Earthquake in Japan. Consequences. Photo: http://podrobnosti.ua
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred in northeastern Japan and received official name"The Great East Japan Earthquake." An earthquake of this magnitude, according to scientists, occurs in this country no more than once every 600 years.
The natural disaster occurred at 8:48 Moscow time, the epicenter was 373 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, the source lay at a depth of 24 kilometers.
The earthquake caused the largest tsunami, which covered an area of 561 square kilometers, which corresponds to 90% of the area of the 23 special districts that make up the core of Tokyo. More than half of the area flooded with water - 327 square kilometers - was in Miyagi Prefecture. The height of the tsunami that hit the city of Miyako, located in Iwate Prefecture, was about 40.5 meters. The height of the wave that hit the village of Noda in the same Iwate Prefecture was 37.8 meters, and the height of the tsunami that destroyed the city of Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture was 34.7 meters. As a result, 62 cities and villages were damaged by a giant tsunami in six prefectures.
The height of the wave and the area under water exceeded all scientific calculations and so-called computer simulations that model the development of emergency situations based on the data provided.
After the earthquake and tsunami, a series of accidents caused by the failure of the cooling system were recorded at the Japanese Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. The supply of water for cooling the reactors was stopped. This caused fuel to burn through the reactor vessels and accumulate in the containment vessel. At the same time, hydrogen explosions at the first and third reactors damaged the roof of the power units. The consequence of this was radiation leakage into the air and water, after which radioactive substances were found in drinking water, vegetables, tea, meat and other products.
Emissions of radioactive cesium into the atmosphere amounted to 40 thousand terabecquerels, which is about 20% of the same emission volume recorded after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986.
As a result, 140 thousand people were evacuated from a 20-30 km zone from the station.
In December 2011, it was announced that all emergency reactors had reached a cold shutdown state and the temperature did not exceed 100 degrees.
As a result of the earthquake, the east coast Japanese island Honshu has shifted 2.5 meters to the east.
The number of dead and missing people exceeded 20 thousand. About 93% of the dead were victims of the giant wave.
The damage that the giant tsunami caused to the Japanese economy, transport and infrastructure, not counting the costs associated with the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, amounted to 16.9 trillion yen (about 215 billion dollars).
126 thousand buildings were completely or half destroyed, 260 thousand were partially damaged. The area of land subject to decontamination is 3% of Japan's territory.
According to approximate estimates of the ministry environment In Japan, the tsunami-affected areas must be cleared of over 23 million tons of garbage - debris from houses mixed with household items, household appliances, furniture, etc. into a single mass. Only 4.9 million tons of waste can be disposed of per year, and the problem of possible contamination of this debris with radioactive substances after radiation leaks at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant has arisen.
To investigate the facts related to the accident at the nuclear power plant, an independent expert commission was created, consisting of lawyers and nuclear scientists and not related to government agencies. In preparing its report, the commission heard evidence and opinions from 300 people who were directly involved in the events of March 2011.
The commission's report, released on February 28, 2012, concluded that the Japanese government, led by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, acted ineffectively in eliminating the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. The commission noted that the government of the country had to face a situation that had not been taken into account by the previously developed emergency rules. At the same time, experts assessed attempts to provide detailed guidance to the actions of the liquidators on the part of ex-Prime Minister Naoto Kan as useless and creating unnecessary delays in the process.
The accident response plan, drawn up by Japanese experts and approved by the country's government at the end of December 2011, is designed for 30 years.
The first phase of the plan, which began in mid-December 2011 when the Japanese government announced the end of the cold shutdown of the reactors, will take two years. During this time, the extraction of spent nuclear fuel from spent nuclear fuel pools will begin. In total, 3 thousand 108 rods are stored in these pools.
The second stage will last 10 years, it main task will be the extraction of nuclear fuel from the reactors themselves, which will end in 20-25 years. Complete dismantling of reactor equipment will occur only in 30-40 years.
Earthquakes in Japan: history and consequences of earthquakes, the strength of character of the Japanese people, new earthquakes in Tokyo.
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A Japanese proverb says, “Earthquakes, fires and father are the worst punishments.” It is not surprising that earthquakes are in first place on this list - Japan is located at the junction of the Asian and Pacific tectonic layers, the friction of which often causes tremors. Every year, the Japanese islands experience thousands of small tremors, and sometimes devastating earthquakes of monstrous force occur. In March 2011, the whole world watched the disaster off the east coast of the island of Honshu - the earthquake that occurred in the Pacific Ocean was the strongest in the history of Japan. Coastal areas were severely damaged by the powerful tsunami, but the country's capital, located 373 km from the epicenter, was not destroyed.
Earthquakes in Tokyo
It should be noted that modern Tokyo is one of the most earthquake-protected cities in the world. Residents of Tokyo know that their city stands at the intersection of four tectonic plates, so they practically do not pay attention to the 3-4 minor earthquakes a year, which greatly frighten visitors. Most high-rise buildings are built to withstand possible tremors and are designed so that the energy of the tremors is absorbed without destroying the building.
So, for example, the I-Land Tower skyscraper is installed on special shock-absorbing cushions, the second building of the Tokyo government rotates around its axis during earthquake tremors, and some other high-rise buildings stand on special rails on which they travel from side to side (at a distance literally a few centimeters, of course).
New earthquake in Japan?
Shocks with a magnitude of 1.5 (on average) occur in Tokyo every day and, thanks to earthquake-resistant structures, do not affect the flow of life in the city. However, if a really strong earthquake occurs, then all these measures will be useless. Unfortunately, such a threat really exists. Moreover, the latest forecasts from the University of Tokyo indicate a 50% probability of a magnitude 7 earthquake in the capital area in the next 4 years. In this case, the damage could be colossal: tens of thousands of people would be affected and hundreds of thousands of homes would be destroyed. The economic damage of such an event for the whole of Japan, which has not yet had time to recover from the consequences of the 2011 disaster, cannot be underestimated.
The next day
Story
There are many sad pages in the history of Tokyo, when the city literally disappeared from the face of the earth and was reborn from the ashes like a Phoenix bird. One such disaster was the Great Kanto Earthquake that occurred in 1923. Then Tokyo and 10 other nearby cities, including Yokohama and Yokosuka, were left in ruins. And two decades later, the newly built city was practically destroyed by a large-scale bombing of American air forces, which left more than a million Tokyo residents homeless on the night of March 9-10, 1945.
Strength of character and psychology of the Japanese people
What seems surprising is the speed with which the city was restored each time. Already in 1964, Tokyo hosted the Summer Olympics - the whole world saw the short term modern sports complexes, a television tower - today's symbol of Tokyo, monorails. The secret here lies, apparently, in the national Japanese character. Perseverance, patience, developed sense duty - these are the main character traits of the Japanese.
IN Japanese there are many expressions for expressing obligation, literally they are translated as follows: “you can’t help but do it,” “it will be bad if you don’t do it,” etc. It is believed that an enterprise that has not begun to be restored within three days after the collapse simply does not have future.
During the days of the 2011 disaster, the media often wrote that there was no looting in disaster zones, that, despite the scale of the incident, there was no panic in society, and there were no people distraught with despair. The courage and endurance of the Japanese people is what first stands out in the reports from Japan of those days. The Japanese, like no one else, are capable of overcoming difficulties arising from natural disasters and stoically accepting the blows of fate. One can only hope that they will not have to once again to prove this skill, and predictions that one of the next underground strikes will cause the complete disappearance of the Japanese Islands from the world map will remain a plot for disaster films.
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A natural disaster led to the development of a severe accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi. During the earthquake, the external power supply was lost. The nuclear power plant did not provide protection against the impact of a tsunami on the station. As a result, the incoming wave flooded the diesel generators, which were located at each of the nuclear power units below, in the part flooded with water. Diesel generators are designed to ensure the operation of the station's cooling system when the external power supply is turned off. After the tsunami at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, only one diesel generator remained in working condition, with the help of which, in the absence of external power supply, it was possible to provide cooling of two reactors and two pools of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). Therefore, no serious accident occurred at the fifth and sixth power units of the station. At other power units, after diesel generators failed, overheating and melting of the cores occurred, and a steam-zirconium reaction began (exothermic chemical reaction between zirconium and water vapor, occurring at high temperatures), as a result of which hydrogen is released. The accumulation of hydrogen in the rooms where the reactors were located led to a series of explosions that destroyed the buildings.
The consequence of this was the release of radioactivity into external environment, after which radioactive substances were in drinking water, vegetables, tea, meat and other products.
The total volume of iodine-131 and cesium-137 after the nuclear power plant accident amounted to 900 thousand terabecquerels, which does not exceed 20% of the emissions after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which amounted to 5.2 million terabecquerels.
For six months after the accident, there was an increased content of radionuclides in food products not only in Fukushima Prefecture itself, but also in areas remote from it.
Within a radius of 30 kilometers or more from the station, 146 thousand residents were evacuated.
During the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, almost 40% of three thousand Japanese military, police and emergency services personnel received a radiation dose exceeding the annual norm of one millisievert.
As a result, the eastern coast of the Japanese island of Honshu shifted 2.5 meters to the east.
The number of dead and missing is 20 thousand people. About 93% of the dead were victims of the giant wave.
The damage that the giant tsunami caused to the Japanese economy, transport and infrastructure, not counting the costs associated with the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, amounted to 16.9 trillion yen (about 215 billion dollars).
126 thousand buildings were completely or half damaged, 260 thousand were partially damaged. The area of land subject to decontamination was 13 thousand square kilometers or 3% of the entire territory of Japan.
To investigate the facts related to the accident at the nuclear power plant, an independent expert commission was created, consisting of lawyers and nuclear scientists and not related to government agencies. In preparing its report, the commission heard evidence and opinions from 300 people who were directly involved in the events of March 2011.
On February 28, 2012, the commission's report concluded that the Japanese government, led by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, acted ineffectively in eliminating the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. The commission noted that the government of the country had to face a situation that had not been taken into account by the previously developed rules for action in case of emergency. At the same time, ex-Prime Minister Naoto Kan (who resigned on August 30, 2011) provided detailed guidance to the actions of the liquidators as useless and creating unnecessary delays in the process.
The Japanese government approved a plan for eliminating the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, drawn up by Japanese experts and designed for 30 years. Complete liquidation accidents, including dismantling of reactor equipment, will occur only after 40 years.
Emergency work at nuclear power plants by specialists from the Tokyo Energy Company (TEPCO). To prevent radiation contamination of the atmosphere, in the fall of 2011, a protective dome was built over the first power unit, whose roof was destroyed as a result of an explosion. In the fall of 2015, the dome was dismantled, which made it possible to begin dismantling the rubble that had formed inside the power unit. In 2019, TEPCO plans to begin removing 392 spent nuclear fuel rods.
One of the unresolved problems at Fukushima-1 remains the accumulation of radioactive water. A system has been created at the nuclear power plant that consistently purifies large volumes of water from various radioactive elements, primarily cesium and strontium 90.
However, those operating at the emergency station do not allow the waste to be purified from the dangerous radioactive isotope - tritium. The liquid purified in this way is stored in above-ground tanks. At the end of 2015, Fukushima-1 had accumulated nearly a million cubic meters of liquid radioactive waste.
The amount of radioactive water at nuclear power plants every day is due to the ingress of groundwater from the hills into the underground premises of the emergency units, where they are mixed with highly radioactive water. To partially solve this problem, since September 2015, the station operator began to scoop up groundwater before it gets into the underground premises of the power units, clean it of radionuclides and discharge it into the ocean.
Other acute problem— occurring at a radioactive water station. The largest leak at a nuclear power plant after the accident occurred in August 2013. Then there was a leak of 300 tons of radioactive water with a strontium concentration of about 80 million becquerels per liter from the tank where radioactive water is stored after cooling the reactors. The Nuclear Energy Control Committee assigned the leak a third level of danger on the INES scale.
To prevent radioactive liquid from entering the ocean along the entire coastline station in 2012-2015 there was a steel protective wall, which has a length of about 780 meters and is buried approximately 30 meters into the soil.
The Japanese Minister for Disaster Reconstruction reported that the level of background radiation in a zone up to 80 kilometers from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in the five years after the accident decreased by an average of 65%, in major cities Fukushima Prefecture is no different from the world's megacities. At the same time, he noted that restoration in the coastal areas of Fukushima is very late, in fact, it has only just begun.
Five years after the accident, the evacuation regime and the ban on visiting were lifted from some of the territories that were exposed to radiation contamination, but the settlements closest to the station still remain uninhabitable.
After the tragedy at Fukushima-1, the UN announced new standards for the construction of nuclear power plants and demanded transparency in their work. Stress tests and safety inspections of nuclear power plants have been carried out around the world.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
On the afternoon of March 11, an earthquake occurred 130 kilometers from the northeastern coast of the Japanese island of Honshu. Tremors with a magnitude of 8.9 triggered a tsunami: waves reaching a height of 10 meters hit coastal cities. By the end of the day, 32 deaths were announced, but authorities fear that the final number of victims will be in the hundreds: seismologists promise new tremors throughout the next month, reports lenta.ru
A tsunami warning was issued in Japan on March 9 after meteorologists recorded a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in the ocean 430 kilometers east of Tokyo. It was then assumed that the wave height would not exceed one meter. Serious damage from the coming tsunami was also not expected.
Water and fire
However, two days later off the coast Japan a new, stronger thing happened earthquake: The magnitude of the tremors was 8.9. The epicenter was located 130 kilometers east of largest island Japanese archipelago, Honshu. The focus of the earthquake was at a depth of 10 kilometers, and from the very beginning it was obvious that the tremors would trigger a strong tsunami. Seismologists' predictions were confirmed: soon waves hit the Japanese coast, the height of which in some areas reached 10 meters.
Initial assessments classified the earthquake as “strong” (magnitude up to 7). However, data on its scale were soon clarified by the US Geological Survey. According to statistics, earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 8 occur no more than once a year. A magnitude of 9 or higher corresponds to the most destructive earthquakes, such as the one that occurred in 2004 in Indonesia.
Consequences of the earthquake March 11, which is recognized as one of the five largest in the last 110 years, was felt throughout the Pacific region. Threat Alerts tsunami were announced in the Russian Far East, as well as in Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Hawaii and the west coast of the United States and Central and South America.The earthquake was the strongest in the history of Japan and led to colossal destruction.
The first shock was followed by two dozen new tremors with a magnitude of up to 6. Seismic activity was clearly felt in cities throughout Honshu. In the northeastern part of the island, bridges were destroyed and tens of kilometers of roads were damaged. Entire areas were left without electricity, and broken electrical wires led to dozens of large fires. Fires have been recorded at many energy facilities, including nuclear power plants and oil refineries.
The fires closed dozens of businesses, including Nissan and Toyota car plants. In Tokyo and the surrounding area, about four million buildings were left without power, subway service in the city was stopped and high speed trains, airports are closed. The tremors damaged hundreds of buildings, and the partial collapse of the Tokyo TV tower was reported - according to some reports, the spire and antennas collapsed.
However, the main destruction occurred on the eastern coast of Honshu, which was literally washed away by the tsunami. The wave reached the island less than an hour after the first tremors. Japanese television broadcast supernatural footage: A stream of water that stretched to the horizon advanced onto the coast, swallowing ships, cars and entire buildings.
The prefecture had it the worst Miyagi - the epicenter of the earthquake was located in close proximity to its coast. In the area of Miyagi's capital, Sendai, wave heights reached their maximum values. The flow of water penetrated deep into the coast at a distance of up to one and a half kilometers, as a result the airport was flooded, and several people died in landslides. The city's population is about a million people, and a significant part of them were left homeless.
Residents of the affected areas are asked to remain calm and move away from the coast if possible, or at least get to higher ground. The evacuation of people is carried out by military forces.
Tsunami in Japan
By the evening of March 11, Japanese time, 32 people had been officially declared dead as a result of the earthquake and tsunami, and dozens of people were listed as missing. There continue to be reports of pleasure boats being washed away by waves. a large number passengers on board, and authorities fear the final death toll will be in the hundreds.
Japanese authorities are talking about "enormous" damage and say they are ready to accept foreign help to combat the consequences of the earthquake. However, they are still afraid to draw conclusions: the likelihood is too high that the worst is yet to come. Seismologists have promised that new tremors with a magnitude of up to 7 are expected off the coast of Japan over the next month, each of which threatens a new tsunami.
9.5 thousand people went missing in a Japanese city
In the Japanese port city of Minamisanriku, which suffered from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 9.5 thousand residents were missing, the Kyodo News agency reports, citing local authorities. The population of Minamisanriku is just over 17 thousand people. In turn, Agence France-Presse, citing the Japanese television channel NHK, reports about 10 thousand missing residents of Minamisanriku.
There was an accident at a nuclear power plant in Japan
On March 12, a day after the devastating earthquake and tsunami, an explosion occurred at a Japanese nuclear power plant that was damaged by tremors. It was followed by an increase in radiation levels in the surrounding area, mass evacuations and the first cases of radioactive exposure. However, it seems that the worst case scenario has so far been avoided.
The first reports of possible accidents at Japanese nuclear power plants began to arrive soon after the earthquake. Thus, a fire occurred at a nuclear power plant in the city of Onagawa (in Miyagi Prefecture, which was most affected by the earthquake). The operation of four stations located closest to the epicenter of the earthquake was urgently stopped. The country's authorities declared a state of alarm due to possible damage to the nuclear power plant and began to cool the reactors.
At the same time, about two thousand people who lived two kilometers from one of the nuclear power plants in Fukushima (northeast of the country, 250 kilometers from Tokyo) were called for evacuation due to problems in the reactor cooling system. Traces of radioactive cesium were found in the area of the nuclear power plant. However, on the afternoon of March 11, both the Japanese authorities and the IAEA announced that radiation leaks had been avoided, and all services at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant would soon operate normally.
On the night of March 12 (Moscow time), the country's Minister of Trade admitted that, despite all efforts, it was not possible to restore the cooling system, the pressure inside the protective container with the reactor was growing and a leak was possible. The current Prime Minister of the country, Naoto Kan, ordered the evacuation of 45 thousand people living at a distance of 10 kilometers from the nuclear power plant (previously they were supposed to just sit at home). The media reported that the permissible level of radiation in the premises of the station was exceeded a thousand times, and along the perimeter of the nuclear power plant - eight times.
At the same time, the evacuation of residents near the second nuclear power plant in Fukushima was announced. At night it was announced that the operating company had released a small amount of radioactive steam to reduce the pressure at the Fukushima 2 reactor. Nevertheless, the authorities even then assured that the situation at both nuclear power plants did not pose an immediate threat to health.
On March 12 at 09:30 am Moscow time, an explosion occurred at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant; a column of dust and smoke rose high into the air. This was captured by television cameras and the event instantly became the center of everyone's attention. However, for a long time there was no information about whether the explosion affected the nuclear reactor itself or whether there was a leak. Kyodo only learned that four workers were injured when a wall and ceiling collapsed at the nuclear power plant.
Japanese television reported that the permissible level of radiation outside the nuclear power plant was exceeded 20 times. Some media claimed that the radiation dose was 1015 microsieverts per hour (for comparison, according to some standards, the radiation dose for humans should not exceed a thousand microsieverts per year). The evacuation zone was expanded to 20 kilometers from the nuclear power plant. The rest of the city's residents were told not to leave their homes, turn off air conditioners and not drink tap water. Those who still dare to go outside were advised to cover all areas of their skin and wear masks. The authorities promised to distribute free iodine, and residents, according to tradition, were tasked with the most difficult task - to remain calm.
A little later, the Japanese government announced that the explosion at Fukushima 1 did not occur at the reactor and did not damage its protective steel shell. Only the concrete floors of the building where the container is located collapsed. The injuries sustained by the workers do not threaten their lives. At the same time, the operator of the nuclear power plant announced that the level of radiation outside the plant began to fall. According to the latest information, symptoms of radiation exposure were detected in three people.
According to official data, the explosion occurred in a pumping unit, with the help of which emergency services cooled the reactor. Now nuclear power plant employees hope to cool it using sea water in two days.
Immediately after the explosion, the question arose about whether a possible radioactive leak was dangerous for Russia. Thus, the tsunami that hit Japan reached the shores of the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. Initially, Rospotrebnadzor stated that a radioactive cloud, which could have arisen as a result of a nuclear power plant accident in Japan, may be moving towards Kamchatka. According to Russian experts, the cloud could reach Russian territory in about a day; Initial measurements in Kamchatka did not reveal dangerous levels of radiation.
Later, Emergencies Ministry specialists announced that there was no nuclear cloud and, by all accounts, a radioactive threat to the Russian Far East not even if the worst case scenario develops in Japan. Nevertheless, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with Russian officials, instructed to monitor the radioactive situation in eastern Russia as carefully as possible.
Experts whom the media approached for comments unanimously stated that the accident at Fukushima 1 would be much less serious in its consequences than the emergency at Chernobyl or at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The situation was largely saved by the fact that after warning of impending cataclysms, the rods were lowered, the reactors were stopped and began to cool. According to a RIA Novosti source, the IAEA may assign the Japanese accident level four on the INES scale - “insignificant release, exposure of the population at a level comparable to established values” (the minimum level on this scale is zero, the maximum is seven).
However, it appears that it is too early to relax. Repeated tremors (so-called aftershocks) in Japan do not stop and, according to a pessimistic scenario, will continue to occur for another month. They are strong enough to cause serious destruction, and the epicenter is near Fukushima. Thus, Japan needs to simultaneously cope with the consequences as quickly as possible and try to prevent new ones.
Photo materials (The New Y
An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 - 8.9 (originally reported as 7.9) occurred off the northeastern coast of Japan. According to the US Geological Survey, a total of 13 echo tremors with a magnitude greater than 6 were recorded in Japan.
The earthquake was recorded east of the Japanese island of Honshu. At first, experts predicted a tsunami with a wave height of 6 meters. However, several areas (in particular, near the city of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture) were hit by waves of up to 10 meters.
Within hours of the disaster, it became clear that the casualties numbered in the hundreds, and authorities feared the death toll could rise significantly. Up to 300 dead were reported found in the city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture, a missing passenger train was reported, a search for a ship carrying up to 80 people was reported, and 300 homes were destroyed in the remote town of Ofunato. Information is coming in about dozens of missing and wounded people. In Tokyo, tens of thousands of people were forced to spend the night on the streets - transport services were interrupted.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan addressed the nation. He assessed the damage from today's earthquake as "significant." He also said that the nuclear power plants located in the affected region were not damaged, and there were no radiation leaks. True, the media immediately reported a fire at the Onagawa nuclear power plant and expressed concern about a possible leak.
The IAEA made a statement on this matter: four Japanese nuclear power plants located closest to the epicenter of the earthquake were closed.
Authorities in Onagawa declared a state of emergency in the area of the fire due to the threat of radiation contamination. Later, authorities reported that people were evacuated and the fire was extinguished. However, according to other information, residents of areas of Fukushima Prefecture within a radius of two kilometers from the nuclear power plant were ordered to urgently leave their homes, the BBC reports.
Employees of many offices in Tokyo were evacuated
Russian-speaking residents of Japanese cities write on social networks that many victims may be under the rubble of collapsed buildings. Operations have been automatically suspended at two nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture. Several airports in Japan, including Narita International, have also closed. (It is known that Aeroflot has postponed the flight from Moscow to Tokyo for now). Eyewitnesses on blogs report that there are fires, water pipe breaks, and in many offices employees work in hard hats. Telephone lines are overloaded, and the Internet is not available everywhere, although it works better than mobile communications. The metro is not functioning and trains are not running. Earlier there were reports of the disappearance of a train coming from Sendai.
An employee of a Japanese enterprise in Moscow told details in an interview about the lack of telephone communication with relatives in an interview with Radio Liberty Kanta Endo .
The tsunami that followed the shock washed away cars from the coast. Several buildings are on fire in Tokyo, including an oil refinery.
A fire broke out at a plant in the city of Ichihara. According to Japanese TV, huge clouds of fire are rising above the plant's territory. Earlier it was reported that a roof collapsed in Tokyo due to an earthquake. big building. According to CNN, about 4 million homes in Tokyo and surrounding areas were left without electricity.
Troops have been sent to the affected region to assist rescuers. The UN announced the dispatch of 30 international search and rescue teams to Japan.
The Federal Tourism Agency has not yet collected accurate information on the number of people in Japan Russian tourists, there may be several hundred of them. Press Secretary Russian Union tourism industry Irina Tyurina says that the earthquake in Japan did not affect the main tourist areas of this country. The disaster occurred in the northeast of the island of Honshu, and most tourists from Russia are heading to the central and southern parts of the island. “But even in the center and south there are now very few Russian tourists. According to several tour operators, each of them has 8-10 people here, no more,” Interfax quotes Tyurina.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reported that there were no casualties among employees of the Russian Embassy, consulates general in Sapporo, Osaka and Niigata, as well as in other Russian foreign institutions.
The Russian Embassy in Tokyo opens " hotline"due to the earthquake - 810-813-35-83-42-97.
Significant tsunami threat to Russian territories No. This was reported by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources.
Four tremors with a magnitude of up to five were recorded in the Kuril Islands. There are no damaged buildings. However, a tsunami alert remains for all the Kuril Islands. 11 thousand people were evacuated from the possible disaster zone. On the islands of the Kuril ridge economic activity It has been decided to suspend for now.
Fire in one of the districts of the capital of Japan
The head of the Sakhalin Tsunami Warning Center of the Sakhalin Hydrometeorological Service, Tatyana Ivelskaya, explained that “the shock is tsunamigenic, therefore a tsunami alert has been declared for all the Kuril Islands.” The mainland of the Russian Far East is not threatened by a tsunami.
The first tsunami wave that reached Shikotan Island was about one meter. Ice movement is observed in the bay near the village of Malokurilskoye.
Tsunami waves continue to be recorded in the islands area
Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup, - reported the Sakhalin Tsunami Warning Center.
In the area of Shikotan Island, the last recorded wave was three meters high, the Center reported. A tsunami height of 162 cm was recorded near Kunashir Island, and two meters in the area of Iturup Island. A slight rise in sea level is recorded in the Sea of Okhotsk and Sea of Japan. According to the Center, there is no tsunami threat to Sakhalin Island and other regions of the Russian Far East. Meanwhile, the South Kuril Department of Civil Defense for Emergency Situations reported to the agency that after a three-meter wave approached the island of Shikotan, economic facilities and residential buildings were not flooded, and no one was injured.
Another wave is expected in Yuzhno-Kurilsk. According to the Tsunami Center, the danger of large tsunami waves will continue until wave heights drop to 40-50 cm."
A tsunami alert remains in effect for all of the Kuril Islands.
"The tsunami from this earthquake will not affect Primorye and Khabarovsk Territory
threatens. Tremors occurred in the Pacific Ocean, and for our
In mainland territories, only the consequences of earthquakes in the Sea of Japan are dangerous,” Primhydromet press secretary Varvara Koridze told the media.
Previously, the "Antistikhiya" center of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations did not predict a destructive tsunami in the Kuril Islands in connection with the strong earthquake that occurred off the coast of Japan. “We are constantly monitoring the situation. According to the data that is being received, the maximum wave height that can reach the Russian shores of the Kuril ridge will be no more than 2.5 meters,” Vladislav Bolov, head of the Anti-Storm Center, told news agencies. “Based on those data obtained by our specialists on this hour, devastating consequences for the Russian Kuril Islands is not predicted. ".
A weak tsunami wave with a maximum height of 68 cm reached the shores of Kamchatka.
However, in Kamchatka the Karymsky, Kizimen and Shiveluch volcanoes became active. They simultaneously emit many kilometers of ash columns. “More than 200 seismic events were recorded in the area of the Karymsky volcano over the past 24 hours, the giant ejected several columns of ash, the largest of which was 5 kilometers 800 meters above sea level, and avalanches are coming from the slopes of this volcano,” said a representative of the Kamchatka branch of the geophysical service of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The epicenter of the earthquake was in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 130 kilometers from land. Two days ago, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 occurred in approximately the same zone.
The tsunami generated in the Pacific Ocean threatens not only Japan and Russia, but also Indonesia and the Mariana Islands. In addition, high waves can hit Taiwan, the Philippines, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, Guam, and also Hawaii.
Almost the entire Pacific region was warned of a tsunami threat, the height of which, according to experts, could reach 10 meters. Detailed warnings were sounded in Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, on the Pacific coast of South America, and in the American state of Hawaii. Authorities urged residents of coastal areas to evacuate immediately. Of particular concern was the situation on some low islands of the Pacific Ocean, the height of which could be lower than the height of the tsunami.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies spokeswoman Sadya Känzig warned of the vulnerability of coastal areas, particularly in developing countries.
By the end of the day, news agencies received a message that the first tsunami waves had reached the Hawaiian Islands. According to the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, the height of the waves that approached the coast of Alaska (USA) reaches three meters.
However, there were no reports that the tsunami that reached various areas of the Pacific region caused serious damage.