On March 11,2011 near Tokyo, Japan an earthquake with an 8.9 magnitude struck the area causing more than just problems from falling buildings. The result of this earthquake came from thrust faulting on the subduction zone plate boundary between the Pacific and North American plates. The Japan Trench subduction zone has had nine earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater since 1973. The Japan earthquake far surpassed other plate-boundary thrust-fault earthquakes in the southern Japan Trench, none of which attained a magnitude of eight. Occurring from the the quake was a tsunami that crushed eastern coast of Japan and swept away thousands of people, homes, cars, trees and even large buildings. Fires were burning for days long and people will stuck in devastation realizing they had nothing to go home to. The area around a nuclear power plant in the northeast was evacuated after the reactor's cooling system failed and the Japanese were faced with new problems everyday. (U.S Department of, 2011)
The effects of this earthquake have made this quake and tsunami one of the biggest natural disasters occurring in quite some time. Food has become hard to find and many have gone days without it because there is simply not enough places nearby to buy food. While some people evacuated and began to travel elsewhere they found themselves waiting in lines that stretched for miles to get gas. Problems began to arise when the issue about how the would handle the dead was brought about. Desperate municipalities are digging mass graves, unthinkable in a nation where the deceased are usually cremated and their ashes placed in stone tombs near Buddhist temples. While some were worrying about the dead, others were concerned about the nearby reactor overheating an leaking radiation. Radiation leakage concerns many people because of how easily it can affect the residents. Thousands of people were tested for radiation and many were even quarantined because they could infect other people. Clearly, the damage done by the earthquake and even worse, the tsunami, has caused a considerate amount of damage, while hundreds and thousands of residents to take shelter in places other than their home and find ways to keep their families safe. (Alabaster, Yamaguchi, Hosaka, & Kageyama , 2011)
The Prime Minister said he had set up an Emergency Disaster Response Center. He had also said the Japanese military would help in the relief effort, and the people of Japan should remain calm.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon made a statement saying the U.N. stands ready to help as well. Japan is one of the world's best-prepared countries to deal with one of the world's worst earthquakes. As the tsunami spread, many turned to Japans poor neighbors, in hopes that maybe the tsunami would not hit them as well. The wave spread past Guam and Saipan without doing real damage and Hawaii sounded an early alarm for those on the coast to get to higher ground. Without the early response system many surrounding countries might not have been able to plan for what was coming their way. Even with all the aid that Japan is receiving they are still going to have to accept the fact that recovery from this type of devastation will take a considerate amount of time to fully recover from. Accepting as much help as they can will hopefully only help them recover faster. In the meantime, all they can do it keep their residents safe and hope the radiation does not continue to grow and become a bigger threat for them. (Magistad, 2011)
U.S Department of the Interior, U.S Geological Survey . (2011). Magnitude 9.0 - near east coast of honshu,japan Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0001xgp/#summary
Alabaster, J, Yamaguchi, M, Hosaka, T.A, & Kageyama , Y. (2011, March). Japan earthquake 2011:8.9 magnitude earthquake hits, 30 ft. tsunami triggered. Huffpost World, Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/11/japan-earthquake-tsunami_n_834380.html
Magistad, M.K (Writer). (2011). Begins slow earthquake recovery [Radio series episode]. In (Executive producer), Public Radio International. PRI/BBC.
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