How did the Japan earthquake happen?

earthquakes

We always hear about the enormous damage that earthquakes cause to lives and all aspects of life, and therefore countries around the world have begun to follow well-studied plans to confront this phenomenon and mitigate the damage resulting from it. For this reason, we would like to show you one of these examples, which is the Japanese earthquake in 2011, and how it occurred, and the damages. resulting from it, and the things learned to deal with these disasters.

Japan earthquake and its causes

The epicenter of the earthquake occurred at exactly 14:46 p.m. in the Pacific Ocean, with a magnitude of 8,9 on the seismic moment scale, which was 130 kilometers near the coast of Meiji, 24 kilometers east of the city of Sendai, and at a depth of XNUMX kilometers. almost.

Some studies, including those conducted by researcher Dan McKenzie from the University of Cambridge, say that the main cause of this earthquake is the movement of tectonic plates at the bottom of the ocean. It was believed that the Japanese plate moved upwards with the Pacific plate, but after the Japanese submarine informed the situation at the bottom of the ocean, they found that the Japanese plate moved downward under the Pacific plate.

Earthquake results

This earthquake resulted in many natural and geological disasters, including:

• It led to the death and loss of more than a thousand people.
• The Italian Institute of Geophysics and Volcanic Studies said: (This earthquake resulted in a displacement of the Earth's axis by ten centimeters, and was in the form of transverse waves).
• It resulted in a tsunami with huge waves, which headed directly to Japanese shores.
• An explosion occurred in the nuclear reactor building in Fukushima, which led to some cracks in its walls. Therefore, radioactivity rose to more than twenty times the normal level, and the government then evacuated thousands of residents near it.
• The sea level rose to ten meters at the beach, due to the amounts of water that came from the depth of the ocean, and this rise could threaten many cities located near the Pacific Ocean.

Things to learn from the Japan earthquake

The Japanese earthquake showed us the readiness of the Japanese government to confront natural disasters in general and earthquakes in particular. However, the devastating results due to this earthquake exceeded all expectations. Since we do not deny what the government did in the face of this earthquake; Because the “Haiti” earthquake, which was two degrees lower, had more than two hundred and twenty thousand victims, here, if we make a comparison between the two cases, we find the extent of the benefits of the studies and preparations that Japan has taken in reducing material and human losses, in terms of the plan that the state agencies followed in evacuating the local population, and aid. Medical or food, and issuing the warning half an hour before the tsunami occurred saved many lives.