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The 11 March 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Survey in Rikuzentakata and Comparison with Historical Events

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Abstract

On 11 March 2011, a moment magnitude M w = 9.0 earthquake occurred off the Japan Tohoku coast causing catastrophic damage and loss of human lives. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, we conducted the reconnaissance survey in the city of Rikuzentakata, Japan. In comparison with three previous historical tsunamis impacting the same region, the 2011 event presented the largest values with respect to the tsunami height, the inundation area and the inundation distance. A representative tsunami height of 15 m was recorded in Rikuzentakata, with increased heights of 20 m around rocky headlands. In terms of the inundation area, the 2011 Tohoku tsunami exceeded by almost 2.6 times the area flooded by the 1960 Chilean tsunami, which ranks second among the four events compared. The maximum tsunami inundation distance was 8.1 km along the Kesen River, exceeding the 1933 Showa and 1960 Chilean tsunami inundations by factors of 6.2 and 2.7, respectively. The overland tsunami inundation distance was less than 2 km. The tsunami inundation height linearly decreased along the Kesen River at a rate of approximately 1 m/km. Nevertheless, the measured inland tsunami heights exhibit significant variations on local and regional scales. A designated “tsunami control forest” planted with a cross-shore width of about 200 m along a 2 km stretch of Rikuzentakata coastline was completely overrun and failed to protect the local community during this extreme event. Similarly, many designated tsunami shelters were too low and were overwashed by tsunami waves, thereby failing to provide shelter for evacuees—a risk that had been underestimated.

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Acknowledgments

The post-tsunami survey was financially supported by the JST J-RAPID project through the Program of “Study on the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami propagation, tsunami nearshore behavior, and tsunami mitigation from coastal structures”. The University of Tokyo survey team (H.L., S.S. and Y.T.) was also supported by the Nippon Foundation through the program for the Basis of Marine Affairs. H.M.F. was supported by NSF RAPID award CMMI-1135768.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

    Haijiang Liu, Shinji Sato & Yoshimitsu Tajima

  2. Department of Ocean Sciences, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, 4-5-7 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 109-0075, Japan

    Takenori Shimozono & Akio Okayasu

  3. Port and Airport Research Institute, Asia-Pacific Center for Coastal Disaster Research, 3-1-1 Nagase, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, 239-0826, Japan

    Tomohiro Takagawa

  4. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Savannah, GA, 31407, USA

    Hermann M. Fritz

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  1. Haijiang Liu
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  2. Takenori Shimozono
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  3. Tomohiro Takagawa
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Correspondence to Haijiang Liu.

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Liu, H., Shimozono, T., Takagawa, T. et al. The 11 March 2011 Tohoku Tsunami Survey in Rikuzentakata and Comparison with Historical Events. Pure Appl. Geophys. 170, 1033–1046 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-012-0496-2

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