On March 11, 2011 at 2:46 PM a great catastrophe struck Japan. A 9.0 magnitude earthquake took place 231 miles northeast of Tokyo, Japan, at a depth of 15.2 miles. The earthquake caused a tsunami with 30 ft waves that damage several nuclear reactors in that area. It is the fourth largest earthquake on record (since 1900) and is the largest to have hit Japan. On February 10, 2014 the confirmed death toll is 15,884 people. Most died by drowning.
Japan had 54 nuclear reactors, with two under construction, and 17 power plants, that produced about 30% of Japan's electricity at the time of the earthquake. Radioactive water was recently discovered leaking from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which suffered a level 7 nuclear meltdown after the tsunami. A microsievert is an internationally recognized unit measuring radiation dosage.Normal people are typically exposed to a total of about 1,000 microsieverts in one year.
Material damage from the earthquake and tsunami is estimated at about 25 trillion yen ($300 billion). The Japanese government estimates that the tsunami swept about five million tons of debris offshore, but that 70 percent sank, leaving 1.5 million tons floating in the Pacific Ocean. Debris continues to wash up on North American beaches two years later.
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