Honshu Japan’s Big Plate
January 8, 2012
By: Nick McCartney
The Plate Tectonics Activity
Honshu, Japan On March 11, 2011 Honshu Japan had an Earthquake that caused a tsunami. It was one of Japan’s worst disasters in history! The hypocenter was 19.9 miles below the surface. The epicenter was on the north and pacific plates and was the strongest in at least 130 years. Much of the plate tectonic activity is caused by the location because Japan lies on four tectonic plates.
What Activity? This monster magnitude 9.0 earthquake led into a massive tsunami that started a nuclear meltdown! The tsunami caused by the quake had consisted of at least 33 foot high waves. This caused saltwater to flood cities and farms, destroying crops, work places, and more. The waves caused buildings, vehicles, and other debris to be scattered all over Honshu, Japan.
Significant quakes in Japanese History Date
Inside Honshu
Magnitude
November 29, 684
8.4
July 13, 869
8.6
August 3, 1361
8.25-8.5
December 2, 1611
8.1
October 28, 1707
8.6
December 23, 1854
8.4
March 11, 2011
9.0 !!!!!!!
Geological History
Economics
Japan has a very active past of plate tectonics and natural disasters that happen fairly frequently. The area that causes this is called the Ring of Fire which is very active. The plate tectonic activity will remain unpredictable and might just come with an impact as strong as the most recent and televised large quake in Japan!
Over 12 million people were affected by this tragedy and cost Japan 100 Billion US dollars!!! The everyday economy was also affected, many factories were stopped and rebuilding all the destroyed homes cost Japan nearly 122 billion dollars!
Daily life of Honshu
Are they Prepared?
This is a map of Honshu, Japan and is 810mi from the capital of Japan, Tokyo.
In Honshu you drive on the left side of the road with a steering wheel on the right Origami is an ancient art in Honshu In Japanese tradition a house raised off the ground means that shoes must be removed upon entering Japanese shop daily for meat, this is because they do not use preservatives All funerals and weddings are considered community events and therefore, people do not get invited, they just show up!
Japan is and has been extremely well prepared for earth quakes. The only reason the effect was so strong is because they got hit with one of the biggest earth quakes in history! They have also set up even better and more modern protection. Japan has many ways to prevent a lot of damage/ casualties, from simple drills for safety to having special foundations for important buildings that let the building roll back and forth when being shaken.