Just how powerful was the March 11 earthquake that hit Japan?
US geological survey data said the magnitude 8.9 (Richter scale) temblor that hit the Northeastern coast of Japan had a power equivalent to 336 megaton of TNT.
If compared for instance to the atom bombs that were dropped in Nagasaki and Hiroshima 1946 during the end of World War II which had a “seismic energy “ of 474 metric tons of TNT each, the March 11 earthquake packed a whooping power that is more than a thousand fold in unleashed energy or more like at least several hundred atomic bombs .
It said the largest “thermonuclear bomb” ever tested only amounted to only 50 megatons as compared to the earthquake’s power of 336 megaton.
Although casualties are reported to be more than 1,000 (as of press time predicted to hit the 10,000 mark) , the number of deaths could have been worst were if not for the fact that Japan has the best and modern earthquake or disaster preparedness defense systems in the world. Because of this, most experts believe the number of fatalities could have been greater than say that of Haiti had Japan not well equipped to cope with such disaster.
Regularly, the nation conducts drills and training. Japan’s building codes are also built around earthquake proof specifications and are the most strict and rigid in the world..
As a matter of fact, Japan gets a daily dose of earthquakes throughout the year. This is because it lies on the path of the so-called “Pacific ring of fire “ a horseshoe-shaped area stretching 40,000 kilometers that is a known earthquake and volcanic zone that include countries like the New Zealand, The Philippines ,Indonesia in Asia and as far as California and British Columbia in North America.
This ring of fire is where 90 percent of the world’s earthquake occur the most recent of which was in New Zealand.
With a magnitude of 8.9 (its now officially pegged at 9.0 by Japanese scientists and officials), most buildings and other structures would be easily destroyed but not in the case of Japan, where all buildings are earthquake proof with the so-called technologically advanced “base isolation “ technique that uses rubber rollers and ball bearings and other materials to make the buildings glide or “sway “ during a tremor rather than vibrate violently. It’s also called as “a floating foundation “ and this is exactly the reason why a lot of human lives were saved during the ferocious earthquake.
Most of the dead or fatalities perished during the massive “tsunami “, some of which consisted of as high as a 10 meter wall of onrushing water from the sea that had the speed of more than 500 kilometers per hour or like a jet plane.
As gleaned from the reports of damages (estimated at $1 Billion)everything that was on the path of the tsunami, cars, even big ships, whole villages were thrashed like small toys..
A report by Kenneth Kidd to the Toronto star said “ scientists …have long been expecting a big earthquake to strike southwest of Tokyo, where the Philippine tectonic plate jostles with the Eurasian plate and the nearby Pacific plate “
These Tectonic plates are huge plates of rocks that make up the foundation of the earth’s crusts and is said to be 100 kilometer thick. These plates , when in motion or pushes against one another, help shape continents and causes movements called earthquakes.
In predicting the Japan earthquake, the report also quoted that it even gave a name : the Tokai earthquake.
The name was perhaps given to refer to the region of Japan that is located in the center of the archipelago.
However, when it happened March 11, the big trembler “came instead 370 kilometers Northeast of Tokyo where the Pacific plate meets the North American plate “ .
But is the March 11 disaster really the big one ? Or will it be somewhere else in the San Andreas Fault lines near San Francisco or Los Angeles, will it be in British Columbia or perhaps, the Philippines ? God forbid…
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FACTS AND FIGURES: There are some 305,942 Filipinos living in Japan
Either as OFWs , some living as permanent residents or those married to Japanese .
Of these numbers, 4,500 are located in the earthquake zone areas of Miyagi, Fukushima (where the nuclear reactor explosion occurred ),Iwate and Aomori.
In total they remit an estimated $1 Billion annually to the Philippines .
In August 16, 1976, the Moro Gulf earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed at least 8,000 people in the city of Pagadian, in Mindanao.