At 2:46 pm on March the 11th, 2011, an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale struck the North East coast of Honshu, the largest island in Japan. The epicentre of this Earthquake was located just 130 kilometres off the coast of Sendai and was the most powerful earthquake known to hit Japan and the fifth-most powerful earthquake ever recorded. Commonly known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, this earthquake lasted around six minutes and triggered a Tsunami that killed 15,890 people and left over 500,000 people homeless.
Figure
1: 2011 Tohoku earthquake