What is Tsunami?

Tsunami wave is a series of huge water waves caused by the displacement of a large
volume of a body of water, such as an ocean. Tsunami is a Japanese word; it means harbour
wave. Tsunami is mainly caused by underwater earthquake. Tsunami also caused volcanic
eruption, sub-marine rockslide and rarely by asteroid crashing into the ocean from space, (but
this is very rare event). If the earthquake will be happened in land means, tallest building will
be collapsed and damages will be in the land. At the same time if the earthquake will be
happened under the water body or ocean means it will generate the tsunami.
Tsunami wave speed and height

A tsunami wave can travel at the speed of more than 950 km/hr in the open ocean -
as fast as a jet flies. It can take only a few hours for a tsunami to travel across an entire ocean.
Generally ordinary wave (generated by the wind) travels at up to about 90 km/hr. As a
tsunami wave approaches the coast (where the sea becomes shallow), the trough (bottom) of
a wave hits the beach floor, causing the wave to slow down, to increase in height (the
amplitude is magnified many times) and to decrease in wavelength (the distance from crest to
crest). At landfall, a tsunami wave can be hundreds of meters tall. Steeper shorelines produce
higher tsunami waves. In addition to large tsunami waves that crash onto shore, the waves
push a large amount of water onto the shore above the regular sea level (this is called runup).
The runup can cause tremendous damage inland and is much more common than huge,
thundering tsunami waves. Tsunami is a series of waves and the first wave may not be the
largest. Tsunami wave heights cannot be predicted and can vary significantly along a coast
due to local effects. The time from one tsunami wave to the next tsunami can be 5 minutes to
1 hour and the threat can continue for many hours as multiple waves arrive.

Japan Tsunami – 2011

Tsunami is not a new word or event for Japanese people. About 95% of the tsunami is
occurring in Pacific Ocean. Since Japan is located in the Pacific Ocean, this country is
repeatedly affected by Tsunami waves. Japan is the nation with the most recorded tsunami in
the world.
A large earthquake has hit Sendai, north-eastern Japan on March 11, 2011 in the
western Pacific Ocean, 130 kilometers (81 mi) east of Sendai, Honshu, Japan, lasting
approximately six minutes. Its epicenter was 373 km (232 mi) from Tokyo. The Japan
Earthquake measured 8.9 on the Richter scale and generated a deadly tsunami. More than 10
meter tsunami wave height was recorded and its made a devastating impact on the country.
The main earthquake was preceded by a number of large foreshocks, and multiple aftershocks
were reported after the Tsunami. The first major foreshock was a 7.2 MW event on 9 March,
approximately 40 km (25 mi) from the 11 March quake, with another three on the same day
in excess of 6.0 MW. Following the quake, a 7.0 MW aftershock was reported at 15:06 JST,
followed by a 7.4 at 15:15 JST and a 7.2 at 15:26 JST. Over six hundred aftershocks of
magnitude 4.5 or greater have occurred since the initial quake.

Casualties

The National Police Agency has officially confirmed 8,649 deaths, and 2,702 peoples
get injured and 12,877 people missing across eighteen places. These numbers are expected to
increase, with casualties estimated to reach tens of thousands. More than 1, 00,000 (1 lakh)
children are displaced from their homes, some of whom were separated from their families
because the earthquake occurred during the school day. On 14 March, 2,000 bodies were
found on two shores in Miyagi Prefecture. (According to Kyodo News Agency)

Four passenger trains containing an unknown number of passengers disappeared in a

coastal area during the tsunami. One of the trains, on the Senseki Line, was found derailed in
the morning; all passengers were rescued by a police helicopter. Five missing trains in
Miyagi region had been found with all passengers safe.

Nuclear power plants

Radioactive impacts and causalities would be more and dangerous than the Tsunami
effect. Impact would be more Over 200,000 people have been evacuated from the Nuclear
Power Plants area. The Fukushima I, Fukushima II, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant and Tōkai
nuclear power stations, consisting of a total eleven reactors, were automatically shut down
following the earthquake (Tsunami). Higashidōri, also on the northeast coast, was already
shut down for a periodic inspection. Cooling is needed to remove decay heat for several days
after a plant has been shut down. The cooling process is powered by emergency diesel
generators, as in the case of Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant. At Fukushima I and II
tsunami waves overtopped seawalls and destroyed diesel backup power systems, leading to
severe problems including two large explosions at Fukushima I and leakage of radiation. On
16 March, it was reported that favorable winds were carrying radioactive particles from the
incidents out to sea, mitigating some of the negative effects to the coastal ecosystem. Further
into the crisis, helicopters were used to dump water on the Fukushima I plant to further
attempt to cool the reactors.

Early Warning system in Japan

There are about 1000 seismometers were installed in japan to predict the Tsunami and
Earthquake. One minute prior to the effects of the earthquake being felt in Tokyo. 1,000
seismometers in Japan, sent out warnings of an impending earthquake to millions. This was
possible because the damaging seismic S-waves, traveling at 4 km (2.5 mi) per second, took
about 90 seconds to travel the 373 km (232 mi) to Tokyo.

Ports

Collapsed Port

Most of the Northeastern boats were destroyed by the Tsunami. Aound 4.4 million
households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity. Several nuclear and
conventional power plants went offline after the earthquake

Oil and gas

A 220,000-barrel-per-dayoil refinery of Cosmo Oil Company was set on fire by the

earthquake Ichihara to the east of Tokyo, while others stopped production due to safety
checks and power loss. Some other oil companies are also burring still now.

Economic impact

Some analysts are predicting that the total recovery costs could reach 122 billion dollars.
Almost all the industries and factories were stopped their production and closed. The
earthquake and tsunami have had significant immediate impacts on businesses such as
Toyota, Nissan and Honda, which completely suspended auto production until 14 March.
Nippon Steel Corporation also suspended production, Toyo Tire & Rubber Company and
Sumitomo Rubber Industries shuttered their tire and rubber production lines, while GS Yuasa
closed its automotive battery production. Japan's economy then accelerated significantly
through the next two years, at more than its former rate.

Scientific community’s response

Scientific community should develop a new technology to predict the Tsunami in very
advance, and then only we can able to save our human beings. From this incident all the
countries should take care about the security of Atomic Power plants.
Some photographs