• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.437-452
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• 2012

The Tohoku earthquake (Mw9.0) occurred on March 11, 2011 and caused a large tsunami. The Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP (F1-NPP) were overwhelmed by the tsunami and core damage occurred. This paper describes the overview of F1-NPP accident and the usability of tsunami PRA at Tohoku earthquake. The paper makes reference to the following current issues: influence on seismic hazard of gigantic aftershocks and triggered earthquakes, concepts for evaluating core damage frequency considering common cause failure with correlation coefficient against seismic event at multi units and sites, and concepts of "seismic-tsunami PSA" considering a combination of seismic motion and tsunami effects.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.225-234
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• 2014

The 2011 Tohoku earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves which propagated over the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean through Drake Passage and Indian Ocean respectively. A total of 10 tide-gauge records collected from the UNESCO/IOC site were analyzed through a band-pass digital filtering device to examine the observed tsunami characteristics. The ray tracing method and finite-difference model with GEBCO 30 arc second bathymetry were also applied to compare the travel times of the Tohoku-originated tsunami, particularly at Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean and King Edward Point in the Atlantic Ocean with observation-based estimates. At both locations the finite-difference model produced the shortest arrival times, while the ray method produced the longest arrival times. Values of the travel time difference however appear to be within tolerable ranges, considering the propagation distance of the tsunami waves. The observed tsunami at Rodrigues, Mauritius in the west of the Madagascar was found to take a clockwise travel path around Australia and New Zealand, while the observed tsunami at King Edward Point in the southern Atlantic Ocean was found to traverse the Pacific Ocean and then passed into the Atlantic Ocean through the Drake Strait. The formation of icebergs captured by satellite images in Sulzberger in the Antarctica also supports the long-range propagation of the Tohoku-originated tsunami.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.7-7
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• 2011

On March 11 in 2011, off the Pacific coast of Tohokua huge earthquake of Magnitude 9.0 occurred. This presentation reports the earthquake, the ensuing tsunami and the devastating damages caused by them. The epicenter was approximately 72 km east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tohoku, with the hypo-center at an underwater depth of approximately 32 km. Owing to this earthquake, strong quakes were observed in eastern Japan with the levels 6 and 7 on the Japanese scale. The earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami wave, which attacked the very wide range of eastern Japan coast. The earthquake and ensuing tsunami caused severe damage to levees and embankment along the coasts and rivers. Those water-related damages are reported in this presentation. The Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant was also damaged by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami. From the crippled nuclear power plant, appreciable quantities of radioactive material were emitted to the surrounding environment. Those substances which emitted to air may fall on the ground together with raindrops and runoff to rivers. Elucidation of those processes is the task which our hydrological society should undertake.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.1045-1060
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• 2014

The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake brought serious damage around the Tohoku district in Japan, and much human life and fortune were lost. Bridges were damaged by this earthquake. It was the most serious damage that the superstructures of bridges were flowed out by tsunami. Earthquakes of the same scale are predicted in other areas of Japan. It is necessary to take measures for bridges near coast. In order to understand the tsunami force acting on the bridge, hydraulic model experiments was conducted. In addition, this paper focused on fairing that is effective in wind resistant stability. Installing fairing to bridges has been verified by experiments whether it is possible to reduce the force of tsunami.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.255-266
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• 2012

The enormous disaster (Friday nightmare) occurred at 14:46 (JST) (05:46 UTC) on 11 March 2011, officially named "the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami". To monitor the variations of the marine environment after the earthquake, we used chlorophyll and Rrs(555) of GOCI and MODIS ocean color satellite data during March ~ May 2011. Before the earthquake, chlorophyll and Rrs(555) were relatively low around the Sendai areas. After the earthquake;their concentration and intensity were suddenly increased along the coast and the water column was disturbed by the tsunami wave. The severe distortions influenced by the tsunami occurred at less than 30 m water depth and the variations in offshore were difficult to discern the effect of the tsunami. The disturbance by the tsunami was still remained in the terrestrial environment after one month. However the ocean environment returned to the former condition in almost two month later.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.265-276
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• 2016

The 2011 Tohoku, Japan Tsunami, which occurred on March 11, 2011, reached the Korean Peninsula and was recorded at numerous tide stations. In the records of the north-eastern tide stations, tsunami forerunners were found in only about a few minutes after the earthquake, which was much earlier than the expected arrival time based on a numerical simulation. Murotani et al. (2015) found out that the bathymetry effect is related to the tsunami forerunners observed in Japan and Russia. In this study, the tsunami forerunners observed in Korea were well reproduced by a numerical simulation considering the bathymetry effect. This indicates that it is important to consider the bathymetry effect for a tsunami caused by an earthquake on shallowly dipping fault plane(e.g. 2011 Tohoku, Japan Earthquake). However, since the bathymetry effect requires additional computation time, it is necessary to examine the problems that results from applying the bathymetry effect to the tsunami warning system.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.143-151
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• 2012

The tsunami disasters and tectonic movements derived from mega-earthquake(M 9.0) which occured in the sea floor of the Pacific side of northeast Japan in March, 2011 were investigated. Landward invasion limit of the tsunami was 4.0km from the present coastline in Sendai coastal plain. It was observed that sandy deposit was dristributed largely in coastward part and muddy deposit was distributed largely in landward part. The ratios of distribution distances of the above two deposits were, respectively, 60~75% and 25~40% of the whole invasion distance of the 2011 tsunami. The ratios of the above distribution distances of tsunami deposits could be used to estimate landward invasion distances of the past maga-tsunamies(e.g. '2,000year B.P. Mega-Tsunami' and 'Jogan Tsunami' etc.) in Sendai coastal plain. The mega-scale tsunami disasters were caused by the low and flat geomorphic condition in the Sendai coastal plain and the increasing effect of tsunami height affected by narrow inlet condition of the so-called Ria's coast in the Sanriku coastal area respectively. Tectonic subsidences caused by the mega-earthquake in march, 2011 were observed in many areas of Ishinomaki, Ogawa, Ogachi and Onagawa coasts in northeast Japan. The displacements of tectonic subsidence were between 0.5 meters and 1.0 meters.

• Transportation Technology and Policy
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2013

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.485-495
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• 2015

The Tohoku Earthquake, which hit Japan on March 11, 2011, was a massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake, with the earthquake itself causing damage and the resulting tsunami additionally causing enormous material and human damage. The crustal deformation at that time reached a maximum of 5.24 m in Japan, Neighboring countries South Korea and China as well as the Southeast Asian region also witnessed crustal deformation ranging from a few centimeters to a few meters. The detailed analysis in this study based on data from 72 of the sites in South Korea where GNSS CORS was installed showed that South Korea underwent heterogeneous crustal deformation from the Tohoku earthquake, with a maximum of 55.5 mm, a minimum of 9.2 mm, and an average of 22.42 mm. A crustal deformation model was developed, applied, and evaluated for accuracy in this study for a prompt revision of the survey results of the control points that were changed by the crustal deformation. The survey results were revised by applying a crustal deformation model to the 1,195 unified control points installed in South Korea prior to the Tohoku earthquake. The comparison of these 1,195 points with their new survey results showed that the RMSE decreased from 14.1 to 3.4 mm and that the maximum result difference declined from 39 to 10 mm. Revision of the survey results of the control points using the crustal deformation model is deemed very useful considering that the accuracy of the survey results of the unified control points in South Korea is 3 cm.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.386-393
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• 2013

After the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, it has been pointed out that Tokai, Tonankai and Nankai massive earthquakes with a magnitude of 9.0 could strike the Pacific coasts in western Japan. This study aims at investigating numerically propagation characteristics of tsunami generated by a 9.0 magnitude Tokai, Tonankai and Nankai massive earthquakes on the Pacific coasts and three major bays in Japan, Tokyo Bay, Ise Bay and Osaka Bay. It was revealed from the numerical results that the tsunami heights on the Pacific coasts for M9.0 earthquake were about twice as much as those for M8.7 earthquake and the first tsunami arrival time was faster at some areas distant from the tsunami source. Moreover, high water level in the bays was recognized to continue for a long time because of the enclosed bays.