Residents feared returning home because of aftershocks that lasted several days (74 of which were strong enough to be felt). Several large earthquakes struck south of the Japanese island of Honshu on Sept. 5 and the two days following. 6.3 near the west coast of Honshu, Japan. (The early estimate of magnitude 8.9 was later revised upward.) [6], Most of the largest earthquakes in Japan are caused by subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate or Pacific Plate, with mechanisms that involve either energy released within the subducting plate or the accumulation and sudden release of stress in the overlying plate. Japan Earthquake vs 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami vs Haiti Earthquake. [7], The Great Hanshin earthquake belonged to a third type, called an "inland shallow earthquake". The Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, under construction near the earthquake's epicenter, was undamaged but was reportedly lengthened by a full meter due to horizontal displacement along the activated tectonic fault. The Ground Self-Defense Forces were given automatic authority to respond to earthquakes over a certain magnitude, which allowed them to deploy to the Niigata region within minutes. The magnitude 9.1 quake ruptured a 900-mile stretch of fault line where the Indian and Australian tectonic plates meet. Banda Aceh was the only major city that experienced earthquake-shaking damage. Shaking Damage. [17] Even though less than half the port facilities had been rebuilt by that stage, within a year import volumes through the port had recovered fully and export volumes were nearly back to where they would have been without the disaster. 6.4 South Sandwich Islands region. The organized crime Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza syndicate was actively involved in the relief effort from the beginning, distributing substantial amounts of food and supplies to needy victims. [24] To keep the light rail system running even though it had quite severely damaged sections, shuttle buses were commissioned to transfer patrons to stations around damaged sections. 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. To help speed the recovery effort, the government closed most of the Hanshin Expressway network to private vehicles from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm daily and limited traffic to buses, taxis and other designated vehicles. The tsunami is generated between the island of Sumatra and the Sunda Trench. 2004-10-23 09:34:04 UTC 10.0 km. Earthquakes of these types are especially frequent in the coastal regions of northeastern Japan. Three bridges on the less heavily used Route 2 were damaged, but the highway was reopened well ahead of Route 3 and served as one of the main intercity road links for a time. April 12, 2011 - Japan’s nuclear agency raises the Fukushima Daiichi crisis from Level 5 to a … People were forced to wait in corridors due to the overcrowding and lack of space. "QUAKE IN JAPAN: GANGSTERS; Gang in Kobe Organizes Aid for People In Quake" – via NYTimes.com. The quake triggered approximately 300 fires,[3] which raged over large portions of the city. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and had a maximum intensity of 7 on the JMA Seismic Intensity Scale (X on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale). An on-the spot investigation by JMA concluded that tremors by this earthquake were at seismic intensity of Level 7 in particular areas in northern Awaji Island (now Awaji City) and in the cities of Kobe, Ashiya, Nishinomiya and Takarazuka. These tsunamis have cost thousand of lives of people in their areas covered and thousands are also injured. Although the initial belief was construction had been negligent, it was later shown that most of the collapsed structures were constructed properly according to the building codes in force in the 1960s. [22] Aid provided by the Yamaguchi-gumi was particularly crucial in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, due to the failure of the Japanese government to organize effective relief to the area initially.[23]. 3. The railways rebounded quickly after the quake, reaching 80% operability in one month. An aerial view of tsunami and earthquake damage off the coast of Northern Japan as seen from a U.S. Navy helicopter on March 12, 2011. Approximately 1.2 million volunteers were involved in relief efforts during the first three months following the earthquake. The steel-reinforcement specifications in the 1960s regulations had already been discovered to be inadequate and revised several times, the latest revision being in 1981, which proved effective but only applied to new structures. Some people had to be operated on in waiting rooms and corridors. 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. 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). A total of 68 children under the age of 18 were orphaned, while 332 children lost one parent.[15]. NIIGATA – Residents across Niigata Prefecture attended events on Thursday to remember the 68 people killed in the 2004 Niigata-Chuetsu earthquake. Structures irreparably damaged by the quake included nearly 400,000 buildings,[3][13] numerous elevated road and rail bridges, and 120 of the 150 quays in the port of Kobe. Mark Leon Goldberg. Numerous homes and establishments have also been destroyed. [19], In response to the widespread damage to transportation infrastructure, and the resulting effect on emergency response times in the disaster area, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport began designating special disaster prevention routes and reinforcing the roads and surrounding buildings so as to keep them as intact as possible in the event of another earthquake. Strong to violent shaking in Aceh Province reportedly lasted five to six minutes. Retrieved January 24, 2021. 2. The 2004 Tsunami and 2011 Tsunami are two of the most deadly tsunami that ever occurred in the history of mankind. Up to 6,434 people lost their lives; about 4,600 of them were from Kobe. Tsunami waves smashed the coast, causing massive damage and flooding. This was Japan's worst earthquake in the 20th century after the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923, which claimed more than 105,000 lives. The 26 December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake was the largest seismic event on Earth in more than 40 years, and it produced the most devastating tsunami in recorded history ().Like other comparably sized great earthquakes—such as the 1952 Kamchatka, the 1957 Andreanof Islands in the Aleutians, the 1960 Southern Chile, and the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska, earthquakes… 2004-10-15 04:08:50 UTC 94.0 km. The earthquake that hit Japan today was much, much stronger than the January 12 2010 earthquake that flattened much of Haiti. A street leading from the Daimaru store in Motomachi to Higashi Yuenchi Park (next to Kobe city hall) is decorated with arches of multicoloured lights that were donated by the Italian government. It spread toward the southwest along the Nojima Fault on Awaji and toward the northeast along the Suma and Suwayama faults, which run through the center of Kobe. Newer homes have reinforced walls and lighter roofs to avoid this, but are more susceptible to typhoons. That record goes to the 2004 Banda Aceh earthquake and tsunami in Sumatra, a magnitude-9.1, which killed more than 230,000 people. High rise buildings that were built after the 1981 building code suffered little. Daikai Station on the Kobe Rapid Railway line collapsed, bringing down part of National Route 28 above it. [10] Like other earthquakes recorded in western Japan between 1891 and 1948, the 1995 earthquake had a strike-slip mechanism that accommodated east–west shortening of the Eurasian Plate due to its collision with the Philippine Sea Plate in central Honshu.[11]. The Kobe Luminarie is an event held for approximately two weeks every December. The massive 9.1 magnitude quake even shook buildings … 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 2004 quake ruptured a 900-mile stretch along the Indian and Australian plates 31 miles below the ocean floor. Hanshin refers to the region between Osaka and Kobe. Trains continued to operate with speed restrictions until July 21, 1995. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Japan remembers more than 6,400 victims of Kobe earthquake after 22 years", "A fault model of the 1995 Kobe earthquake derived from the GPS data on the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and other datasets", Hunt for tsunami orphans hampered, unprecedented, "The Great Hanshin Earthquake: Lessons for Niigata", "Restoration from the earthquake disaster – City planning based on the lessons learned from the disaster", "Earthquake Readiness: From Underground Stores to Satellite Monitoring", Great Hanshin Earthquake and the destruction of the infrastructure, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, The Medical and Public Health Response to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in Japan: A Case Study in Disaster Planning, Are People Insured Against Natural Disasters? Amongst the commemorative events held on the anniversary of the earthquake, large "1.17" digits are illuminated in Higashi Yuenchi Park in the early hours of January 17 each year. In Japan, the disaster by this earthquake is officially called The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster (阪神・淡路大震災, Hanshin-Awaji Daishinsai), which is often shortened to The Great Hanshin Earthquake Disaster (阪神大震災, Hanshin Daishinsai). A powerful undersea earthquake that struck off the coast of Sumatra island, Indonesia, set off the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, also known as the Christmas or Boxing Day tsunami, on Sunday morning, Dec. 26, 2004. When the wood supports gave way, the roof crushed the unreinforced walls and floors in a pancake collapse. During this time the south side of the Nojima Fault moved 1.5 meters to the right and 1.2 meters downwards. Discussions of Japan's "Lost Decade" tend towards purely economic analysis, and neglect the impact of the earthquake on the Japanese economy which at the time was already suffering from recession. 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 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. 1. Service resumed across the entire line on February 16, 1995, with full service resuming a month later after repairs were completed. 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). The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant cooling system was damaged, raising fears of a meltdown. Following the 23 October 2004 Niigata Ken Chuetsu, Japan, Mw 6.6 earthquake, LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology was used to create ultra high-resolution three-dimensional digital terrain models of the earthquake damage. [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. CNN's Rosemary Church talks to Matt Alt, who experienced the earthquake in Japan. Aftershocks continued, many exceeding magnitude-7.0. Most people in Japan believed those structures to be relatively safe from earthquake damage because of the steel-reinforced concrete design. Over the next seven hours, a tsunami—a series of immense ocean waves—triggered by the quake reached out across the Indian Ocean, devastating coastal areas as far away as East Africa. We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. 2004-10-26 22:53:07 UTC 10.0 km. Half of the elevated expressway's piers sustained some damage. The magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck at 2:46 pm. Researchers had predicted that a large earthquake would have hit southern California that day, but the only earthquake of note was a magnitude-2.5 temblor at the south end of the Salton Sea in the San Andreas Fault zone. Sterngold, James (January 22, 1995). [17], The sheer size of the earthquake caused a major decline in Japanese stock markets, with the Nikkei 225 index plunging by 1,025 points on the day following the quake. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami (also known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake) occurred at 07:58:53 in local time on 26 December, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia.It was an undersea megathrust earthquake that registered a magnitude of 9.1–9.3 M w, reaching a … 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. On December 26, 2004, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.1 struck the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Those that were not constructed to these standards suffered serious structural damage. Wooden supports collapsed inside supposedly solid concrete pilings under the tracks of the Shinkansen high-speed rail line, causing the entire line to shut down. Control over fire response was likewise handed over from local fire departments to a central command base in Tokyo and Kyoto. The year 1995 is often regarded as a turning point in the emergence of volunteerism as a major form of civic engagement. Weird & Wacky, Copyright © 2021 HowStuffWorks, a division of InfoSpace Holdings, LLC, a System1 Company. The great M 9.1 earthquake of December 26, 2004, which produced a devastating tsunami, ruptured much of the boundary between Myanmar and Simeulue Island offshore Banda Aceh. 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]. 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. Ten spans of the Kobe Route elevated expressway were knocked over in three locations across Kobe and Nishinomiya, blocking a link that carried 40% of Osaka-Kobe road traffic. The Meishin Expressway was only lightly damaged, but was closed during the day until February 17, 1995 so that emergency vehicles could easily access the hardest-hit areas to the west. The epicenter of the earthquake was about 250 kilometers off the west coast of Aceh Province. There were four foreshocks, beginning with the largest (Mj 3.7) at 18:28 on the previous day. The ratio of persons injured to persons missing or dead for the 2011 Japan disaster (0.31: 5,994 to 19,371) was much lower than for the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 in Thailand (1.01; 8,457 to 8,393) and for the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995 in Japan (6.80; 43,792 to 6,437). Information about the device's operating system, Information about other identifiers assigned to the device, The IP address from which the device accesses a client's website or mobile application, Information about the user's activity on that device, including web pages and mobile apps visited or used, Information about the geographic location of the device when it accesses a website or mobile application. 2004-10-23 08:56:00 UTC 16.0 km. [8] Earthquakes of this type occur along active faults. The unexpected disaster was neither the largest nor the deadliest earthquake and tsunami to strike this century. The Great Hanshin earthquake began north of the island of Awaji, which lies just south of Kobe. Immediately to the south of the great 2004 earthquake, the M 8.6 Nias Island earthquake of March 28, 2005 ruptured a 400-km section between Simeulue and the Batu Islands. 6.7 Taiwan region. But Japan's one-two punch proved especially devastating for the earthquake-savvy country, because few scientists had predicted the country would experience such a large earthquake and tsunami.Japan's scientists had forecast … 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. The Tohoku earthquake caused a tsunami. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website. The majority of deaths (over 4,000) occurred in cities and suburbs in Hyōgo Prefecture. No one is sure exactly what time the earthquake occured due … [4] The tremors lasted for approximately 20 seconds. This is the deadliest tsunami since the 2004 magnitude 9.1 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami caused nearly 230,000 deaths and $10 billion in damage. On December 26, 2004, at 7:59 am local time, an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. 4. Some locations … Damage was widespread and severe. By: Mark Leon Goldberg on March 11, 2011 . Outside Japan the earthquake is commonly known as the Kobe earthquake. The 2004 tsunami or formally known as “2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami” occurred on December 26, 2004 with Sumatra, Indonesia as the center of the earthquake. The March 11, magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan may have shortened the length of each Earth day and shifted its axis. Japan occured at 2h46 off the coast of Japan on March 11 in 2011 The Indian Ocean. Artificial islands, such as the modern Rokkō Island and especially Port Island in Kobe, suffered severe subsidence due to liquefaction. Retailers such as Daiei and 7-Eleven used their existing supply networks to provide necessities in affected areas, while NTT and Motorola provided free telephone service for victims. Two reconnaissance teams traveled with tripod-mounted LIDAR that allowed for the rapid collection of post-earthquake failure geometries of … Most railways in the region were damaged. "7-2(2)The 1995 Southern Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake", CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2021 (. 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 Mj 7.3 earthquake struck at 05:46 JST on the morning of January 17, 1995. Seven minutes later a stretch of the Indonesian subduction zone 1200 kilometers long had … The Kobe Municipal Subway resumed operation the day after the earthquake with limited service between Seishin-Chuo and Itayado stations (along with the Hokushin Kyuko Electric Railway between Tanigami and Shin-Kobe). 2004 and 2011 Tsunamis. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. EERI’s Learning from Earthquakes Program, under National Science Foundation grant #CMS-0347055. [citation needed], Despite this devastation in a big production center, the local economy recovered very quickly. [25], 1995 earthquake centered near Kobe, Awaji Prefecture, Japan. March 11, 2011. A tsunami—Japanese for “harbor wave”—is a series of powerful waves caused by the displacementof a large body of water. But don't worry—you won't notice the difference. Footage of the devastation from an 8.9. magnitude earthquake and tsunami which struck Japan Friday. Forty people were killed, almost 3,000 were injured, and numerous Evidence from the Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) Earthquake in 1995, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Hanshin_earthquake&oldid=1002665177, CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2021, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from February 2015, All articles needing additional references, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Internal link templates linking to redirects, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 25 January 2021, at 14:46. It wasn't until July 29 that all four lanes were opened to traffic along one section. About 22% of the offices in Kobe's central business district were rendered unusable, and over half of the houses in that area were deemed unfit for occupancy. The entire route was not reopened until September 30, 1996. It lasted for 20 seconds. This is the fourth largest earthquake in the world and the largest in Japan since instrumental recordings began in 1900. [5] Among major cities, Kobe, with its population of 1.5 million, was the closest to the epicenter and hit by the strongest tremors. The fact that volunteers from all over Japan converged on Kobe to help victims of the quake was an important event in the history of volunteerism in Japan. Water breaking through the surface and flooding those islands was initially believed to have seeped in from the sea, but in fact rose from the liquefied remains of once-solid soils used to construct the islands. Tsunami wavefield for the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake 1 hour after generation, view to the east. Most of the older traditional houses had heavy tiled roofs which weighed around two tons, intended to resist the frequent typhoons plaguing Kobe, but they were only supported by a light wooden frame. The epicentre was located some 80 miles (130 km) east of the city of Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, and the focus occurred at a depth of 18.6 miles (about 30 km) below the floor of the western Pacific Ocean. This financial damage was the immediate cause for the collapse of Barings Bank due to the actions of Nick Leeson, who had speculated vast amounts of money on Japanese and Singaporean derivatives. A magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck off Japan’s northeastern coast. 6.6 near the west coast of Honshu, Japan. [17] Less than 15 months after the earthquake, in March 1996, manufacturing activity in greater Kobe was at 98% of its projected pre-quake level.[17]. The damage to highways and subways was the most graphic image of the earthquake, and images of the collapsed elevated Kobe Route of the Hanshin Expressway appeared on front pages of newspapers worldwide. [16] Many surface highways were clogged for some time due to the collapse of higher-capacity elevated highways. On Dec. 26, 2004, the world's most powerful earthquake in more than 40 years struck deep under the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Sumatra. [14] Disruptions of water, electricity and gas supplies were common. In the aftermath of the earthquake, only 30% of the Osaka-Kobe railway tracks were operational. “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. A magnitude 7.4 earthquake strikes Iwaki city on the coast of Fukushima on Tuesday. [18], The earthquake proved to be a major wake-up call for Japanese disaster prevention authorities. The newly-completed artificial island supporting Kansai International Airport was not significantly affected, due to being further from the epicenter, and because it was built to the latest standards. The quake was centered off the Pacific coast of Japan… The first 3 hours of tsunami propagation are shown. This animation shows a model of the tsunami generated by the December 26, 2004 earthquake. Even at lower magnitudes, they can be very destructive because they often occur near populated areas and because their hypocenters are located less than 20 km below the surface. In the scientific literature it is often called the 1995 Southern Hyōgo Prefecture Earthquake (平成7年(1995年)兵庫県南部地震, Heisei 7 nen (1995 nen) Hyōgo-ken Nanbu Jishin), the name chosen by the Japan Meteorological Agency in the week after the main shock. 7.0 near the coast of Nicaragua. Tsunami Research The national government changed its disaster response policies in the wake of the earthquake, and its response to the 2004 Chūetsu earthquake was significantly faster and more effective. An aerial view of tsunami and earthquake damage off the coast of Northern Japan as seen from a U.S. Navy helicopter on March 12, 2011. Introduction The Mw 6.6 earthquake that struck Niigata Prefecture on the evening of October 23, 2004, was the most significant earthquake to affect Japan since the 1995 Kobe earthquake. One in five of the buildings in the worst-hit areas were completely destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. 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