Japan Tsunami: How It Happened
Japan Tsunami: How It
Happened
1 x 1hr Co Production for Channel 4, NOVA
On Friday 11 March 2011, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter
scale triggered a tsunami that devastated parts of coastal
Japan.
Japan's Tsunami: How It Happened investigates the science behind
the earthquake and tsunami. The programme follows Professor of
Geological Sciences Roger Bilham - who arrived in Japan days after
the earthquake struck - as he sets off to view the devastation from
the air.
The earthquake moved Japan 12 feet closer to the USA. The earth was
knocked off its axis and the rate of the earth's rotation was
changed. This was one of the biggest earthquakes ever measured; the
ground along the east side of Japan dropped by almost 10 feet,
making the tsunami catastrophic.
The documentary also follows renowned journalist Callum Macrae as
he travels to the north, where the towns of Sendai and Ofunato used
to be bustling fishing villages. Here he views the destruction
first hand and meets the locals struggling to cope in the
aftermath.
Japan lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire where the Pacific Ocean
plates meet the land. The ocean floor dives beneath the volcanic
chain of islands that make up Japan. And when the tension builds up
between the two plates the energy is released as a massive
earthquake.
The programme provides the science and analysis to explain why this
happened where it did, and why it was so devastating, hearing from
the scientists at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii who
tracked the deadly wave as it raced across the pacific, and
scientists at the Tsunami research facility in Oregon who study the
dynamics of earthquake-generated Tsunamis.
As Japan is lives with the consequences of this terrible force of
nature, the film reveals how it has changed the country
forever.