Tsunami: A Natural Disaster of Biblical Proportions

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.

Throughout this unit, the Science in Practice class has been learning about natural disasters and the impact it has on humans and environment. The natural disaster that will be discussed in this report is the Boxing Day Tsunami, which occurred on the 26th of December, 2004. The tsunami took place in the Indian Ocean. Due to, two tectonics plates, the Indo-Australian plate and the Eurasian plate colliding, causing an underwater earthquake. Due to this awful disaster, people were killed, injured, diagnosed with diseases, homes and businesses were destroyed, the environment damaged.

In 2010, an earthquake occurred that scared ten million lives of men, women, and children. However, the earthquake

In the last decade alone, there have been a number of natural disasters that have caused substantial physical damage and great emotional distress to the people who were affected. The aftermath of a natural disaster presents many concerns; communities become displaced, health risks and complications occur, food scarcity becomes a result of lost crops, and emotional aftershocks become apparent. Some Haitian’s have yet to recover from the earthquake they experienced in 2010. (Davis, 2015) “According to FEMA, the total damage for hurricane Katrina is estimated at $108 billion.” (CNN News, 2015), and 86,000 lives were taken in the earthquake of Pakistan in 2005 (EERI, 2006). In 2008, communities of Sichuan, China, endured a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that collapsed several buildings, killing over 87,000 people. Buildings had very poor infrastructures, which caused the destruction of many local schools. This contributed to the deaths of thousands of school aged children (BBC News, 2013). However, the Boxing Day tsunami was one of the largest and most destructive natural disasters of

Demetriou, Danielle. "Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: 2011 Review." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 19 Dec. 2011. Web. 03 May

The reaction was not quick enough and the wave washed away towns and cities destroying motorway bridges and airports. This made the response process even harder as they had to not only cope with the initial unpredictable earthquake but the tsunami and the effect on the infrastructure which followed. The local government did build sea walls high enough to protect against the effects of the previous tsunami however they didn’t imagine a more powerful wave would ever strike the coast. Even when tectonic activity can be predicted there are still challenges for the community – however not being able to predict them at all clearly is the largest challenge for many. If there had been a tsunami warning system in place in Japan, maybe the death toll would have been reduced.

Know as the second worst tsunami in the world’s history, the Boxing day tsunami took place on December 26, 2004. The tsunami destroyed over 12 different countries and islands, including Sumatra, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and many more countries located by the Indian ocean(Malcolm Moore and Meabh Ritchie). It had continued trekking counties in the Indian Ocean for over two days and left all of which were hit devastated.

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake occurred off the east coast of Japan, generating massive tsunamis, which severely damaged coastal areas. The earthquake and tsunami also hit the nuclear power plants (NPP) located in the coastal area in Tohoku and led to the loss of the entire core cooling capacity of three reactors of Fukushima Daiichi NPP and severe damage to the nuclear cores.1 Although deaths related to the release of radiation have not been reported six years after the disaster, the Japanese government and medical professionals have noticed an increase in mental health problems in emergency workers and evacuees. Numerous evacuations, physical detachment from homes and personal belongings, and stigmas between evacuees have been

A huge earthquake with size of 8.9 has struck the northeastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011. It was the fourth greatest in present recorded history. The few minutes of earthquake trigged massive tsunami, as high as thirty meters destroying 500 kilometers of Japan northeastern coast. Effect of the earthquake and tsunami incited a nuclear disaster in one of the few nuclear power plants along the eastern coast—Fukushima Daiichi, had and worked by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The Fukushima Daiichi plant consolidated six nuclear reactors, three of which were in operation, with the rest encountering routine upkeep. All reactors close down successfully immediately imitating the

It was warm, sunny, and clear. The southern coast of Asia is filled with everything from elegant resorts to poor fishing villages and even some isolated tribes who live amongst themselves with out any outside contact. On this day fishing boats were out on the Indian Ocean and tourists many of who were vacationing from far away as Finland, Sweden and even the United States were out enjoying the water, the beaches, and hotel pools. These local fishermen, tourists, and even the hotel workers had little idea of what was to come. And what was to come was and underwater earthquake and subsequent tsunami unlike anything they had seen or heard of before. As some tourists played in the water and lay on the beaches a few of them noticed that the ocean was acting a bit strange. In some areas the normally beautiful turquoise blue ocean was turning dark. In other areas the water began to recede exposing many fish and ocean material usually not exposed as far from the beach as these were. At first many tourists and locals alike ran out to look at and collect the fish that lay exposed. For some of the local fishermen it was a windfall as all they had to do was go out and fill their baskets and sacks with fish they would normally work hours fishing to catch. They were a few people however that knew something ominous was about to happen. One tourist named Tilly Smith an eleven-year-old

In 2011 Japan was struck by a 9.0 earthquake followed by a devastating tsunami, leaving them with the responsibility to clean up the mess it made. The earthquake created a wave which hit Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant causing many problems. Radioactive leaks were a major problem which was a result of the tsunami. Radiation began to contaminate the Pacific ocean which impacted the fish in it as well. Radiation also contaminated underground water sources because of unreachable fuel rods stored in an unstable building. This tsunami has created a great deal of problems for the citizens of Japan.

However, compared to other similar natural catastrophes, what made the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami uniquely disastrous was the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.8 The effects of this accident are still seen today— removal of massive volumes of radioactive water is

Since the beginning of times the earth has experimented a lot of natural disasters; However, one of the most catastrophic is the tsunami. Tsunamis so far, have one of the highest dead toll, which leads to a concern on how to stop them. As a person that lived in Venezuela near the cost, I know how afraid it’s to see a considerable part of your city flooded and many of the people homeless or even dead.

On the 22nd of May, 1960, the life of so many Europeans had changed and they could never go back for this natural disaster that struck in the South of Chile, caused effects that where not only As a result of the large shocks from the earthquake, a tsunami was produced that was damaging to surrounding continents and islands, this tsunami was abnormal for it wasn’t discreet, inhabitants of continents and islands such as Hawaii could see the tsunami from the coastline. The surface wave magnitude of the tsunami was an 8.6 with a focal depth of 33km, and an epicentre of 39.5° S, 74.5° W. The inhabitants of Chile attempted to seek refuge on sea, however they were ignorant of the tsunami that came around 10 to 15 minutes after the earthquake, the only structures that survived the

On March 11th, 2011 Northeastern Japan was hit with a magnitude 9 earthquake, which led to a tsunami (Oskin, 2015). Two disasters struck Japan and made an impact globally. An estimate of 230,000 homes were destroyed, leaving individuals without shelter, food, or clothes (Oskin, 2015). The disasters kept growing once officials realized the tsunami had taken a nuclear power plan, leaving the area with a level seven nuclear meltdown and radioactive water (Oskin, 2015). Japan is still recovering from the disasters and debris and toxins are being found washed up on shore all around the world (Oskin, 2015).