One year after the devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Japanese oceanographers and geologists are teaming up with German scientists to uncover any traces that the the magnitude-9 quake might have left on the sea floor. The scientists will search for geomorphological evidence of what exactly happened on 11 March last year during the two-and-a-half-minute rupture that released massive amounts of seismic energy and triggered a deadly tsunami off the northeastern coast of Honshu. Scientists suspect that the extraordinary force of the tsunami, which killed some 20,000 people, may have been the combined result of the sea floor rising with a jolt by up to five metres and of quake-triggered slides of the Japanese continental shelf. (nature.com)
One year after the devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Japanese oceanographers and geologists are teaming up with German scientists to uncover any traces that the the magnitude-9 quake might have left on the sea floor. The scientists will search for geomorphological evidence of what exactly happened on 11 March last year during the two-and-a-half-minute rupture that released massive amounts of seismic energy and triggered a deadly tsunami off the northeastern coast of Honshu. Scientists suspect that the extraordinary force of the tsunami, which killed some 20,000 people, may have been the combined result of the sea floor rising with a jolt by up to five metres and of quake-triggered slides of the Japanese continental shelf. (nature.com)