Tohoku Earthquake Report

Magnitude 9 Tohoku Earthquake Report

available to AEG members | August 17, 2011

A new report on the devastating magnitude 9 Tohoku-Oki earthquake of March 11, 2011, was published August 16 by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. This 23-page report was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation so it is publically available to AEG members and interested citizens.

This great Japanese earthquake caused about 22,600 deaths, about $210 billion in damage, with 107,000 collapsed buildings and 111,000 partially collapsed buildings.

The 23-page report (7 MB pdf) by an EERI reconnaissance team on the Societal Dimensions of the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan (Tohoku) Earthquake and Tsunami is available online HERE.

It covers the topics of emergency management, casualties, emergency shelter and housing, economic impacts, debris management, recovery planning, and research questions for each topic.

There will be three subsequent EERI reports on the impacts of the Japan earthquake by teams focusing on engineering geology, seismology, geotechnical aspects, buildings, and the tsunami. These will be posted on the EERI website later in August and in September 2011, so AEG members should check in with our sister society website.

Japan has similar geologic terrain to the Western USA, contains 4 times the population of California, and is 90% mountainous. The United States has close economic and social ties to Japan, so this report will be of particular interest to AEG members in the western United States. About 16,000 Americans, 15 U.S. Navy ships, and 140 American aircraft were directly involved in the aftermath of this Magnitude 9 earthquake.