Giant Tsunami Could Hit Japanese Shores, Say Experts
It's been just over a year since the devastating Tsunami hit the shores of Japan. Now, a panel of experts commissioned by the government is warning that if there is an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 in off-shore Japan, it could unleash another giant Tsunami. This one could be even more destructive, as it could potentially measure more than 112 ft., or 34 meters in height.
This is unsettling news, especially since parts of Japan have hardly recovered from the tsunami which wrecked a large part of Japan's northeastern coast last March. An estimated 19,000 people had been killed and thousands more had become homeless in that tsunami.
Japan has always been extremely earthquake prone and many estimates about a future Tsunami have been made before, but they've never projected such a scary figure as this new report. In the Tsunami of March 2011 the highest one at Ōfunato was a height of 97 feet or 30 m. By that measure these latest estimates are frightening.
It gets worse. There is another government report which says that there is a strong possibility if an earthquake of a magnitude of about 7 or 7.3 was to hit the Tokyo Bay region, it could badly shake up the Tokyo-Yokohama city area. Around 33 million people are packed into this area and they could face devastating aftermaths of a strong shake-up. Some experts even warn that another one could be round the bend.
If a strong earthquake was actually to hit Tokyo then there could be immense repercussions and the city could be without water and electricity. Water shortage, it is warned, could last for even a month.
Last year the giant tsunami had set off one of the worst nuclear accidents in history. There were worries about radiation, something that is still a major concern. In fact, even though the Japanese government had stated that the nuclear reactors had cooled down, there was still apprehension about the levels of radiation.
Now, some experts have revealed that one of the reactors that was destroyed in the tsunami still has very high radiation levels and not enough water to cool it down. New data shows that the damage is so catastrophic that at the moment it is not possible for anyone to enter the plant in order to decommission it. For this, special equipment has to be made that will be able to withstand the hostile environment inside the plant. The equipment available right now is not meant for such high levels of radiation.
This means that it could be years before the plant can actually be declared safe.