Japan Tsunami 2011- Analysis

A student analysis on the disaster.



Intro

Tsunami is a word originated from Japan meaning "Harbor wave" We all prolly heard and watch the horrific natural disaster that hit Japan earlier this week. A natural disaster caused by an earthquake and followed by a disastrous and destructive tsunami. Even though Japan is the most tsunami ready country in Asia i dont think they were ready enough for this one.

Damages

From looking at the damage that had been done by this combo i must say that i havent seen anything like this. This prolly the shittiest shit that happen to Japan since WW2 with the atomic bomb. Compared to other tsunami related disaster in recent year (Thailand, Indo, Sri Lanka...i think) this prolly is the worst one. The city of Minasanriku is prolly the most hard hit place of the tsunami. The aftermath is just unbelievable for this particular small town because the only buildings left standing are the hospital and 2-3 other building and the rest of the town are gone. See pic here.

Ring of Fire

Japan sits in a location where there are a lot of tectonic activity (areas with a lot of plate movement, earthquake, and volcanoes) Therefore earthquake is very common to Japan but the 8.9 magnitude is rare and only happen in a couple of years. However, once it happens the power is even greater as we saw in Japan. The thing is, when i was studying this stuff through my earth sci electives i learned a lot about quakes and stuff in many parts of the world including Japan. And back then i learned that a quake with a high magnitude would hit somewhere near Japan due to the movement of the plate tectonics. Many geologist also suggested that a high magnitude quake would also hit the west coast of North America due to the tectonic activity of the San Andreas Fault. There are not a lot of recent activity on the west coast but when it eventually occur the effect would prolly be similar to that of Japan or worse.

Why?

The earth's floor (the plates) are constantly moving and collide with a neighbouring plate. this movement causes stress and when the plate cant handle the stress it will snaps and create an earthquake. therefore, if the stress has been building up for a very long time then the force generated as it snaps is even greater thus, causing a high magnitude earthquake.

Conclusion

In conclusion, disaster like this really shows how powerless humans are in comparison to forces of nature that can easily wipe us out with a single giant wave. It also shows how small we are in eyes of God.