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1. TOHOKU
EARTHQUAKE IN
JAPAN
By Leah Bailas

2. WHAT IS AN EARTHQUAKE?
An earthquake is the result of two sections of the earth slipping by each
other.
Different parts of an earthquake:
- Fault/Fault Plane: Area where the slip occurs.
- Hypocenter: Location beneath the earth’s surface where the earthquake
originates.
- Epicenter: Location directly above the earthquake on the earth’s surface
(Wald, 2012).

3. PARTS OF AN
EARTHQUAKE
Image courtesy of USGS
(http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/kids/eqscience.php)

4. JAPAN’S HISTORY OF
EARTHQUAKES
Japan has had a long and active
history of earthquakes and general
seismic
activity.
The
earliest
recorded earthquake in Japan
occurred on November 26, 684. It
was called the Hakuhou Nankai
earthquake, and it had a magnitude
of approximately 8.4 (Kawasumi,
1951, p. 477).
There are many different tectonic
plates underneath Japan. As a
result, there are more earthquakes
due to these plates slipping against
each other. Japan is located in the
“Ring of Fire,” an area where many
eruptions and earthquakes occur
(Witze, 2012, p. 23).

5. RING OF FIRE
Image courtesy of USGS
(http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/fire.html)

6. THE FOURTH LARGEST
FAULT SLIP EVER RECORDED
On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced the fourth largest earthquake that
has ever been recorded in the history of earthquakes. Tohoku, as it was
called, had a magnitude of 9.0, and it paired up with a devastating tsunami. It
was a large slip at such shallow depths, which is why there was so much
damage in Japan. There were tsunami waves, flooding, landslides, fires,
building and infrastructure damage, nuclear incidents, etc. More than 15,000
people died, over 6,000 were injured, and 2,651 went missing (Rajendran,
Andrade, Thulasiraman, & Rajendran, 2011, p. 966).

7. THE START OF
TOHOKU
Image courtesy of Snow
Japan
(http://www.snowjapan.com/the-great-east-japanearthquake-11th-march-2011)

8. THE IMPORTANCE OF
“MAGNITUDE”
Magnitude is “a measure of the amount of energy released during an
earthquake” (What is the "magnitude" of an earthquake?, 2012).
A seismograph can measure the motions of an earthquake, which helps to
determine its size.
The closer the seismometer is to the earthquake, the larger the amplitude
on the seismogram.

9. SEISMOGRAPH
RECORDING OF
TOHOKU
Image courtesy of ECGS
(http://www.ecgs.lu/tohuko-kanto-mw9-japan/)

10. WHAT CAUSED TOHOKU?
The Tohoku earthquake fault was a complex puzzle. Although it was
completely ruptured, some parts moved in different ways. The deeper parts
shifted quickly, while the shallower parts shifted slowly. When the tension
caused by subduction (the downward movement of plates shifting against
each other) was released, the earthquake occurred. At the fault’s location,
the two plates of the earth’s crust slid past each other up to 260 feet
(Hashimoto, Noda, & Matsu'ura, 2012, pp. 2-4).

11. CROSS-SECTION OF
TOHOKU FAULT
Image courtesy of
LiveScience
(http://www.livescience.com/27773-how-japan-s-2011earthquake-happened-infographic.html)

12. GEOPHYSICAL EFFECTS OF
TOHOKU
Tohoku moved portions of northeastern Japan closer to North America by
as much as 2.4 meters (Chang, 2011).
Tohoku shifted the earth’s axis by estimates of between 10 cm and 25 cm
(Chai, 2011).
Parts of Japan experienced soil liquefaction as a result of Tohoku (Chai,
2011).
The earthquake was so strong that it changed the earth’s rotation, making it
1.8 microseconds shorter (Gross, 2011).

13. SOIL LIQUEFACTION
CAUSED BY TOHOKU
Image courtesy of Wikimedia
Commons
(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Soilliquefaction_at_Shinkiba_after_2011_Tohoku_Pacific_Oce
an_offshore_earthquake.jpg)

14. A VERY SLIPPERY FAULT
Recent studies have helped to
explain the main reason behind
Tohoku. Using data from Japan
Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST),
scientists have revealed that clay
caused the low slip resistance
(Baek, et al., 2012).
The combination of the clay material
along the fault zone and the
temperature made the fault very
slippery. The particular layer in
question contained smectite, which
is known to become very runny
(Baek, et al., 2012).

15. SMECTITE CLAY
Image courtesy of BioStar
(http://www.biostareq.com/newsletters/2012/01January/biostar-newsletter-2012-01-January.html)

16. WHERE DID TOHOKU HIT?
Tohoku’s epicenter was approximately 70 kilometers
east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tohoku. But it did not
only affect the epicenter – it affected the entire
country of Japan, and areas around Japan as well
(Hashimoto, Noda, & Matsu'ura, 2012, p. 1).

17. AREAS AFFECTED BY
TOHOKU
Image courtesy of USGS
(http://mceer.buffalo.edu/infoservice/disasters/Honshu-JapanEarthquake-Tsunami-2011.asp)

18. LAND SUBSIDENCE CAUSED
BY TOHOKU
The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan reported land subsidence
from the Tohoku earthquake (Witze, 2012).
According to EcologyDictionary.org, land subsidence is “The sinking or
settling of land to a lower level in response to various natural and mancaused factors.” An earthquake as strong as Tohoku has the ability to cause
the land to sink inwards.

19. AN EXAMPLE OF LAND
SUBSIDENCE IN
ARIZONA
Image courtesy of ADWR
(http://www.azwater.gov/AzDWR/Hydrology/Geophysics/)

20. Miyako, Iwate – 0.50 m (1.64 ft)
Yamada, Iwate – 0.53 m (1.73 ft)
Ōtsuchi, Iwate – 0.35 m (1.14 ft)
Kamaishi, Iwate – 0.66 m (2.16 ft)
Ōfunato, Iwate – 0.73 m (2.39 ft)
Rikuzentakata, Iwate – 0.84 m (2.75 ft)
Kesennuma, Miyagi – 0.74 m (2.42 ft)
Minamisanriku, Miyagi – 0.69 m (2.26 ft)
Oshika Peninsula, Miyagi – 1.2 m (3.93 ft)
Ishinomaki, Miyagi – 0.78 m (2.55 ft)
Higashimatsushima, Miyagi – 0.43 m (1.41 ft)
Iwanuma, Miyagi – 0.47 m (1.54 ft)
Sōma, Fukushima – 0.29 m (0.95 ft)
AREAS WHERE LAND
SUBSIDENCE
OCCURRED DURING
TOHOKU
Information courtesy of
Geospatial Information
Authority of Japan
(http://www.gsi.go.jp/ENGLISH/page_e30031.html)

21. THE DAMAGING EFFECTS OF
TOHOKU
Tohoku caused a lot of damage to not only the land, but to the buildings and
people that inhabited the land. Because there was also a tsunami that
followed Tohoku, there was an increased amount of damage. Areas of Japan
were being flooded, buildings were deteriorating, nuclear plants were at risk,
and many lives were taken. Tohoku affected Japan’s entire ecosystem, and
they are still recovering to this day (Stimpson, 2011, pp. 96-97).

22. A COMBINATION OF
FIRES AND FLOODING IN
JAPAN AFTER THE
EARTHQUAKE
Image courtesy of Japan
Society
(http://www.japansociety.org.uk/earthquake/)

23. OTHER AREAS THAT WERE
AFFECTED
United States: Parts of the U.S. (i.e. Hawaii, western part of Alaska,
California coast, etc.) received many tsunami warnings from the National
Tsunami Warning Center (Stimpson, 2011, p. 98).
South Pacific: Waves in the Philippines increasingly rose and some homes
along the coast in Jayapura, Indonesia were destroyed. Papua New
Guinea’s Boram hospital was hit by waves after evacuating patients
(Stimpson, 2011, p. 98).
South America: Peru reported more than 300 homes damaged and Chile
reported 200 homes damaged (Witze 2012).

24. TSUNAMI ALERTS IN
VARIOUS AREAS
AROUND THE WORLD
Image courtesy of The Social
Scientist
(http://soksay.blogspot.com/2011/03/tsunami-slams-japanafter-89-magnitude.html)

25. AFTERSHOCKS
Tohoku was not the end of the unfortunate series of events in Japan. An
earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 hit Tohoku on the Saturday following the
disaster. This earthquake also triggered a small Tsunami (Datta & Kamal,
2012, p. 792).
On April 7, 2011, there was a 7.1 earthquake that left 4 dead. Three days
later, a 6.6 earthquake left 6 dead and caused a power outage (Datta &
Kamal, 2012, p. 793).

26. MANY TOHOKU
AFTERSHOCKS
MAPPED OUT
Image courtesy of USGS
(http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/seqs/events/usc0001xgp
/)

27. FORESHOCKS
There was one earthquake that occurred before the main earthquake. It was
believed to be a foreshock of Tohoku. The earthquake occurred on March 9,
2011 (two days before the main earthquake), and had a magnitude of 7.3. It
was a slow slip, but scientists believe that it is what led up to the 9.0
earthquake on March 11, 2011 (Datta & Kamal, 2012, p. 795).

28. AN EXAMPLE OF A
FORESHOCK USING THE
ANZA EARTHQUAKE’S
SEISMOGRAPH RESULTS
Image courtesy of NBC
(http://www.nbcsandiego.com/video/#!/on-air/as-seenon/Anza-Earthquake-May-be-a-Foreshock/197253711)

29. JAPAN RECOVERY
Images courtesy of CBS
(http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/japan-tsunami-recovery-then-and-now/4/)

30. WORKS CITED
Chai, Carmen (11 March 2011). "Japan's quake shifts earth's axis by 25 centimetres". Montreal Gazette (Postmedia News). Archived from the original on 13 March 2011.
Retrieved 24 November 2013.
Chang, Kenneth (13 March 2011). "Quake Moves Japan Closer to U.S. and Alters Earth's Spin". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 16 March 2011.
Retrieved 24 November 2013.
Datta, A., & Kamal. (2012). Triggering of aftershocks of the Japan 2011 earthquake by Earth tides. Current Science, 792-796.
Gross, Richard (19 March 2011). "Japan Earthquake May Have Shifted Earth’s Axis". NPR online.
Hashimoto, C., Noda, A., & Matsu'ura, M. (2012). The Mw 9.0 northeast Japan earthquake: total rupture of a basement asperity. Geophysical Journal International, 1-5.
Kawasumi, H., 1951, Measures of earthquakes danger and expectancy of maximum intensity throughout Japan as inferred from the seismic activity in historical times,
Bull. Earthq. Res. Inst., Univ. Tokyo, 29, 469-482.
Rajendran, K., Andrade, V., Thulasiraman, N., & Rajendran, C. P. (2011). The 11 March 2011 Tohoku (Sendai), Japan earthquake. Current Science, 966-969.
Stimpson, I. (2011). Japan's Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. Geology Today, 96-98.
Wald, L. (2012, July 24). The Science of Earthquakes. Retrieved from USGS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/kids/eqscience.php
What is the "magnitude" of an earthquake? (2012). Retrieved from Geological Survey of Canada: http://www.okgeosurvey1.gov/magnitude_e.html
Witze, A. (2012). Making Waves. Science News, 22-25.