Where on Earth: Rikuzentaka, Japan

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with the NASA Earth Observatory: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/. 
NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using data from NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and the U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.
Image of the Day story by Michael Carlowicz: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148036/ten-years-after-the-tsunami 
Adaptation to ViewSpace by Margaret W. Carruthers, Holly Ryer, Joe Olmsted, and John Godfrey 
Music from Music for Nonprofits

(SPEECH)

[ELECTRONIC MUSIC]

 

(DESCRIPTION)

Collage of distinct satellite images of natural phenomena.

 

Text, where on earth? Satellite image, two very similar images of a bay surrounded by a snowy mountain range. Text, This set of before and after images from NASA's Terra satellite shows flooding in Rikuzentaka, a small city on the east coast of Japan.

 

What caused this flooding? A, Typhoon Hagibis. B, Tohoku Tsunami. C, Collapse of the Fujinuma Dam. D, Melting of the Kakunesato Glacier.

 

B is highlighted, Tohoku Tsunami.

 

Text, Effects of the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami In Rikuzentaka Japan. On March 11 2011 a magnitude 9.1 earthquake jolted the seafloor about 70 kilometers offshore of Japan's Tohoku region.

 

It was the largest quake recorded in Japan and the fourth largest on Earth since seismic recording began around 1900.

 

Within an hour, tremendous tsunami waves inundated much of the eastern Japanese coast, sending 5 to 10 meter walls of water into coastal towns and cities.

 

Some of the worst devastation was observed at Rikunzentakata. More than 80% of the residential areas were destroyed and more than 1,700 residents were killed.

 

Flood waters sat for weeks on rice paddies and other agricultural land.

 

Before and after images, a missing green patch by the bay. Text, The tsunami also washed away more than 70,000 trees in a pine forest that was planted in the 17th century to protect the town from high winds and high water.

 

A decade later, the area is still rebuilding.

 

A12.5 meter high concrete seawall now stands along two kilometers of the waterfront in Rikuzentakata.

 

Engineers and construction crews carried in massive amounts of soil and rock to raise the level of the land by 10 meters before constructing new buildings.

 

And in 2017, local officials launched a project to plant 40,000 tree seedlings along the town's coastline.

 

In all, the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami destroyed nearly 400,000 buildings, flooded and destroyed more than 21,000 hectares of farmland, and killed more than 16,000 people across Japan.

 

The World Bank estimated it to be the costliest natural disaster in world history.

 

The map recedes until we have the whole Earth before us.

 

Text, where on earth?