Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (Tohoku) 2011
Introduction
On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 JST (05:46:24 UTC ), a M w 9.0–9.1 undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, 72 km (45 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region . It lasted approximately six minutes and caused a tsunami It is sometimes known in Japan as the " Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster ", among other names.
It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake recorded in the world since modern seismography began in 1900. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5 meters (133 ft) in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture, and which, in the Sendai area, travelled at 700 km/h (435 mph) and up to 10 km (6 mi) inland. Residents of Sendai had only eight to ten minutes of warning, and more than a hundred evacuation sites were washed away. The snowfall, which accompanied the tsunami and the freezing temperature. hindered rescue works greatly; for instance, Ishinomaki, the city with the most deaths, was 0 °C (32 °F) when the tsunami hit. The official figures released in 2021 reported 19,759 deaths, 6,242 injured, 284 firefighters dead from attempts to close preventative fire gates, and 2,553 people missing, and a report from 2015 indicated 228,863 people were still living away from their home in either temporary housing or due to permanent relocation.
The tsunami caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, primarily the meltdowns of three of its reactors, the discharge of radioactive water in Fukushima and the associated evacuation zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents.
Katsuhisa Fuse survived the 2011 Great East Earthquake and tsunami.
