Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011, Natural disaster that occurred in northeastern Japan in 2011. A magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck off Honshu island on March 11, 2011. It caused widespread damage on land and initiated a series of tsunami waves that devastated many coastal areas of Japan, most notably in the Tōhoku region. Officially, about 18,500 people were killed or reported missing and presumed dead, and hundreds of thousands were displaced. In addition, the tsunami instigated a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which resulted in the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents from the surrounding area.
Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 Article
Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 summary
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Fukushima accident Summary
Fukushima accident, accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi (“Number One”) plant in northern Japan, the second worst nuclear accident (after the Chernobyl disaster of 1986) in the history of nuclear power generation. The site is on Japan’s Pacific coast, in northeastern Fukushima prefecture about
Japan Summary
Japan, island country lying off the east coast of Asia. It consists of a great string of islands in a northeast-southwest arc that stretches for approximately 1,500 miles (2,400 km) through the western North Pacific Ocean. Nearly the entire land area is taken up by the country’s four main islands;
tsunami Summary
Tsunami, catastrophic ocean wave, usually caused by a submarine earthquake, an underwater or coastal landslide, or a volcanic eruption. The term tidal wave is frequently used for such a wave, but it is a misnomer, for the wave has no connection with the tides. After an earthquake or other
earthquake Summary
Earthquake, any sudden shaking of the ground caused by the passage of seismic waves through Earth’s rocks. Seismic waves are produced when some form of energy stored in Earth’s crust is suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one another suddenly fracture and “slip.”