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What day is it today? Tohoku Edition [0615]

What day is it today? | Tohoku Edition What day is it on June 15th?

The day the Meiji Sanriku earthquake and tsunami occurred

At 7:32:30 p.m. on June 15, 1896 (Meiji 29) , the Meiji Sanriku Earthquake occurred, with its epicenter off the coast of Sanriku, 200 km east of Kamaishi Town, Kamihei District, Iwate Prefecture (present-day Kamaishi City) .

A house that drifted ashore from Hosoura on the opposite shore to Gongenhama in Shizugawa Town during the 1896 Meiji Sanriku Great Tsunami. Source: Wikipedia
A house that drifted ashore from Hosoura on the opposite shore to Gongenhama in Shizugawa Town during the 1896 Meiji Sanriku Great Tsunami. Source:Wikipedia

a magnitude of 8.2 to 8.5, but the maximum seismic intensity recorded on landa magnitude 4, and in other areasaround magnitude 2 to 3, so the earthquake itself was so mild that no one paid any attention to it.

However, within about 30 minutes of the earthquake, a massive tsunami struck various locations

  • Taro Village, Shimohei District, Iwate Prefecture (present-day Taro area, Miyako City):14.6m
  • Funakoshi Village, Shimohei District, Iwate Prefecture (present-day Funakoshi, Yamada Town, Shimohei District):10.5m
  • Shigemo Village, Shimohei District, Iwate Prefecture (present-day Shigemo, Miyako City):18.9m
  • Kamaishi Town, Kamihei District, Iwate Prefecture (present-day Kamaishi City, Iwate Prefecture):8.2m
  • Yoshihama Village, Kesen District, Iwate Prefecture (present-day Yoshihama, Sanriku-cho, Ofunato City):22.4m
  • Ayasato Village, Kesen District, Iwate Prefecture (present-day Ayasato, Sanriku-cho, Ofunato City):21.9m

And, in almost all cases, they recorded altitudes exceeding 10 meters

In particular, in Ayasato Bay, Sanriku-cho, Ofunato City, the tsunami surged up the intricate valley-like terrain, recording a run-up height of 38.2 meters , the highest recorded for a tsunami on Honshu at the time . (The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake recorded a maximum run-up height of 40.1 meters in the same Ayasato Bay.)

The total number of dead and missing reached 21,959(Hokkaido: 6, Aomori Prefecture: 343, Iwate Prefecture: 18,158, Miyagi Prefecture: 3,452), andmore than 10,000 houses were washed away or completely destroyed, andnearly 7,000 shipswere swept away.

reference


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