The MW 9 earthquake of 2011 March

1. Event details

The Pacific Ocean earthquake occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on Friday 11 March 2011
in the western Pacific Ocean, 130 km east of Sendai, Honshu, Japan. Initially reported as 7.9
by the USGS, the magnitude was quickly upgraded to 8.8 and then to 8.9, and then again to
9.0 (MW). The epicenter was reported to be 130 kilometers off the east coast of the Oshika
Peninsula, Tōhoku, with the hypocenter at a depth of 32 km. The main earthquake was
preceded by a number of large foreshocks, beginning with a 7.2 MW event on 9 March
approximately 40 km from 11 March quake, and followed by another three on the same day
in excess of 6 MW in magnitude. Multiple aftershocks were reported after the initial
magnitude 9.0 quake. Over five hundred aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or greater have
occurred since the initial quake.

2. Early warnings

One minute prior to the effects of the earthquake being felt in Tokyo, the Earthquake Early
Warning system connected to more than 1,000 seismometers in Japan sent out warnings on
television of an impending earthquake to millions. This was possible because the damaging
seismic S-waves, traveling at 4 kilometers per second, took about 90 seconds to travel the
373 km to Tokyo. The early warning is believed by the Japan Meteorological Agency to have
saved many lives.

3. Intensity of shaking

The quake registered the maximum of 7 on the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic
intensity scale in Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture. Three other prefectures—Fukushima, Ibaraki
and Tochigi—recorded an upper 6 on the JMA scale. Seismic stations in Iwate, Gunma,
Saitama and Chiba Prefecture measured a lower 6, recording an upper 5 in Tokyo. The
United States' Nuclear Energy Institute released figures indicating the earthquake generated
peak ground accelerations of 0.35g (3.43 m/s²) near the epicenter; with a study by the
University of Tokyo indicating some areas experienced accelerations in excess of 0.5g (4.9
m/s²).

4. Tectonic Summary

The magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake resulted from thrust faulting on or near the subduction
zone plate boundary between the Pacific and North America plates. At the latitude of this
earthquake, the Pacific plate moves approximately westwards with respect to the North
America plate at a rate of 83 mm/yr, and begins its westward descent beneath Japan at the
Japan Trench. Some authors divide this region into several microplates that together define
the relative motions between the larger Pacific, North America and Eurasia plates; these
include the Okhotsk and Amur microplates that are respectively part of North America and
Eurasia.

The Pacific plate, which moves at a rate of 8 to 9 cm a year, dips under Honshu's underlying
plate releasing large amounts of energy. This motion pulls the upper plate down until it
breaks. The break 130 kilometers off of the coast of Sendai was estimated to be several tens
of kilometers long and only 32 kilometers deep, and caused the sea floor to spring up several
meters, causing the earthquake. A quake of this size usually has a rupture length of at least
480 km and requires a long, relatively straight fault line. Because the plate boundary and
subduction zone in this region is not very straight, it is unusual for the magnitude of an
earthquake to exceed 8.5; the magnitude of this earthquake was a surprise to some
seismologists. The hypocentral region of this earthquake extends from offshore Iwate to
offshore Ibaraki Prefectures. The Japanese Meteorological Agency said that the earthquake
may have ruptured the fault zone from Iwate to Ibaraki with a length of 500 km and a width
of 200 km. Analysis showed that this earthquake consisted of a set of three events. The
earthquake may have had a mechanism similar to that of another large earthquake in 869 with
estimated magnitude Ms 8.6, which also created a large tsunami. Other major earthquakes
with tsunamis struck the Sanriku Coast region in 1896 and 1933.

5. Tsunami

The earthquake caused a massive tsunami which wrought massive destruction along the
Pacific coastline of Japan's northern islands. The tsunami propagated across the Pacific, and
warnings were issued and evacuations carried out in many countries with Pacific coasts,
including the entire Pacific coast of North and South America from Alaska to Chile;
however, while the tsunami was felt in many of these places, it caused only relatively minor
effects. Chile's section of Pacific coast is furthest from Japan (about 17,000 km away—the
furthest possible distance on the earth is the semi-circumference, about 20,000 km) but still
was struck by tsunami waves up to 2 meters high.

The March 11, 2011 earthquake was an infrequent catastrophe. It far surpassed other
earthquakes in the southern Japan Trench of the 20th century, none of which attained M8. A
predecessor may have occurred on July 13, 869, when the Sendai area was swept by a large
tsunami that Japanese scientists have identified from written records and a sand sheet. Large
offshore earthquakes have occurred in the same subduction zone in 1611, 1896 and 1933 that
each produced devastating tsunami waves on the Sanriku coast of Pacific NE Japan. That
coastline is particularly vulnerable to tsunami waves because it has many deep coastal
embayments that amplify tsunami waves and cause great wave inundations. The M 7.6
subduction earthquake of 1896 created tsunami waves as high 38 m and a reported death toll
of 22,000. The M 8.6 earthquake of March 2, 1933 produced tsunami waves as high as 29 m
on the Sanriku coast and caused more than 3000 fatalities.

Japan's buildings may have mostly survived the massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck
last Friday, but thousands of people died because of the deadly tsunami that followed and
swept away entire coastal towns. More disaster was prevented because of Japan's stringent
building code that requires new buildings to hold up against collapse during maximum-event
earthquakes. The country also has thousands of seismic-protective systems to protect
important buildings such as hospitals, along with some apartment and office buildings.

6. Nuclear incidents

With the explosion in the 3rd reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power station, the
fears of spread of nuclear radiation in civilian localities have taken hold of not only Japan but
possibilities of it spreading to neighboring countries cannot be ruled out. Aftereffects of
nuclear radiation remain for a long time. The radiation levels have presently been reported to
be as high as 400 millisieverts per hour. Nuclear radiation poisoning can have disastrous
results – including death by cancer. It has been seen in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings
and in Chernobyl.

As explosion at a Japanese nuclear power plant sharpened a long-running dispute over the
nuclear technology’s future, neighboring countries are relooking on their plans to extend the
nuclear power stations and related safety issues.

7. Remarks

The recent earthquake triggered in the western Pacific Ocean on 11th March 2011 and its
aftermaths necessitates a revisit on the seismic risk in various parts of the world. The ground
motion predicted from seismic hazard analysis not only aids in safe design of structures, but
also helps in deciding the locations of important structures such as nuclear power plants.
Sources

1. USGS (U.S. Geological Survey)

2. JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency)

3. ERI (Earthquake Research Institute,University of Tokyo)

4. AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan)