The events of the Tohoku Earthquake and subsequent Tsunami began on March 11th, 2011. This undersea megathrust earthquake was measured at a magnitude of 9.0 on the moment magnitude scale (MMS), the third most powerful recorded since modern record keeping began in 1900, and the most powerful earthquake recorded to have ever hit Japan. The earthquake caused tsunami waves reaching heights of 40.5 meters to reach coast of Japan, which then traveled as far as 10 kilometers inland. These staggering figures alone warrant the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami to be classified as a catastrophe.
A megathrust eathquake is an interplate earthquake that appears at plate boundaries known as subduction zones, in which one tectonic plate is forced underneath
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Otherwise known as a seismic sea wave, a tsunami can be generated by a number of disturbances such as, impacts, explosions, calvings, eruptions, palatial shifts, and various others. The Tohoku tsunami was caused by the mass displacement of water at the epicenter of the …show more content…
The earthquake started at 2:46 p.m. local time, with the shaking from the main quake lasting approximately six minutes. Subduction occurred as a result of the Pacific plate diving beneath the Eurasian plate. What differentiated this fault slip, the largest ever recorded, from other catastrophic tectonic occurrences, was its uncharacteristically low friction along the Tohoku fault. The entire fault ruptured during the quake. The deeper part of the fault shifted quickly, while closer to the surface the sliding was slower. Although findings vary, most studies hypothesize that the two crustial plates were displaced somewhere in the range of 165 to 260 feet. The vertical displacement of the seafloor coupled with the large slip at shallow depths contributed directly to the subsequent
Earthquakes are a natural part of the Earth’s evolution. Scientific evidence leads many geologists to believe that all of the land on Earth was at one point in time connected. Because of plate tectonic movements or earthquakes, continental drift occurred separating the one massive piece of land in to the seven major continents today. Further evidence supports this theory, starting with the Mid-Atlantic ridge, a large mass of plate tectonics, which are increasing the size of the Atlantic Ocean while shrinking the Pacific. Some scientists believe that the major plate moveme...
Second, the two natural occurrences have differing causes. Rogue waves are often caused by wind strength, ocean currents and obstacles such as islands or large rocks in the way of the waves. Another main way they are caused are by colliding currents, which may solve the mystery of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. Tsunamis are caused by very different factors. Tsunamis begin when something upsets the ocean, usually landslides, earthquakes or volcanoes. Then this causes a ripple effect, and as they near shore, the waves build up. Clearly, tsunamis and rogue waves are very different in
Massive Mega-Quakes happen at regular intervals in the Pacific Northwest. There have been mega-quakes in the beginning of time. In Japan, a mega-quake send a 600-foot wave of water.
In the early twentieth century, San Francisco, a bustling city full of people with diverse cultures, stood in the midst of the Second Industrial Revolution. At this time, the brilliant inventions of airplanes, automobiles, and radios were changing the everyday lives of many. San Francisco had just recovered from the four-year burden of the bubonic plague (“Bubonic”). However, right when things were getting back to normal, a destructive earthquake hit the city on April 18, 1906. Although the shaking lasted for less than a minute, the devastated city had crumbled buildings and a substantial loss of lives. The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 had a lasting effect on the city and its people, and it proved to be one of the most catastrophic disasters in history.
A Tsunami in Santa Cruz Out of all the natural disasters that we talk about in class, the most deadly would have to be a tsunami. Compared to earthquakes, tsunamis have caused more deaths since 1945. A tsunami is likely to strike anywhere on the west coast, including Santa Cruz in California – United States – North America – 36:58:24N 122:02:09W. A tsunami is a giant “wave” of water that is caused by a sudden shift in the sea floor.
One of the worst natural disasters in United States history to this date occurred almost 109 years ago. On April 18, 1906 at 5:15am in San Francisco, California, the earthquake of San Francisco occurred hitting between 7.9 and 8.3M on the Richter scale. The San Andreas Fault, which is about 600 miles long, running from the Gulf of California to Cape Mendocino and is an active strike-slip fault, cut through the continental lithosphere to cause the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. An earthquake is a trembling or shaking of the ground produced by movements along a fault (Strahler, 2012). After the tension is released at a critical point, the fault or tectonic plate slips and relieves the strain and creates the seismic waves, which radiates out in all directions causing the shaking of the surface.
In the early twentieth century, San Francisco, a bustling city full of people from diverse cultures, stood in the midst of the Second Industrial Revolution. At this time, the brilliant inventions of airplanes, automobiles, and radios were changing the everyday lives of many. San Francisco had just recovered from the four-year burden of the bubonic plague (“Bubonic”). However, right when things were going back to normal, a destructive earthquake hit the city on April 18, 1906. Although the shaking lasted for less than a minute, the devastated city had crumbled buildings and a substantial loss of lives. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 consisted not only of earthquakes, but also of even more destructive fires; it had a scarring effect on the city and its people, yet it gave much of the knowledge that seismologists have today and allowed San Francisco to stand as a place of intriguing buildings and structures.
Before examining the Northridge event, understanding the naturally occurring hazard that is an earthquake will help to better understand exactly what happened and why it was such an important geological event. With four distinct layers, two layers, the crust and upper portion of the mantle, compose the skin that is the surface layer of the Earth. The crust is not a single, continuous piece. It is actually several different pieces, or plates, that come together to form the puzzle that comprises the surface of the Earth. These plates are in constant motion rubbing against one another. These areas, known as fault lines, where the plates rub up against one another have spots where one plate ”gets stuck while the rest of the plate keeps moving. When the plate has moved far enough, the edges unstick and is how most of the earthquakes around the world occur” (Wald, 2012). The energy stored from the friction of the two plate...
Mr. Adams describes the San Francisco earthquake as his most profound human suffering experience because the horror of shaking floors, parts of his mom’s house collapse to the floor, and got a broken nose from stumbling into a brick wall (Ansel Adams & The 1906 Earthquake 2008). Earthquakes are part of natural disasters of the earth and normally caused by shaking ground and rapid movement of one block of rock slipping past another a long fractures in the earth crust called faults. Faults that are usually locked excluding abrupt movements, which slippage creates an earthquake (Lutgens, F. & Tarbuck, E.
Meica Rogue waves and tsunamis have two things in common, they both come from water, and they are destructive. The topics are rogue waves, tsunamis, and the difference. Rogue waves and tsunamis are caused in the water but are in different part of the ocean. Tsunamis are formed in the Pacific Ocean and rogue waves are formed in the Indian Ocean.
The epicenter of the earthquake in Alaska was about 10km east of the College Fiord, approximately 90km west of Valdez and 120km east of Anchorage, Alaska largest city. The earthquake was felt about 1,300,000 square kilometers away from the epicenter. (Christensen, Doug PhD.) About 30 kilometers deep, the first slip occurred under northern Prince William Sound, and an 800 kilometer rupture in the rocks extended horizontally, roughly parallel to the Aleutian trench. (Bolt) The cause of this massive earthquake was the vertical displacement of northwest motion of the Pacific plate. Also, it was estimated that about 200,000 square kilometers of the crust were deformed, making this the greatest area of vertical displacement ever measured. (Bolt)
The earth is split into four layers, inner and outer core, the mantle and crust. The top of the mantle and crust make up what is like the skin of our earth (see source 2). The skin is split up like a puzzle and we call these puzzle pieces’ tectonic plates (see source 1). These plates are constantly moving and the plate boundaries (edges of the plates) move and slide past one another. Sometimes as the plates move the plate boundaries become stuck. Pressure builds up in the stuck area over time and eventually breaks. This is why earthquakes occur due to the sudden movement of the plate sliding and breaking creating a fault line to go off. The fault line is the line on which the
In March of 2011, Japan suffered one of the largest most powerful earthquakes to hit Honshu, Japan. (“Facts about Japan”) The earthquake registered 8.9 and was the fifth largest most powerful earthquake in the world.... ... middle of paper ... ...
An earthquake occurs abruptly and causes severs damage to people, property, landscape and more. A great mega-thrust earthquake, known as the Great Tohoku Earthquake has shaken Japan at 5:46:24 UTC on March 11, 2011. It caused a severe disaster, including tsunami and nuclear radiation exposure.. This mega-quake located at the latitude 38.297 degree North and longitude of 142.372 degree East, near the east coast of Honshu, Japan (USGS, 2013). An earthquake and tsunami waves caused widespread damage to many areas of Japan. People in Japan are still recovering from the damages.
The death toll climbs to over 10,000 and is still rising (Branigan 2). The disaster in Japan began without warning on Friday March 11, 2011 at 2:46pm with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the strongest ever recorded in the country (Fackler 3). A massive thirty-three foot high tsunami, generated by the earthquake, swept over lands in northern Japan, taking objects and debris with it. To make matters worse, the tsunami caused the cooling systems at several nuclear power plants to fail. The disaster in Japan was a tragic event, and it had a plethora of causes and effects.