The United States Geological Survey records hundreds of earthquakes a day, though only a seldom few are powerful enough to be newsworthy. “The Earth is a dynamic planet,” says Dean Dunn, Ph.D., former professor of geology and oceanography at the University of Southern Mississippi. “People tend to think of earthquakes in the United States only occurring in California, but there are thousands that occur every day throughout the world.” Already in 2011 alone there has been a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Chile, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Pakistan, and a well documented magnitude 6.3 earthquake in New Zealand.
By now, the news of the earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Japan has spread throughout the globe. On Friday, March 11, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake was recorded 45 miles east of the Japanese coastline.
“The scale used to measure earthquakes is exponential, so a change in magnitude of one on the scale is ten times the ground movement. Anything over seven is huge, and anything over nine is catastrophic,” says Dunn.
Following the initial wave of the earthquake, a tsunami was produced, with wave heights reaching as high as 124 feet, penetrating as far inland as six miles in some areas.
“The tsunami was not unexpected. What was surprising was how high it was,” says Maury Meylan, Ph.D., professor of marine geology at the University of Southern Mississippi.
The tsunami caused widespread damage throughout the Japanese islands, damaging many of the reactors of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, leading to a potential International Nuclear Event Scale level 7 catastrophe, the same level as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
While the immediate outcome of this disaster is currently being determined, the long-term effects remain shrouded. As with many of the major disasters of the last few years, long lasting consequences can extend for months, decades, or even generations.
In the Gulf Coast, where Hurricane Katrina was still a recent memory until the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of last year, destruction has been widespread and far ranging. Jana Adams, a Mississippi Gulf Coast resident says, “the oil spill not only affected the seafood industry and fishermen. It also impacted the hospitality industry, the casinos in the area, restaurants, hotels, and the tourism industry as a whole.”
As of last April, it has been an entire year since the oil spill began, but the region is still reeling from the disaster.
“Fishermen in the Gulf lost their entire livelihoods. Those that were lucky enough went to work with BP cleaning up the spill, but that’s over now. They are trying to go back to fishing, but the market is leery about anything coming from this region,” Adams says.
Even before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Indian Ocean Tsunami foreshadowed what was to come in Japan. According to Dunn, “tsunamis form where there are faults near the shoreline. These faults are located in deep-sea trenches, where the continent rides over the ocean floor.”
“Japan has many volcanoes related to the deep sea trenches,” according to John Earron, of the Volcano Hazards Branch of the U.S. Geological Survey.
In the case of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake occurred at a fault line off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. With such a powerful earthquake, a tsunami was generated, causing widespread destruction throughout Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, India, and parts of eastern Africa.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, 227,898 people died in the earthquake and tsunami, with more than 130,000 in Indonesia alone. More than a million people throughout the affected areas were displaced by the devastation.
In Japan, where the death toll has reached 28,500, search efforts to find the missing continue every day. Austin Morgan, a student at George Mason University, had friends in Japan at the time of the tsunami.
“When the earthquake happened, we didn’t know where they were, and couldn’t get in contact with them. We kept trying to call them, but couldn’t get through. Finally, after three days, we heard from them, and they got on a plane to come back home.”
Morgan was lucky in this case, as many in Japan are still searching, but as the death toll continues to rise, time is running out. Each day, the crisis grows in scale. Concerns still remain about the safety of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, as a potential meltdown could occur any day.
Despite all this devastation, a bright light has shown through. An outpouring of support and aid has taken place. The United Nations authorized a bill to send financial aid to the Japanese people, and the Red Cross has sent medical supplies, clean water, food, temporary shelters, and bedding to those in need. On the individual level, donations are being made every day to help the victims. In every dark cloud, there is a silver lining, and in this case, that lining is humanitarianism.
-30-
For More Information
· United States Geological Survey report on the magnitude of Japan’s 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Updated on March 14, 2011 to 9.0 on the Richter Scale and supporting information.
· The World Health Organization’s Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Japan’s Nuclear Concerns, Updated on April 29, 2011.
· First-hand videos of the initial earthquake, aftershocks, and the tsunami reaching the coast of Japan, uploaded on March 14, 2011.
