Today marks the eight anniversary of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami resulting in 15,896 deaths, 6,157 injured, and 2,537 missing. The pastor at my church this morning struggled to find God’s reasoning, but the scientist in me could only find cause: the Pacific Plate is subducting under the plate beneath northern Honshu at 8 to 9 cm per year but not smoothly, and accumulated stress resulted in a seismic slip-rupture event which was the fourth most powerful ever recorded in the world. The Earth’s movement at that moment was so powerful that:
ーSeismic energy sufficient to electrify a city the size of Los Angeles for an entire year was unleashed; ーHonshu was moved 2.4 m east; ーThe Earth’s axis shifted between 10 and 25 cm and its rotational speed was increased by 1.8 µs per day; ーHonshu’s Pacific coast sank roughly a meter.
However, after about three years, the coast rose back and continues rising to exceed its original height. Japan exists due to earthquakes, not despite them. Many still struggle in Tōhoku, and time is still required, but its people, too, will eventually rise taller, as they always have. - William