The dual disaster of an earthquake and tsunami is not a new phenomenon to the 21st century - and is certainly not new to Japan. Because I love history, I thought I'd find out a bit more about some previous twin threat turmoil.
Way back on August 31, 1896, Japan was hit by an earthquake and a tsunami on the east coast, and by a typhoon (that's also known as a hurricane) along its southern coast. Earthquake, tsunami, and typhoon, oh my! Thank goodness it wasn't all in the same locale - but holy crap! Mother Nature must really have been ticked off that day.
If you take a look at the image above... it's a NY Times file story talking about that event. The report was printed on September 3, 1896... but it's about the August 31, 1896 event. News traveled slowly then. Other data notes this earthquake to be at 8.4 Magnitude, with its epicenter at 39.5N, 140.6E..
But this isn't even the big one of the year for Japan. A couple of months earlier on June 15, 1896, the Meiji-Sanriku earthquake - a 7.2 Magnitude shaker - generated a huge tsunami that destroyed about 9,000 homes, killing 22,066 people officially.
(See photo below on the right) Apparently the quake was centered far out in the ocean... and although the people in Japan felt the shaking, because they were so far away from the epicenter, it didn't feel like a big one.
And then came the tsunami.
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| Houses in the background after the June 15, 1896 tsunami. |
A second huge wave hit a few minutes later. The high level of the tsunami is blamed on a high tide occurring at that time. To me, however, the height of the wave seems a bit fantastic considering the March 11, 2011 wave was only 10 metres (30 feet) - a number that may need to be adjusted - read on. Still, a wave of that height is indeed possible.
The majority of the deaths were in Miyagi-ken and Iwate-ken, but also in Aomori-ken and Hokkaido-ken.
According to reports, local fishing boats were still out in the deep waters fishing and did not notice the tsunami generate - and were shocked when they returned home the next morning to see the devastation and death floating in the water.
Then there's September 1, 1923 at around 11:58AM when a 7.9 Magnitude earthquake shook Tokyo and Yokohama. At least 50 cities were affected by the calamity. At the time considered the worst disaster to hit Japan, the Great Kanto Earthquake was followed a few minutes later by a 12.2 metre (40-foot) high tsunami that smashed into Tokyo - with several large waves sweeping away thousands of people. And then the fires started. All told, some 140,000 people died... a number made worse by 44,000 people who sought safety near Sumida-gawa (Sumida River) in Tokyo who were burned by a pillar of fire called the 'dragon twist' - also known as the fire tornado. In this event, it was described as a 300-metre (984-foot) wide cyclone of smoke and fire. Visit HERE for a full description.
March 3, 1933, 2:31AM: An 8.1 Magnitude earthquake along the coast of Sanriku and at about 290 kilometres (180 miles) east Kamaishi-shi (Kamaishi City), Iwate-ken (Iwate Prefecture) - very close to the same locale as the June 13, 1896 Meiji-Sanriku earthquake. While the earthquake did little damage to people or buildings, the ensuing tsunami swept over the northeastern Honshu area, destroying Sanriku-shi (city of Sanriku). More than 5,000 homes and 3,068 people died from the tsunami. Especially hard hit was the coastal village of Taro (now a part of Miyako-shi) in Iwate-ken, which lost 42 per cent of its population and 98 per cent of its buildings. Taro is now protected by an enormous tsunami wall, currently 10 metres in height and over two kilometers long. The original wall was constructed in 1958 and saved Taro from destruction of the 1960 Chilean tsunami (see below). But it was not able to protect it from the March 11, 2011 earthquake-tsunami which was higher than the wall... meaning previous reports of it being a 10-metre (30-foot) high wave may need to be adjusted to the claimed evidence of 12-15 metres (39.4- to 49.2-feet) in height.
Want another example of double jeopardy the hard way? On December 21, 1946, another earthquake-tsunami twin killer saw 946 dead, 1,036 injured, 96 missing and 39,201 houses and buildings damaged.
At about 4:20AM, the 8.4 Magnitude earthquake originated about 160 kilometres (100 miles) off the coast of Wakayama-ken (Wakayama Prefecture), Japan. The area severely shaken was more than 640 kilometres (400 miles) long and 240 kilometres (150 miles) wide, and railway lines were blocked throughout Shikoku. Several villages, including Singu, were severely damaged by flame when household fires were scattered about the wooden buildings. The undersea quake set off a powerful 6.1 metre (20 foot) high tsunami that devastated the Honshu area of Japan, obliterating buildings leaving 500,000 people homeless and over 2,000 dead.
May 26, 1983: A 7.7 Magnitude earthquake on Honshu and subsequent tidal wave/tsunami killed 104 people.
July 12, 1993: Tremors of up to 7.7 Magnitude, followed by a tsunami, strike parts of Hokkaido-ken (Hokkaido Prefecture) and the holiday island of Okushiri. Upwards of 250 people are killed.
And here's one more: On May 24, 1960... the strongest recorded earthquake - 9.5 Magnitude - occurred two days earlier in the mountains of Chile - it hit the Pacific coast of Japan with tsunami waves (yes - plural) five-metres high (15 feet) - coming at Japan for hours and hours. It killed 122 Japanese people and washed away 432 houses. It wasn't even on the same continent! It's 8,000 kilometres away and took just over one day to arrive!
Files compiled by Andrew Joseph
PS: Want to know how strong some of these quakes are? Consider that the 1945 atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima, Japan in 1945 had the equivalent energy of a 5.7 magnitude earthquake.
PPS: It seems obvious that there were other incidences of earthquakes spawning tsunami in Japan prior to 1896... I just think this is enough information for now. I'm tired. I have to write this stuff up, you know!
