CASE STUDY - IMPACTS earthquakes japan

Question 1

japan and earthquakes

Answer 1

• japan experiences 400 earthwuakes every day
• most are tiny and unnoticable
• since 2000, 23 earthquakes of magnitude 7 MW have occured in japan causing almost 16,000 fatalities

Question 2

The Great East Japan Earthquake - Tohoku

Answer 2

• march 11 2011
• 9.0 MW
• plate boundary = pacific & N. American
• epicentre - 70km offshore Honshu Island
• 6 minutes - largest Ever recorded
• top 5 in the world since 1900
• undersea mega thrust

Question 3

The Great East Japan Earthquake - Tohoku
general impacts / geo-physical impacts

Answer 3

• Honshu Island moves ~2.4 km east
• earth shifted on its axis 10-25 cm
• 400km stretch of coastline dropped 0.6m
• sea bed rose 7m and westward 40-50m
• large tsunamis 42m high and 10km inland
• tsunamis reached antarctica breaking of 125km2 of ice as giant iceburgs
• tsunamis hit oregan and cali causing US $10 million
• 110,000 nesting birds drowned in Midway Atoll
• many aftershocks of 7-8 MW

Question 4

The Great East Japan Earthquake - Tohoku
social impacts

Answer 4

• nearly 16,000 killed
• 6000 injured
• 2/3 over 60
• 90% drownings the rest as a result of burns or crushed
• mass graves due to mass mortality and destruction of crematoria in order to prevent spread of disease
• 100,000 children missing or with lost parents
• during school day - most children at school
• 2000 young people orphaned or lost 1 parent
• one coastal school loast 74/108 students and 10/13 staff
• 10 years later infrastructure such as housing, school and health centres are still being reconstructed

Question 5

The Great East Japan Earthquake - Tohoku
economic impacts

Answer 5

• US$200 bn - 5x that in estimated damage
• 46,000 buildingd destryed along with 230,000 vehicles and damaging of 145,000. buildings
• 15 ports directly affected
• 10% of japans fishing ports damaged
• 4.4 million houses + 1000s of businesses lost electricity the main cause of this being the immmediate shut down of 11 nuclear reactors
• at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant all six of its reaxtors were so severly damaged the whole plant was decommisioned and a 30km evacuation zone was set up due tp the meltdown of its core. Even today radio activity continues to seep into the pacific ocean affecting the fishing industry and incurrign further costs
• several weeks of power cuts
• two oil refineries set on fire during the EQ taking ten days to put out
• 23 train stations swept away
• 25 million tonnes of debris created - costly cleanup

Question 6

The Great East Japan Earthquake - Tohoku
social impacts

Answer 6

• billions of yen injected into the economy to bring some stability
  increasing giv debt at a time reduction was its political aim
• large movement agains the use of nuclear power with concerns over the safety standards and regulation of the nuclear industry becoming a polical issue
• after a breif period of total shutdown the current plan is to re-commission a significant number of nuclear plants
• several executives have resigned
• political fallout from the nuclear accident has spread worldwide eg an anti nuclear lobby in germany