Great Tōhoku earthquake
An aerial view of the Sendai region with black smoke coming from the Nippon Oil refinery
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  Tokyo
Sendai
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| Date | 11 March 2011 |
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| 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°ECoordinates: 38°19′19″N 142°22′08″E / 38.322°N 142.369°E |
| Type | Megathrust |
| Areas affected |
Japan (shaking, tsunami) Pacific Rim (tsunami) |
| Total damage | $360 billion USD |
| 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, 6,156 injured, 2,546 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 (Mw) 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 often referred to in Japan as the Great East Japan Earthquake (東日本大震災 Higashi nihon daishinsai) and is also known as the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, and the 3.11 earthquake. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in 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), increased earth's rotational speed by 1.8µs per day, and generated infrasound waves detected in perturbations of the low-orbiting GOCE satellite. Initially, the earthquake have sunken part of Honshu's Pacific coast by up to roughly a meter, but after about three years, the coast raised back and then keep on rising, exceeded the original height of the coast.
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