What happened? Where? When?
Friday, March 11, 2011 at 2:46PM (UTC)
On Friday, March 11, 2011 at 2:46PM (UTC) a 9.0 magnitude earthquake occurred in the northern region of Tohoku in Japan. The earthquake lasted 6 minutes and was felt throughout the world. According to Japan’s National Police Agency, the earthquake and tsunami took 15,883 lives, injured 6,150 people and 2,643 people were reported missing. The cause of the earthquake were centuries of built up stress between the Pacific Ocean plate and the plate that holds the Japanese islands. The shifting plates that caused the earthquake created a tsunami. The waves of the tsunami were recorded to be over 100 feet by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the tallest one recorded was 124 feet damaging the city’s fishing port of Koborinai. The tsunami flooded and damaged four nuclear power plants at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant powered by the Tokyo Electric Power Company; causing a level 7 meltdown, which resulted in over 300 tons of radioactive waste being released into the Pacific Ocean which could reduce biodiversity in marine life. The radioactive waste has been seen on maps to have reached the North Pole and seeping into glaciers which could cause global warming. The great floods from the tsunami caused fires from water being in contact with power lines, soil erosion shifting homes and killed people seeking shelter in sturdy buildings. Furthermore, the effects of the tsunami has washed up solid waste on the California coast. Items include two door refrigerators, plastic bottles, and other material possessions of Japanese citizens that were swept out to sea.