Japan's History of Massive Earthquakes
The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami
The March 11, 8.9-magnitude earthquake lasted about six minutes, hitting 81 miles off the coast of Oshika Peninsula and triggering a massive tsunami with waves that measured up to 33 feet in height. The massive wall of water reached as far as 5 miles inland into Sendai, the Tohoku region's most densely populated city, destroying everything in its path. The tsunami also flooded the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, knocking out the emergency generators that were intended to cool the reactors in case of an emergency, leading to a partial meltdown in three of the plant's reactors. The earthquake left millions of victims in the affected regions without electricity or water. It is estimated that the dead and missing will top 16,000.