Tsunami Event

Date Tsunami Cause Tsunami Source Location Tsunami Parameters
Max
Water
Height		 Num. of
Runups		 Deposits Magnitude Tsu
Int		 Warn Status
Year Mo Dy Hr Mn Sec Val Code Country Name Latitude Longitude Abe Iida
2011 3 11 5 46 24.1 4 1 JAPAN HONSHU ISLAND 38.297 142.373 38.90 5776 1
tsevent
Tsunami Effects Total Effects (Tsunami and Source)
Deaths Missing Injuries Damage Houses Destroyed Houses Damaged Deaths Missing Injuries Damage Houses Destroyed Houses Damaged
Num De Num De Num De $Mill De Num De Num De Num De Num De Num De $Mill De Num De Num De
15854 4 3203 4 5950 4 210000 4 121656 4 197536 4 15854 4 3203 4 5950 4 210000 4 121656 4 197536 4
Tsunami Comments

Comments for the Tsunami Event

Display listing of nearby tsunami events

The March 11, 2011 earthquake near the east coast of Honshu, Japan, generated a devastating tsunami that was observed all over the Pacific and caused tremendous devastation locally. The highest wave from the tsunami was 38.9 meters in the Iwate Prefecture reported by 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami Joint Survey Group. Tide gauge recordings in Japan range from 1 to 7 meters. 2.5 m waves were observed by eyewitnesses in the Kuril Islands, Russia. Two meter waves were observed at tide gauges in South America, Hawaii, and the west coast of the United States. The highest wave that has ever been recorded by an ocean-bottom sensor was a 1.78 meter wave recorded by DART® station 21418 located 450 nautical miles northeast of Tokyo. DART data for this event is made available here:http://ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/dart/honshu_dart.html.

The IOC/UNESCO reports that as of 30 September 2011, there are 15749 deaths and 3962 missing in Japan.

20319 deaths, 405719 affected, $210 billion damage. (reference #1250)

15,854 deaths and 3,203 missing according to Damage Situation and Police Countermeasures associated with 2011 Tohoku district - off the Pacific Ocean Earthquake, March 8, 2012, National Police Agency of Japan, Emergency Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters. Retrieved from http://www.npa.go.jp/archive/keibi/biki/higaijokyo_e.pdf

Japan’s government says the total cost of the damage caused by the tsunami could reach 25 trillion yen – or ~$300 billion. (reference #9502)

According to the Jiji Press’s report as of April 19th, the National Policy Agency issued the breakout of the death (13,135 confirmed by autopsy) separated by age, in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures, the most affected areas by the Great East Japan Earthquake. The report shows that death of the aged 60 or elder consists of more than 65.2 percent of total death toll, while number of children and youth under 19 consist 6.5 percent. It also reported 5,971 are male, and 7,036 are female. 2,143 (92.4 percent) were drowned to death, and, 578 were crushed to death, 148 were burnt to death. 83.2 percent of the bodies were identified until now. (reference #9445)

The tsunami that struck north-east Japan in March rose to a maximum height of 132.5ft, according to researchers... The study by 150 experts from 48 research organisations across the country determined that the wave that roared out of the Pacific on March 11 was the largest to ever hit Japan when it struck the Omoeaneyoshi district of Miyako City, in Iwate Prefecture. The experts collected data from 5,400 locations the length of the east coast of Japan after the magnitude 9.0 undersea earthquake. The survey used marks left on buildings and trees that rise up the sides of the valley where the town is located to reach a conclusion on the scale of the disaster. (reference # 9476)

Economic losses caused by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and the resulting tsunami in Japan came to $210 billion, making it the costliest natural catastrophe of all time. (reference #9677)

References for a Tsunami event ID

References for the Tsunami Event

ID Author Year Citation
1250 Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) 2001 EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, link
9310 NOAA/Pacific Tsunami Warning Center 2011 Amplitudes for the March 11, 2011 Japan tsunami. Obtained from Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) email to the Tsunami Bulletin Board
9311 NOAA West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center 2011 Amplitudes for the March 11, 2011 Japan tsunami. Obtained from West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WC/ATWC) email to the Tsunami Bulletin Board.
9312 Sakhalin Tsunami Warning Center 2011 Amplitudes for the March 11, 2011 Japan tsunami. Obtained from Sakhalin Tsunami Warning Center email to the Tsunami Bulletin Board.
9317 IOC-UNESCO 2011 IOC/UNESCO Bulletins Nos. 1-28. Casualties for the Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
9386 Mimura, Nobuo, Kazuya Yasuhara, Seiki Kawagoe, Hiromune Yokoki and So Kazama 2011 Damage from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami - A quick report. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. DOI:10.1007/s11027-011-9297-7
9396 Rajendran, Kusala, Vanessa Andrade, N. Thulasiraman, and C.P. Rajendran 2011 The 11 March 2011 Tohoku (Sendai), Japan earthquake. Current Science, vol. 100, no. 7, p. 966-969. DOI:10.1130/G31707.1
9421 Jonathan, M.P., P.D. Roy, J.L. Sánchez-Zavala, S. Srinivasalu, M.C. Macías-Romo and C. Lakshumanan 2011 Field survey report on the 11th March 2011 tsunami in Pacific coast of Mexico. Natural Hazards, vol. 58, no. 3. p. 859-864. DOI:10.1007/s11069-011-9871-z
9438 Maeda, Takuto, Takashi Furumura, Shin'ichi Sakai, and Masanao Shinohara 2011 Significant tsunami observed at the ocean-bottom pressure gauges at 2011 Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake. Earth Planets Space. DOI:10.5047/eps.2011.06.005
9445 SEEDS Asia 2011 The Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (GLIDE: EQ-2011-000028-JPN) 2011.04.28. In depth damage report by affected cities. Retrieved from link
9476 The Telegraph 2011 By Julian Ryall in Tokyo 12:42PM BST 18 Jul 2011. Japanese tsunami stood at 132.5ft. Retrieved from link
9502 Henry Ridgwell, Voice of America News 2011 Japan Tsunami Damage Cost Could Top $300 Billion. March 25, 2011. link
9594 Mori, Nobuhito, Tomoyuki Takahashi, Tomohiro Yasuda, and Hideaki Yanagisawa 2011 Survey of 2011 Tohoku earthquake tsunami inundation and run‐up. Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 38, L00G14. DOI:10.1029/2011GL049210
9608 National Police Agency of Japan 2011 Damage Situation and Police Countermeasures associated with 2011 Tohoku district - off the Pacific Ocean Earthquake, September 30, 2011, National Police Agency of Japan, Emergency Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters. Retrieved from link
9677 Associated Press 2011 2011 was costliest year in world disasters. Retrieved Jan 5, 2011 from link
10163 Suppasri, Anawat, Erick Mas, Ingrid Charvet, Rashmin Gunasekera, Kentaro Imai, Yo Fukutani, Yoshi Abe, Fumihiko Imamura 2012 Building damage characteristics based on surveyed data and fragility curves of the 2011 Great East Japan tsunami. Natural Hazards. DOI:10.1007/s11069-012-0487-8
10362 Shevchenko, G. V., T. N. Ivelskaya 2012 The Tohoku tsunami of 11 march 2011 as Recorded on the Russian Far East. Science of Tsunami Hazards, the International Journal of the Tsunami Society, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, vol 31, no. 4k p. 268-282.