“For the 2004 tsunami, the loss of life far outweighed damage to infrastructure, whereas for the 2011 tsunami, there was significant damage to infrastructure in Japan.” Countries hardest hit by the 2004 tsunami included Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Somalia, Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Tanzania, Bangladesh and Kenya. 2004-10-26 22:53:07 UTC 10.0 km. In December 1995, the government declared January 17 a national "Disaster Prevention and Volunteerism Day", and the week from January 15 to 21 a national "Disaster Prevention and Volunteerism Week", to be commemorated with lectures, seminars, and other events designed to encourage voluntary disaster preparedness and relief efforts. The Great Hanshin earthquake (阪神・淡路大震災, Hanshin Awaji daishinsai), or Kobe earthquake, occurred on January 17, 1995 at 05:46:53 JST (January 16 at 20:46:53 UTC) in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, including the region known as Hanshin. Approximately 1.2 million volunteers were involved in relief efforts during the first three months following the earthquake. Japan occured at 2h46 off the coast of Japan on March 11 in 2011 The Indian Ocean. The first 3 hours of tsunami propagation are shown. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website. A magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck off Japan’s northeastern coast. Up to 6,434 people lost their lives; about 4,600 of them were from Kobe. The earthquake struck below the North Pacific Ocean, 130 kilometers (81 miles) east of Sendai, the largest city in the Tohoku region, a northern part of the islandof Honshu. [14] Disruptions of water, electricity and gas supplies were common. It wasn't until July 29 that all four lanes were opened to traffic along one section. Local hospitals struggled to keep up with demand for medical treatment, largely due to collapsed or obstructed "lifelines" (roads) that kept supplies and personnel from reaching the affected areas. The magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck at 2:46 pm. After the earthquake, seismic intensity observation in Japan was fully mechanized (from April 1996) and JMA seismic intensity Levels 5 and 6 were each divided into 2 levels (from October 1996). CNN's Rosemary Church talks to Matt Alt, who experienced the earthquake in Japan. By: Mark Leon Goldberg on March 11, 2011 . The Kobe Luminarie is an event held for approximately two weeks every December. It was the first time that an earthquake in Japan was officially measured at a seismic intensity (shindo in Japanese) of the highest Level 7 on the scale of Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). landslides t rigger ed by the 2004 niigata ken chuetsu, japan, earthquake s57 Exposed along the left lateral scar p of the block slide sho wn in Figures 13 and 14 is … The quake triggered approximately 300 fires,[3] which raged over large portions of the city. The Tohoku earthquake caused a tsunami. "7-2(2)The 1995 Southern Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake", CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2021 (. [9] Observations of deformations in these faults suggest that the area was subjected to east–west compression, which is consistent with previously known crustal movements. [4] The tremors lasted for approximately 20 seconds. One in five of the buildings in the worst-hit areas were completely destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. Japan installed rubber blocks under bridges to absorb the shock and rebuilt buildings further apart to prevent collateral damage. [12], Tremors were valued at seismic intensity of Levels 4 to 6 at observation points in Kansai, Chūgoku, Shikoku and Chūbu regions:[12]. That record goes to the 2004 Banda Aceh earthquake and tsunami in Sumatra, a magnitude-9.1, which killed more than 230,000 people. Weird & Wacky, Copyright © 2021 HowStuffWorks, a division of InfoSpace Holdings, LLC, a System1 Company. The earthquake that hit Japan today was much, much stronger than the January 12 2010 earthquake that flattened much of Haiti. The focus of the earthquake was located 17 km beneath its epicenter, on the northern end of Awaji Island, 20 km away from the center of the city of Kobe. The quake ravaged many of the facilities of what was then the world's sixth-largest container port and the source of nearly 40% of Kobe's industrial output. Some people had to be operated on in waiting rooms and corridors. A minute before 8 o'clock in the morning local time, a colossal earthquake began to shake the northern part of Sumatra and the Andaman Sea to its north. These tsunamis have cost thousand of lives of people in their areas covered and thousands are also injured. 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