What Were the Impacts of the Earthquake?
The earthquake in Japan caused many impacts to Japan and on the lives of those who lived there. The initial shock was followed by over 5000 aftershocks with the highest reaching 7.9 on the Richter scale. Around an hour after the earthquake, there was a devastating tsunami that hit the shores of Japan. After the earthquake and tsunami, around 15, 839 people had died, 5950 people were left injured and 3642 people were missing. The earthquake also caused a whirlpool off the coast of Japan. It occurred because of the interaction of the turbulent motion of the rushing water and the bathymetry (shape and measurement) of the seafloor. A vessel was seen being sucked into the whirlpool. It is unknown as to whether there was anyone on board. The whole disaster cost around 12 trillion Yen in damage. The earthquake and tsunami destroyed many buildings, vehicles, cities, towns and rural areas.
Tsunami
Around an hour after the earthquake there was a tsunami. The tsunami was caused by the displacement of a lot of water from when the plates moved. As the wave reached shallower water, the height of it increased. All the water and energy from the waves pushed the water inland as far as 10 kilometers. The tsunami became the largest tsunami in Japan's history and the fourth largest in the world. The towns North-East of Tokyo were the most badly affected. The waves that crashed onto the shores of North Japan reached up to the height of 7 meters.
Warnings
In Tokyo, there was a minutes warning before the shock of the earthquake. The warning came from the Earthquake Early-Warning System (EEWS) and saved many lives as it gave time for factories to shut down machines and vehicles to stop. People in Tokyo also received a text warning them of the earthquake and tsunami. Russia, Taiwan, Hawaii, Indonesia, the Marshall Islands, Papau New Guinea, Australia and the West coasts of the U.S (Mexico, Central America, South America) were also issued warnings from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center of the tsunami.
Fukushima
Fukushima was a nuclear power plant that was badly effected by the tsunami. The tsunami caused the cooling systems of 3 reactors (explosion and meltdown in 2 and a fire in the other) to stop working and also damaged 4 reactors. The three cores melted in a few days, releasing a lot of radiation directly into the atmosphere. Over 100,000 people have been evacuated from places around the plant. After a few weeks the reactors were stable from the recycled water that was used to cool them down. Although no one has died or been injured from radiation sickness, over 1000 people have died from maintaining the evacuation. On April 12 2011, it was announced that the nuclear crisis at Fukushima was at stage 7 emergency. That meant that there was widespread health and environmental effects. Three other nuclear power plants also reported problems.