Sources:

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/mar11/tohoku-earthquake-and-tsunami/

07.02.2021

https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/Policy-and-Media/Outreach/Plate-Tectonic-Stories/Outer-Isles-
Pseudotachylytes/Tohoku-Earthquake

07.02.2021

The Tohoku earthquake that hit Japan on the 11th of March 2011 was one of the biggest and strongest earthquake
ever recorded in the last 100 years and caused shaking at the surface that lasted 6 minutes. The earthquake struck
below the North Pacific Ocean, 130 kilometers (81 miles) east of Sendai, the largest city in the Tohoku region, a
northern part of the island of Honshu. It was originally read as an 8.9 magnitude quake but was recalculated as a
magnitude 9 as more data became available. It was centered on the seafloor 72 km east of Tohoku, at a depth of
24 km below the surface. The main quake was followed by over 5000 aftershocks, the largest reaching magnitude
7.9. 

Honshu, Japan’s main island, lies at the intersection between three tectonic plates: the Eurasian, Philippine and
North American. While the geometry of the plates in Japan is quite complicated, broadly speaking the oceanic
crust of the Pacific Plate is converging on the Eurasian and Philippine plate and is subducting beneath the
continental crust of Japan. As these plates converge and bump for position at the boundaries, compressional stress
builds up along the moving plate boundaries, and it is the release of this stress that causes the earthquakes in
Japan.  In the case of Tohoku, the earthquake is linked to the subduction of the Pacific plate below the Okhotsk
plate. The Pacific plate moves towards the Okhotsk at around 8-9 cm/year which is pretty speedy for a tectonic
plate and as the two moved past each other, the stresses in the crust built up until they were released in the
earthquake. 

A magnitude 9 earthquake is very large. So large, in fact, that GPS data from the Geospatial Information Authority
of Japan shows that the north-east coast of Japan moved east by up to 4 meters. At the same time, the coastline
subsided by about 0.5 meters. Earthquakes of this size, where there are significant slip distances, often result in
the formation of pseudotachylytes (fine grained, glassy rocks that form during frictional melting) as seen at the
Outer Isles Fault in the UK. During rapid movement along the fault plane, frictional melting of the wall rocks along
the fault can occur causing the formation of pseudotachylytes. The thickness of the pseudotachylyte zone is an
indication of the magnitude of the event and the displacement distance. We would expect significant
pseudotachylyte deposits to be found in associated with the Tohoku earthquake, it remains to be seen if we find a
way to observe these but they could provide fossils evidence of the earthquake for future generations! Drilling into
the subduction zone has led to scientists discovering a thin, slippery clay layer lining the fault. The clay layer is less
than 5 m thick and would have reduced friction along the fault, allowing the two plates to slide such a long
distance (50 meters). 

In terms of the impact above land, as many readers will remember, the earthquake triggered a 39 m high tsunami
wave which hit northern Honshu, causing devastation to people, buildings and to the Fukushima nuclear power
station. The Tohoku earthquake caused a tsunami. A tsunami—Japanese for “harbor wave”—is a series of
powerful waves caused by the displacement of a large body of water. Most tsunamis, like the one that formed off
Tohoku, are triggered by underwater tectonic activity, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The Tohoku
tsunami produced waves up to 40 meters (132 feet) high.

More than 450,000 people became homeless as a result of the tsunami. More than 15,500 people died. The
tsunami also severely crippled the infrastructure of the country. In addition to the thousands of destroyed homes,
businesses, roads, and railways, the tsunami caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The Fukushima nuclear disaster released toxic, radioactive materials into
the environment and forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes and businesses. 

Now, tsunami experts from around the world have been asked to assess the history of past tsunamis in Japan, to
better predict the country's future earthquake risk. The direct financial damage from the disaster is estimated to
be about $199 billion dollars (about 16.9 trillion yen), according to the Japanese government. The total economic
cost could reach up to $235 billion, the World Bank estimated, making it the costliest natural disaster in world
history.

Submitted by: Marjorie Morelos Ramos

Class: 12A

No. : 479