Earthquake hitting Fukushima
The earthquake
The earthquake hitting Fukushima on Friday 11 March 2011, was absolutely devastating - not only because of its magnitude but also because of what it caused and the locations it hit. The epicentre of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake was about 370 kilometres north-eastern from Tokyo and off the Pacific coast of Tohoku. The hypocentre was at an underwater depth of approximately 30 kilometres. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that reached heights of up to 40.5 metres an travelled up to 10 kilometres inland. The death toll was fairly high with 16,000 deaths, 6,200 injured and 2,630 people missing. The devastation of the cities and towns was also really big, as 127,300 buildings totally collapsed, 273,000 buildings half collapsed and another 747,000 buildings were partially damaged. The damage also includes damaged roads and railways as well as fires in many areas. Around 4.4 million households in north-eastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million even without water. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded to have hit Japan and the fifth most powerful earthquake in the world since 1900. Japan has experienced over a thousand aftershocks since the Tohoku earthquake with 80 having a magnitude over 6.0 and several even over 7.0 .
THe side-effects
The Tsunami
A tsunami is not a tidal wave but a series of waves (wave train) in which the first wave must not be the most dangerous one and the wave height can vary from beach to beach. When the tsunami reaches shallow water near the coast it slows down. The top of the wave moves faster than the bottom, which causes the sea to rise dramatically and creates underwater turbulences that can suck people under and toss heavy objects. The danger from a tsunami can last for several hours after the arrival of the first wave.
These pictures show a Japanese shoreline before and during the recent tsunami - in the first picture the beach in Fukushima appears calm... However, this appearance is deceptive, as the tsunami caused by the magnitude 9 earthquake nearly wiped away entire towns. The second picture shows how the tsunami's initial wave tosses a van (right) as the waves approach the beach. In the final photo, the waves are so high that they surge over the treetops.
The Explosions
The earthquake and tsunami on March 11 knocked out the cooling systems of the nuclear power plant, triggering the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. Because of the nuclear accidents and the meltdowns that happened at three reactors in the complex, the evacuation zones affected hundreds of thousands of residents, who lived within a 20 km radius of the power plants. Many electrical generators were taken down and at least three of four nuclear reactors exploded, as hydrogen gas had built up after the cooling systems were damaged. About 300 tons of radioactive water continues to leak from the plant every day into the Pacific Ocean, affecting fish and other marine life.
"If core temperatures in the reactors remain on the rise for more than eight hours, there is a possibility that meltdown may occur."
A Trade Ministry official who acted as a government spokesman was replaced after he mentioned the possibility of meltdown.
It was not until May that the nuclear power company acknowledged that a meltdown of fuel rods appeared to have occurred, sparking criticism that the operator and officials were playing down the severity of the accident.
"If core temperatures in the reactors remain on the rise for more than eight hours, there is a possibility that meltdown may occur."
A Trade Ministry official who acted as a government spokesman was replaced after he mentioned the possibility of meltdown.
It was not until May that the nuclear power company acknowledged that a meltdown of fuel rods appeared to have occurred, sparking criticism that the operator and officials were playing down the severity of the accident.
The Aftermath
The first photo shows how a survivor walks his bicycle through the remains of the devastated Japanese town of Otsuchi on March 14. On the next photo you can see how a mother tries to talk to her daughter, who has been isolated due to signs of radiation at a makeshift facility in Nihonmatsu. Her daughter is among other people evacuated from the vicinity of Fukushima's damaged nuclear plants. This picture shows how members of a rescue team carry the body of a man through splintered remains of the village called Saito. This town was just one of many nearly erased from Japan's north-eastern coast, where water, electricity and telecommunications are largely unavailable. It was estimated that 350,000 people were reportedly homeless after this devastating earthquake and at least 10,000 are dead. The next photo shows a survivor of the earthquake reading the list of other survivors in a shelter. On the next photo you can see a survivor who mourns the devastation of Natori. The photo called Japan Earthquake Victim is a picture of a man killed by the earthquake whose hand juts out of the rubble of what has once been a sea barrier. Next is a photo that shows us a photo album coated with mud that lies amid debris in the devastated town of Natori. The last two pictures show survivors of the tsunami, who on the first photo embrace to celebrate that they survived in the destroyed city of Kesennuma. The survivor on the last photo was finally saved by rescue workers after spending days clinging to a piece of roofing, as he had been washed out to sea during the recent tsunami.