traders said most of the selling was offshore as Tokyo traders evacuated. The yen could be in for further declines as the scale of the damage becomes known.

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They closed some of the roads so only emergency vehicles could go through which prevented aid, fuel and food getting to people.
Lack of communication between the government and organisations meant help didn't’t get to the people who really needed it.
They didn’t accept all of the help they were offered due to the culture the tsunami warnings were not accurate and only 58% of people responded to them
In one residential home 11 elderly people died in temperatures as