M8.9 EARTHQUAKE/TSUNAMI IMPACTS JAPAN WITH THE

TSUNAMI WAVES REACHING PACIFIC RIM COUNTRIES

5TH LARGEST QUAKE EVER 7 – 10 M TSUNAMI WAVES

2:46 pm MARCH 11, 2011

Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction, University of

North Carolina, USA

Natural Phenomena that Cause disasters

Planet Earth’s Convergent Plate Motion Causes:

Earthquakes (e.g., M8.9 Quake in Japan)

Natural Phenomena that Cause Disasters

Planet Earth’s Convergent Plate Motion Causes:

Tsunamis (e.g., 3-4 m waves in Japan)

LOCATION: 133 KM (80 MI) OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU

OFFSHORE EPICENTER

• It only took seconds for the P-and S-waves and minutes for the tsunami waves to reach Sendai..

PRELIMINARY SOCIETAL IMPACTS

• Ground shaking lasted 300 seconds (compared with about 10 - 20 seconds for the 1994 Northridge, CA or the 1995 Kobe, Japan quakes).

• Hundreds of aftershocks, many in the M6+ range and comparable in size with the damaging 1971 San Fernando CA quake, followed the main shock.

PRELIMINARY SOCIETAL IMPACTS

• The tsunami following within about 10 minutes, changing coast lines and inundating land that will never be used again.

• The earthquake ground shaking and the tsunami wave run up together caused major damage in northern Japan.

• Simultaneously, wide spread fires burning out of control seared the land.

PRELIMINARY SOCIETAL IMPACTS

• Some of the nuclear power plants in the region shut down automatically, leading to an evacuation of several thousand.

• Radiation levels 1,000 times normal levels at some locations.

• Four million left without electricity.

• Metro and trains shut down.

PASSENGERS STRANDED: SENDAI STATION

PRELIMINARY SOCIETAL IMPACTS

• Vertical evacuation to escape the tsunami wave run up was a priority.

• Search and rescue: an urgent need over a wide geographucal area.

• Mass care and health care needs escalated.

• With so many people missing, deaths are expected to reach in the thousands.

SEARCH AND RESCUE

FIRE: NEAR SENDAI AIRPORT

THE TSUNAMIGENIC SOURCE: 130 KM (80 MI) OFFSHORE

• The tsunami slammed the eastern coast of Japan, sweeping away boats, cars, homes and people, then raced across the Pacific at 800 mph before hitting Hawaii and the West Coast of the USA..

TSUNAMI TRAVEL PATH

TSUNAMI WAVES:NATON MYIAGI PREFECTURE

TSUNAMI WAVES REACH COAST OF NORTHERN JAPAN

SENDAI, JAPAN AIRPORT

OARAI INUNDATED BY TSUNAMI

HAWAII

• The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reported that water rushed ashore in Honolulu, swamping the beach in Waikiki and surging over the break wall in the world-famous resort, BUT stopping short of the area's high-rise hotels.

CRESCENT CITY, CA

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Lecture prepared, uploaded and distributed by

Supercourse Disaster TeamRon LaPorte

Eugene Shubnikov

Faina Linkov

Meredith Hennon

Francois Sauer

Nicolas Padilla

Eric Marler

Niel Wald

Borys Ledoshchuk

Rashid Chottani

Jesse Huang

Ali Ardalan

Eric Noji

Hiroya Goto

Walter Hays

William Reinckens

April Eshelman