![]() The tsunami flooded an estimated area of approximately 217 square miles (561 square kilometers) in Japan, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ![]() The tsunami waves reached run-up heights (how far the wave surges inland above sea level) of up to 128 feet (39 meters) at Miyako city and traveled inland as far as 6 miles (10 km) in Sendai. Less than an hour after the earthquake, the first of many tsunami waves hit Japan's coastline. More than 2,500 people are still reported missing. The number of confirmed deaths is 19,747 as of December, 2021, according to the reconstruction agency. Death toll of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami People in Japan also received texted alerts of the earthquake and tsunami warnings on their cellphones. The country's stringent seismic building codes and early warning system prevented many deaths from the earthquake, by stopping high-speed trains and factory assembly lines. Residents of Tokyo received a minute of warning before the strong shaking hit the city, thanks to Japan's earthquake early warning system. The researchers think that this clay layer allowed the two plates to slide an incredible distance, some 164 feet (50 meters), facilitating the enormous earthquake and tsunami. Scientists drilled into the subduction zone soon after the earthquake and discovered a thin, slippery clay layer lining the fault, according to a 2013 study in the journal Science. It was centered on the seafloor 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of Tohoku, at a depth of 15 miles (24 km) below the surface. The March 11 earthquake started on a Friday at 2:46 p.m. The temblor completely released centuries of built up stress between the two tectonic plates, a recent study found. East of Japan, the Pacific plate dives beneath the overriding Eurasian plate. The great plates are rough and stick together, building up energy that is released as earthquakes. In a subduction zone, one plate slides beneath another into the mantle, the hotter layer beneath the crust. The 2011 Tohoku earthquake struck offshore of Japan, along a subduction zone where two of Earth's tectonic plates collide. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory) The 2011 Tohoku earthquake Darker red circles represent higher intensity tremors. It's about 10 times less."Ī map showing the shaking intensity of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. Compare the human lives lost in Sumatra and Japan. "But if the nation is prepared, warning and education definitely saves lives. "For big earthquakes, the tsunami is going to be the big destructive factor," said Vasily Titov, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Center for Tsunami Research in Seattle, Washington told Live Science. Now, tsunami experts from around the world have been asked to assess the history of past tsunamis in Japan, to better predict the country's future earthquake risk. However, their warnings went unheeded by officials responsible for the country's earthquake hazard assessments, Live Science previously reported. ![]() In the decade before the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, a handful of Japanese geologists had begun to recognize that a large earthquake and tsunami had struck the northern Honshu region in that year. The areas flooded in 2011 closely matched those of a tsunami that hit Sendai in A.D. ![]() But there had been hints of the disaster to come. Nor did they expect such a large tsunami. Japan's scientists had forecast a smaller earthquake would strike the northern region of Honshu, the country's main island. But Japan's one-two punch proved especially devastating for the earthquake-savvy country, because few scientists had predicted the country would experience such a large earthquake and tsunami. ![]() That record goes to the 2004 Banda Aceh earthquake and tsunami in Sumatra, a magnitude-9.1, which killed more than 230,000 people. The unexpected disaster was neither the largest nor the deadliest earthquake and tsunami to strike this century. (Image credit: NOAA/NWS) A surprise disaster This map shows the travel times of the tsunami generated by the Honshu earthquake on March 11, 2011. ![]()
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