preview

The Negative Effects Of The Great Sendai Earthquake

Decent Essays

Natural disasters are a huge challenge for the planet because of the adverse effects that are associated with them. One of the major earthquakes to have shaken the earth is the Great Sendai Earthquake or Great Tōhoku Earthquake that occurred in 2011. The event started when a powerful earthquake hit the northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, and resulted in a widespread damage on land. A series of massive tsunamis later devastated many parts of the coastal regions of the country with the worst affected being the Tohoku region. The tsunami further resulted in a major nuclear accident that damaged distant regions on a power station located along the coast. The economic effects of the tsunami qualify it as one of the major natural disasters because it affected Japan’s economic stability as the country ended up resorting to importing as an alternative to cover the loss.
The intensity of the earthquake was a major factor because its magnitude played a huge role in the damage that the disaster caused. It was reported to have hit a magnitude of 9-0 with the epicenter being located at least 80 miles away. The focus was 18.6 miles lower than the western Pacific. The result was a rapture of the subduction zone and thus led to the Japan Trench being affected. Several foreshocks reached as much as 6.0 and greater effects that ended up acting on the land in the following days and months even after the quake had subsided. The tsunami that accompanied the earthquake originated from a fault along the convergent plate boundary at the section where the Pacific plate joins with the west beneath Japan. The subduction zone was very active seismically at the time of the occurrence of the earthquake. Thus based on my understanding of earthquakes, the March 11 disaster was among the strongest earthquakes ever recorded because of the effects that followed because a portion of the ocean trench immediately went off-shore. In fact, it was later reported that a satellite that was orbiting around the Earth, infrasonics could be detected on the outer edge of the Earth’s atmosphere. The low-frequency waves meant that there were adverse effects that could be felt weeks after the real disaster had hit, hence the reporting that it was the

Get Access