The M 9.0 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 resulted in approximately $300 billion in losses in a region with a high population density. A huge tsunami caused devastation mainly to lowlands along the eastern Japanese coast. The Japanese National Police Agency has confirmed about 15,000 deaths, more than 5,000 injured and more than 10,000 people still missing. This is the most costly natural disaster in history. In addition, the tsunami has caused an unprecedented nuclear crisis with the most serious accident at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.  What are lessons learned from this event? How can we apply these lessons learned to California and San Diego?

The video includes the following panel of distinguished speakers who provided an overview and responded to questions at this meeting:

• Dr. Jorge Meneses (Kleinfelder) – provided an overview of the mega-earthquake and tsunami, and presented his findings and observations from his GEER reconnaissance.
• Dr.Mitsuo Nozu (Fudo-Tetra, Japan) – presented details of the damage caused by liquefaction and lateral spreading in Urayasu City, Tokyo Bay.
• Prof. Atsushi Tago (Kobe University, Japan) – described the impact of the mega earthquake and tsunami to the people of the most affected Sendai region.
• Dr. Matthew Tobolski (Tobolski Watkins Engineering) – provided a discussion of a variety of hazards that are traditionally considered when performing design of nuclear facilities.
• Kathy Yhip (San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station) – described the twin reactor units at Southern California Edison’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and a status of current safety conditions.

In addition, if you would like to compare the street views for before and after the March 11th event, click here to access Google’s “Memories for the Future” Project in Japan.  When you first access the map, click and drag the orange person icon to wherever you would like to launch the street view.

This report is a summary of their observations, which is being published by EERI’s Learning from Earthquakes Program.  Click HERE for report.

Click HERE to read the report.

Summary below:

In order to learn lessons from the unprecedented disaster and contribute to the improvement of disaster mitigation measures, the National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management (NILIM) and the Building Research Institute (BRI) has sent staff members to the affected regions and conducted extensive surveys on the damage to buildings and residential lands caused by the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent fires. The types and parts of buildings on which these surveys have been conducted included wooden houses, reinforced concrete buildings, steel buildings, residential lands, non-structural components and seismically isolated buildings. In addition, NILIM and BRI have conducted scientific researches on the earthquake and tsunami and analyzed recorded strong motions from various sites across Japan. This report consists of the main results from these surveys and researches.

The March 11, 2011, earthquake—one of the largest in recorded history worldwide—struck along the subduction zone interface plate boundary between the Pacific and North America plates. The earthquake was immediately followed by a large tsunami that inflicted widespread damage to modern urban infrastructure and led to a crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The world’s attention was captured by the scale of the devastation and by the nuclear crisis.

The geotechnical effects of this earthquake provide important opportunities for learning about the seismic performance of a wide range of geotechnical systems and constructed facilities. Facilitated by the extensive network of strong ground motion recording stations in the area, the unique characteristics of this large earthquake, the wide geographical area affected, and the modern infrastructure throughout the affected areas, scientists will be able to gain insights into the correlation between ground motion characteristics and the type and extent of damage—in ways not previously possible.

This report provides a brief summary of preliminary geotechnical observations from NSF-sponsored GEER reconnaissance teams working with other organizations and individuals, including the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Federal Highway Administration. Additional details regarding some of these observations are included in a series of GEER Quick Reports available at www.geerassociation.org. The field teams could not cover all the affected areas, and avoided some locales due to ongoing humanitarian aid efforts and radiation concerns. Fuller coverage and greater detail on the geotechnical effects will emerge from the studies currently underway in Japan.

To see the full Report, click on the link at the top of the post, or use this link: http://www.eqclearinghouse.org/2011-03-11-sendai/files/2011/03/Geotech_Tohoku-Rpt.pdf