Fukushima plant on February 28, 2021. Click here for a high resolution photo.
New Delhi:
Japan will mark 10 years since the devastating earthquake and tsunami tomorrow, followed by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the worst natural disaster in the country’s history. 19,000 people lost their lives and around a lakh had to flee their homes.
A 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima disaster, which released large amounts of radiation into the air, land and water around the 220 nuclear power plant northeast of Tokyo .
High-resolution satellite imagery shows the impact of the disaster and how Japan has rebuilt itself over the years.
The images come from Maxar’s satellites and capture a series of historical images that reveal the extent of the destruction. Maxar continued to monitor the area and captured satellite images from before the earthquake and tsunami, immediately after the disaster, and recent images that provide a current view of the same places.
The earthquake was so powerful that it moved the main Japanese island of Honshu 2.4 meters to the east and may even have shifted the Earth itself on its axis.
After the disaster, 12% of Fukushima prefecture was closed and about 1.65,000 people fled their homes. (Deposit)
The tsunami overwhelmed the cooling systems of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, ultimately causing three of its six reactors to melt. Four reactors, including one that was not operational at the time of the earthquake, were damaged and explosions devastated reactors one and three. One of the satellite images shows the nuclear power plant on November 15, 2009, almost a year and a half before the disaster.
Satellite images of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant before the tsunami (left), days after the tsunami (top right) and almost a decade later (bottom right). Click here for a top photo resolution.
Another photo, taken a few days after the merger, on March 14, 2011, details the damage and series of explosions on the reactors of the plant. A recent photo, from February of this year, shows the storage tanks around the facility which are used to store the radioactive water treated in the years after the merger.
The port of Sendai and the airport were flooded by the tsunami. A series of satellite images shows the port almost a year before the tsunami, days after it, and another image more than nine years later, from August 11 of last year.
Satellite images of Sendai port before the disaster (left), days after it (top right) and nearly a decade later, from August of last year (bottom right Click here for a high resolution photo.
In nearby Natori, hundreds of houses and buildings were washed away by the waves. The surge of the ocean also flooded the fields and led to large piles of debris.
Satellite images of the port of Natori before the disaster (left), days after it (top right) and almost a decade later, from August of last year (bottom right Click here for a high resolution photo.
Japan spent 31.3 trillion yen on post-earthquake and tsunami reconstruction – roughly the size of the Egyptian economy – with an additional 1.6 trillion yen set aside for the next five years, reported Reuters news agency.
(With contributions from AFP and Reuters)