Qualla: 2016 Fukushima Earthquake

2016 Fukushima Earthquake: Introduction

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mikenorton, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Japan Meteorological Agency classified it as an aftershock -- five years and eight months after the mainshock. At 05:59 on November 22, 2016, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake ruptured a fault just 9 kilometers beneath the Pacific seafloor, east-southeast of the town of Namie in Fukushima Prefecture. Within three minutes, tsunami warnings blared across the eastern coast of Honshu, from Aomori to Chiba. For millions of Japanese who remembered March 11, 2011, the sensation was sickeningly familiar: the same region, the same ocean, the same urgent broadcasts urging immediate evacuation. But this time, the outcome was different.

Image: Mikenorton | CC BY-SA 3.0

2016 Fukushima Earthquake: The Long Shadow of 2011

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mikenorton, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 2016 Fukushima earthquake did not occur on the same fault that produced the devastating 2011 Tohoku disaster. Instead, the immense stress redistribution caused by that magnitude 9.1 megathrust loaded adjacent faults along Honshu's eastern coast, eventually triggering rupture ...

Image: Mikenorton | CC BY-SA 3.0

2016 Fukushima Earthquake: Waves Against the Coast

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mikenorton, CC BY-SA 3.0. Within an hour of the quake, the tsunami reached Fukushima's shore. Waves measured 0.9 meters at Onahama and 0.8 meters at Soma. To the north, Sendai Port recorded the highest wave at 1.4 meters. A later field survey found a local run-up of several meters at Ohama Fishing Port on...

Image: Mikenorton | CC BY-SA 3.0

2016 Fukushima Earthquake: Nuclear Nerves

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mikenorton, CC BY-SA 3.0. The earthquake briefly shut down a spent fuel cooling system at the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant, a facility just 12 kilometers south of the ruined Fukushima Daiichi station that had melted down in 2011. The cooling interruption was short-lived, and monitoring instruments ...

Image: Mikenorton | CC BY-SA 3.0

2016 Fukushima Earthquake: A Region That Endures

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. Remarkably, no one died. Seventeen people were injured, three critically, from broken bones and cuts caused by falling objects. A research facility in Iwaki caught fire. About 1,900 houses lost power briefly. Property damage was minor. The Nikkei futures market barely flinched. F...

Image: Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0