Qualla: 3.11: Six Minutes That Remade Japan https://qualla.com/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:40 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: 3.11: Six Minutes That Remade Japan https://qualla.com/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami 3.11: Six Minutes That Remade Japan: Introduction https://qualla.com/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami/ The earthquake lasted six minutes. That alone made it extraordinary -- most earthquakes are measured in seconds. At 2:46 PM on Friday, March 11, 2011, the Pacific seafloor east of the Oshika Peninsula lurched upward as the magnitude 9.0 megathrust rupture propagated along the Japan Trench, releasing energy that would shift Honshu eight feet eastward and knock Earth's axis 6.5 inches off center. Schools were in session. Trains were running. Fishermen were at sea. Within the hour, waves reaching over 40 meters high in some locations would obliterate entire coastal towns, push the ocean six miles inland, and set in motion a nuclear disaster that would reshape global energy policy. The seismologists had been watching the wrong fault.

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]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/v/4/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami-wp/xnv4-3-11-six-minutes-that-remade-japan-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full 3.11: Six Minutes That Remade Japan: The Wave That Climbed the Walls https://qualla.com/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami/ Japan had invested billions of dollars in anti-tsunami seawalls lining at least 40 percent of its coastline, some standing over 10 meters tall. The wave climbed over them. In places it simply collapsed the walls entirely. The tsunami struck Sendai Airport at 3:55 PM, turning runw...

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]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/v/4/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami-wp/xnv4-3-11-six-minutes-that-remade-japan-the-wave-that-climbed-the-walls.mp3 0:06 2 full 3.11: Six Minutes That Remade Japan: Okawa Elementary and the Human Cost https://qualla.com/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami/ The earthquake struck during the school day. One hundred thousand children were uprooted from their homes; 236 were orphaned across the prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima. At Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki, poor evacuation decisions cost 74 of 108 students and 10 ...

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]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/v/4/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami-wp/xnv4-3-11-six-minutes-that-remade-japan-okawa-elementary-and-the-human-cost.mp3 0:06 3 full 3.11: Six Minutes That Remade Japan: Meltdown at Fukushima https://qualla.com/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami/ Eleven nuclear reactors across four power stations automatically shut down when the earthquake struck. The emergency diesel generators needed to power backup cooling systems kicked in as designed. Then the tsunami arrived. At Fukushima Daiichi, waves overtopped the seawalls and d...

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]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/v/4/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami-wp/xnv4-3-11-six-minutes-that-remade-japan-meltdown-at-fukushima.mp3 0:06 4 full 3.11: Six Minutes That Remade Japan: A Country Split at 50 Hertz https://qualla.com/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami/ The power crisis exposed an infrastructure quirk dating to the 1880s: Japan had never unified its electrical grid. Eastern Japan runs on 50 hertz; western Japan on 60 hertz. Only two frequency-conversion substations existed, with a combined capacity of just 1 gigawatt. Kansai Ele...

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]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/v/4/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami-wp/xnv4-3-11-six-minutes-that-remade-japan-a-country-split-at-50-hertz.mp3 0:06 5 full 3.11: Six Minutes That Remade Japan: Debris Across the Pacific https://qualla.com/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami/ The tsunami produced an estimated five million tonnes of debris. Over the following years, plastic, styrofoam, and wreckage drifted across the Pacific, washing ashore on the coasts of Canada and the United States and increasing litter along the American west coast by a factor of ...

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]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/v/4/2011-t-hoku-earthquake-and-tsunami-wp/xnv4-3-11-six-minutes-that-remade-japan-debris-across-the-pacific.mp3 0:06 6 full