ABSTRACT
March 11, 2011 is the date of one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history. At 2:46 in the afternoon plate movements deep below the ocean surface in the subduction zone off the northeastern coast of Japan triggered long and violent quaking across an extremely wide area. The displacement of water caused by the initial plate movement gave rise to a tsunami that effortlessly washed over the defenses of the Tohoku coast, claiming countless victims, devastating entire communities, and resulting in one of the largest nuclear disasters the world has seen. The complex interweaving of this massive earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident has become known to the world as the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster. While nearly all of the chapters in this book deal directly with this complex disaster, this chapter returns to the precipitating event-the earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku (hereafter, “2011 Tohoku Earthquake”)—in order to outline its geophysical sources and ongoing seismic effects.
