Comparison Of Japan Earthquake And Tsunami

All around the world, there are thousands upon thousands of natural hazardous events that occur during ones’ day, week, and even lifetime. In fact, within the past couple of years, natural hazard events have become more and more frequent as the years go by and have permanently changed millions of lives due to great loss. In this journal assignment, I chose a weather related event such as Hurricane Katrina and an internal process such as the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. Thus, in this paper I will discuss the importance of each event and how they made an impact on society, as well as how each event has some major differences when it comes to the characteristics, environmental impacts, and where/when, etc. In the history of the

In reference to the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, an earthquake is referred to as shaking/movements of the tectonic plates which only lasts a few seconds, while a tsunami occurs when an earthquake or volcanic eruption creates a shockwave on the ocean’s surface. Furthermore, according to Becky Oskin, a contributing writer from LiveScience, she states that the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami took place on March 11, 2011, and was initiated that Friday morning (UTC time) by two of Earth’s tectonic plates colliding. Thus, at approximately 0546 UTC, the seafloor began to shake 45 miles east of Tohoku, Japan for about 6 minutes while the two plates separated at about 164 feet with the magnitude being at 9.0 (Oskin). As a result, once the earthquake had occurred, many residents along the east coast of Honshu from Chiba to Aomori were told to evacuate the cities and travel to higher land due to an enormous tsunami headed their way (“Magnitude 9.0 – NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN”). In less than an hour, the tsunami hit land all cross the east coast with tsunami waves reaching up to 128 feet high in Miyako City and then traveling inland at 6 miles until reaching Sendai (Oskin). In addition, John P. Rafferty, the author of “Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011,” stated that some of the other impacted areas due to the tsunami were Kamaishi and Miyako in the Iwate prefecture;

For instance, a hurricane is a tropical cyclone with strong winds higher than 74 mph, heavy rain, and can also cause major flooding which can last for several days. While on the other hand, an earthquake is known as tension on the earth’s crust which causes the movement of the tectonic plates, and a tsunami is a shockwave that strikes on land with waves up to a few feet high and can increase as the storm travels. Similarly, although Hurricane Katrina and the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami both involved flooding/surges and still have thousands of people missing, neither one can compare to the other based on the affect that each event had on the impacted areas. For example, Katrina persisted for 7 days and although it caused mass destruction and flooding, Katrina is nowhere near equivalent to the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami because that event obliterated many areas within a single day. Meaning, the earthquake and the tsunami combined caused thousands of homes to be swept away in the debris/water and caused several cities to be wiped clean from any source of electricity, food/water, and shelter. Thus, the major difference that both events have against one another is the fact that although Katrina caused millions of dollars in damage, the impacted areas still had several signs of