What is a tsunami Newsround?

What is a tsunami Newsround?

The word tsunami comes from the Japanese word for ‘harbour wave’. When experts talk about tsunamis, they mean huge waves, sometimes taller than a house, which can cause huge amounts of damage. They can be unpredictable and happen unexpectedly.

What happened in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake?

In the early afternoon of 11 March 2011, Japan was rocked by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake that caused widespread damage to the country’s eastern coastal region. The earthquake was so powerful it moved Honshu, Japan’s largest island, 2.4 metres east and shifted the Earth on its axis by an estimated 10 to 25 centimetres.

What was the worst tsunami in Japan?

The devastating 11 March 2011 quake was magnitude 9, the strongest quake in Japan on record. The massive tsunami it triggered caused world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. All nuclear plants on the coast threatened by the tsunami remain closed in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

What are facts about the tsunami in Japan?

2011 Japan Earthquake – Tsunami Fast Facts Number of people killed and missing. The combined total of confirmed deaths and missing is more than 22,000 (nearly 20,000 deaths and 2,500 missing). Other Facts. At the time of the earthquake, Japan had 54 nuclear reactors, with two under construction, and 17 power plants, that produced about 30% of Japan’s electricity ( IAEA Timeline.

How many tsunamis hit Japan?

Japan is the nation with the most recorded tsunamis in the world. The number of tsunamis in Japan totals 195 over a 1,313 year period (thru 1997), averaging one event every 6.73 years, the highest rate of occurrence in the world.

Why the Japan tsunami was so big?

The devastating tsunami that swept ashore in Japan after a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake in March had such extraordinary power because of the unusual way in which the fault that generated the quake ruptured, new research suggests.