I intended to do this sooner but life intruded.
It was on March 11, 2011 that the Touhoku earthquake and tsunami of 2011 happened, the second 8.9 earthquake in less than ten years after the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami which measured 9.1. I’m sure some thought the same as me, that these might become regular events.
By comparison, the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 (Oakland-Santa Cruz, the “world series earthquake”) was a 6.9 on the Richter scale. Each order of magnitude is a 31.6 increase, so the Sendai earthquake was a thousand times bigger than the Oakland quake. (I used to mistakenly believe each order of magnitude was only a ten fold increase.)
Below the fold are a few news and documentary videos from youtube both from 2011 and made since then.
From National Geographic: Rare Video: Japan Tsunami
From ABC News: Japan’s Great Wall: Can It Stop A Tsunami? This asks whether Japan’s new protective wall is causing more damage than a tsunami would.
From ABC (US): Japan Earthquake Pictures, Video. Disaster in the Pacific 3/11/2011
Asahi News Network (ANN): 2011年3月11日 東日本大震災 仙台空港での地震発生の瞬間～押し寄せる津波【まいにち防災】＊津波映像が含まれています / Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami
This is video from Sendai’s airport. It doesn’t matter that people inside the terminal are safe, it’s shocking to helplessly watch water flood the runways.
Asahi News Network (ANN): 2011年3月11日 東日本大震災 宮古市を襲った”黒い”巨大津波【まいにち防災】＊この動画には津波映像が含まれています / Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami
Asahi News Network (ANN): 2011年3月11日 東日本大震災 気仙沼市を襲った津波【まいにち防災】＊この動画には津波映像が含まれています / Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami
A person films from a building (outside, then inside) as the flood waters pass.
RT: Running from Tsunami: Dramatic rescue video of moments when water hit Japan
Video of people moments after the flood rescuing and saving people who were trapped.
The Sendai quake was notable for the first video evidence of what geologists knew and claimed was true: that the ground could liquefy during earthquakes.
A video labelled, “Craziest Scenes of Japan 2011 Earthquake Tsunami”.
I wish people wouldn’t add their own music to videos.