This disaster has been not only one of the biggest earthquake in 20 years. The quake measuring 8.9 which it occurred in Japan, on Friday (11/03/2011) afternoon, was recorded as the biggest earthquake in history ever happened in the land of Sakura's. Throughout the record of seismicity in Japan, it has not ever been such that strong earthquakes before.
Japan's deadliest earthquake in recorded occurred in 1891. The quake centered in Kanto was only measuring 7.9, but it killed an estimated 140,000 people in the region around Tokyo. With a strength of 8.9 came up, the last quake was far stronger than the earthquake in the Kanto, but it was not too large impact on the city of Tokyo.
"We estimate many casualties fell and widespread damage," said Kevin McCue, seismologists at the Central Queensland University in Canberra, Australia, as reported by ABC Web site on Friday. However, the number of victims in Tokyo in the Kanto region is not expected as many as 120 years ago because the epicenter is far north, about 376 km from Tokyo.
Japan is located in the path of the volcano or the Pacific Ring of Fire, including areas which those are often affected by the earthquake. Several large earthquake data recorded in Japan is an earthquake measuring 8.5 on the Sanriku in 1896 that it killed 27,000 people and caused tsunamis as high as 25 meters. In addition, the Kobe earthquake occurred in 1995 measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale and it killed 5502 people.
Japan quake measuring 8.9 on Richter scale this. The quake occurred at 14:46 local time and was centered 376 km southeast of Tokyo. This earthquake has caused tsunamis and it was potentially as high as 4 meters to 10 meters tsunami. Tsunami warning extended to the Pacific, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
Co-Director of the Australian Tsunami Research Center, Professor James Goff said the earthquake that occurred this time will be able to see the strength of Japan's earthquake-resistant buildings, the efficacy of the tsunami warning, and evacuation plans. "This event will be a series of tests to them all," he said.
The earthquake that triggered the tsunami struck Sendai, Japan east, making the three automakers, namely Toyota Motor Corporation, Honda Motor Company, Nissan Motor Company and adversely affected. All production activities in the three producers are forced to stop completely.
A spokesman for Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), as reported by bloomberg, Friday (11/03/2011), say, Toyota halted production of all activities in Miyagi Prefecture, starting today. The capacity of this plant to reach 120,000 units per year and the Toyota Yaris hatchback is producing. These conditions make direct TMC stop the export activity of the Yaris, Scion XB, and the Scion XD to the United States.
Toyota continued to evacuate employees in the plant affected by the earthquake, including corporate partners, Kanto Auto Works Limited and Central Motors Company. "Until now the situation is still volatile and we are still collecting the latest information," said Dion Corbett as reported by autonews, today.
TMC addition, several automotive component suppliers, including Toyota Boshoku Corporation and Denso Corporation (the largest automotive component manufacturer in Japan) is also doing the same thing. Kanemasu Goro, a spokesman for Denso Corporation, Japan said the factory which is still under construction south of Miyagi was damaged. However, all plant employees had evacuated to a safe location.
Meanwhile, a male and female employees of Honda Motor Company reported killed in factory Tochigi, Kanto region, near Utsunomiya. Factory activity is stopped. There Honda produces batteries for hybrid cars and is a center for research and development. The Nissan Motor Company is still collecting damage data.
