Great East Japan earthquake

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

An aerial view of the Sendai region with black smoke coming from the Nippon Oil refinery
Tokyo Sendai
Date	11 March 2011; 6 years ago (2011-03-11)
Origin time	14:46:24 JST (UTC+09:00)
Duration	6 minutes
Magnitude	9.0–9.1 Mw
Depth	29 km (18 mi)
Epicenter	38°19′19″N 142°22′08″E / 38.322°N 142.369°E / 38.322; 142.369Coordinates: 38°19′19″N 142°22′08″E / 38.322°N 142.369°E / 38.322; 142.369
Type	Megathrust
Areas affected	Japan (shaking, tsunami) Pacific Rim (tsunami)
Total damage	Tsunami wave, flooding, landslides, fires, building and infrastructure damage, nuclear incidents including radiation releases
Max. intensity	IX (Violent)
Peak acceleration	2.99 g
Tsunami	Up to 40.5 m (133 ft) in Miyako, Iwate, Tōhoku
Landslides	Yes
Foreshocks	List of foreshocks and aftershocks of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake
Aftershocks	11,450 (as of 3 March 2015)
Casualties	15,894 deaths, 6,152 injured, 2,562 people missing

The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku (東北地方太平洋沖地震, Tōhoku-chihō Taiheiyō Oki Jishin^?) was a magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M_w) undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on Friday 11 March 2011, with the epicentre approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku and the hypocenter at an underwater depth of approximately 29 km (18 mi). The earthquake is also often referred to in Japan as the Great East Japan earthquake (東日本大震災, Higashi nihon daishinsai^?) and also known as the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, and the 3.11 earthquake. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded to have hit Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that reached heights of up to 40.5 metres (133 ft) in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture, and which, in the Sendai area, traveled up to 10 km (6 mi) inland. The earthquake moved Honshu (the main island of Japan) 2.4 m (8 ft) east, shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of between 10 cm (4 in) and 25 cm (10 in), and generated infrasound waves detected in perturbations of the low-orbiting GOCE satellite.