This document touches upon the Case Study Fukushima given in the first year of security studies (leiden uni). All the lectures are included in the document, and for the readings there is a separate document that I sell as well. Good luck!
Lecture 1
earthquake (eq) definition = both sudden slip on a fault and the resulting ground shaking and
radiated seismic energy caused by a slip or by a volcanic or magnetic activity or other
sudden stress changes in the earth
→ TECTONIC PLATE THEORY = tectonic plates moving slowly relative to each other and
they always get in contact → earthquakes = sudden movement along faults within the Earth
Three types of plate boundaries
- Convergent = subduction
- Divergent = spreading
- Transform = lateral sliding
Japan was strike by several eq, people believe these are made by a catfish (their beliefs,
history, legends) - catfish moves
plates in the pacific - they move faster; pacific plate (explanation of the eq and volcanoes in
the pacific plate; most eq here)
Japan
- 4 different plates
Seismic waves (4 types)
→ different speed
→ body waves vs surface waves
1. p-waves (body)
→ first ones
→ quick
2. s-waves (body)
→ slow to arrive
→ more destructive
3. love waves (surface)
→ travel orthogonally with the direction of propagation
4. rayleigh waves (surface)
→ propagate near the Earth’s surface as ripples
→ cause a rotation
Mercalli scale
• oldest ones
• measure the effects on the buildings
• about observable earthquake damage
,Richter scale
• about the magnitude (the size of the earthquake)
• the problem is that it was designed for california and it doesn’t go very high, designed
for small earthquakes
→ magnitude (size) is determined using the logarithm of the amplitude (height) of the largest
seismic wave calibrated to a scale by a seismograph
Moment magnitude scale
• moment = rigidity x area of fault surface x fault of displacement
→ related to the total energy released in the earthquake
Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) seismic intensity scale
• measured in shindo
→ ground-surface shaking takes place at measurement sites distributed throughout an
affected area
Why Japan? Why disasters in japan
→ bad position
→ 80% of eqs are in japan
- more than 6,5 every year
• How do they cope with disasters?
1. early warning system
- japan eq early warning system
- japan tsunami warning system
2. building codes
- amendment to the building standards law (1981)
3. disaster education
- disaster prevention day (sept 1)
- augmented reality to teach children; VR (technology!!)
4. tsunami signs
Tsunami tendenko
• people should run without taking care of others
• personal responsibility
• might increase the chance of survival
• trust in people
• not egoistic
History
- Great janto earthquake was a very huge earthquake
• 7,9 magnitude
- the great hanshan (name in the slides)
• 6,9 magnitude
• death toll - 6 000
- showa great sanriku tsunami (1933)
• 8,4 magnitude
• mitigation measures
- typhoon hagibis (typhoon, 2019)
, - tokyo sarin attack
• yoga class => cult
• terrorist attack
What happened with the nuclear power plant PLUS events timeline
• no electricity at the plant
→ need electricity to keep something cold, to control the temperature
→ 3:27 (the wave) 3:37 (when the wave reached the nuclear plant) - tsunami
- 2:49 tsunami warning
- from 3,5 to 12 m
- 40m run up
- 700 km/h
→ the alert underestimate the waves and the eq
- 3:37 hydrogen explosion
→ before that, everything was under control (unit 1, then unit 3, then unit 4)
- 8:50 pm evacuation
- Late evening; didn't have time to get their belongings
- 470 000 displaced people
→ it was a level 7 event (earthquake plus tsunami)
Crisis response
• the first 24h were critical
- state of emergency declared
- local gov response systems activated
• three main actors
- tepco
- japan gov
- at the NPP
→ japanese self-defence force
- critical role
- humanitarian relief!! from several countries
- 163 countries and 43 international org
- US was the main actor; sent a lot of troops; biggest help
→ Volunteers
The critics
→ Early warning
o People thought that the system was very advance
o The first estimation was 7,9
o Consequences in ppl reactions
o Estimated 3m tsunami wave, underestimated
→ Not a natural disaster
o But errors in planning and response economic benefits more than safety
→ responsibility of tepco (SAFETY MYTH)
• Disaster definition on the slide
• See the photo
• TEPCO was unable to make prompt organisational decisions and wound up losing
gov’s trust with regarded to information sharing and decision making
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