Japan earthquake and tsunami: A year on
Thursday 01 March 2012
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Next week, on 11 March, it will be exactly a year since one the most powerful earthquakes on record struck the north-east coast of Japan, triggering a massive tsunami wave up to 40 metres in height.
The 9.0 magnitude quake hit just before 3pm local time at a relatively shallow party of the Pacific Ocean, its epicentre just of the Oshika Peninsula of Tohoku. Sendai was the nearest major city to the earthquake and was among the worst affected areas. The northern Pacific coastline of Japan was devastated by the tsunami, which travelled at a rate of 500mph (800km/h), sending ships crashing into the shore, flattening buildings, sweeping away cars, trees and people.
The Japanese National Police Agency confirmed 15,850 deaths and thousands injured and missing. A ship carrying 100 people was swept away, four trains disappeared into the sea and an estimated 125,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Fires ripped across the country. A dam burst in Fukushima prefecture, submerging homes and flooding the nuclear power plant, causing radioactive material to leak. The following day an explosion triggered fears of a meltdown and it took months for the plant to be made safe.
It was a triple disaster: earthquake, tsunami and nuclear.
Twelve months on, independent.co.uk has put together a large picture gallery charting the events of March 2011 as they unfolded.
Click here or on "View Gallery" to launch
- 1 Mark Zuckerberg saved $111m by selling Facebook shares before stock slumped
- 2 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 3 News in pictures
- 4 Tory chief Warsi failed to declare rent income from flat
- 5 In pictures: The bewildering face of China
- 6 Osborne to face questions over links to Murdoch
- 7 Is Ridley Scott the most macho man in movies?
- 8 Postgraduate students are being used as 'slave labour'
- 9 Günter Grass attacks Merkel for Athens policy
- 10 Exclusive dispatch: Assad blamed for massacre of the innocents
- 1 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 2 Fat? Really? Olympic hope laughs off official’s jibe – but others aren’t amused
- 3 Leading article: Ten questions for Jeremy Hunt
- 4 Is Ridley Scott the most macho man in movies?
- 5 'Hello mum, this is going to be hard for you to read ...'
- 6 Postgraduate students are being used as 'slave labour'
- 7 African monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV
- 8 Exclusive dispatch: Assad blamed for massacre of the innocents
- 9 Coke reveals its secret: It may need to carry a cancer warning
- 10 French in uproar over oral sex anti-smoking posters
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