Lessons Learned from the 2011 Great East Japan Tsunami: Performance of Tsunami Countermeasures, Coastal Buildings, and Tsunami Evacuation in Japan

In 2011, Japan was hit by a tsunami that was generated by the greatest earthquake in its history. The first tsunami warning was announced 3 min after the earthquake, as is normal, but failed to estimate the actual tsunami height. Most of the structural countermeasures were not designed for the huge tsunami that was generated by the magnitude M = 9.0 earthquake; as a result, many were destroyed and did not stop the tsunami. These structures included breakwaters, seawalls, water gates, and control forests. In this paper we discuss the performance of these countermeasures, and the mechanisms by which they were damaged; we also discuss damage to residential houses, commercial and public buildings, and evacuation buildings. Some topics regarding tsunami awareness and mitigation are discussed. The failures of structural defenses are a reminder that structural (hard) measures alone were not sufficient to protect people and buildings from a major disaster such as this. These defenses might be able to reduce the impact but should be designed so that they can survive even if the tsunami flows over them. Coastal residents should also understand the function and limit of the hard measures. For this purpose, non-structural (soft) measures, for example experience and awareness, are very important for promoting rapid evacuation in the event of a tsunami. An adequate communication system for tsunami warning messages and more evacuation shelters with evacuation routes in good condition might support a safe evacuation process. The combination of both hard and soft measures is very important for reducing the loss caused by a major tsunami. This tsunami has taught us that natural disasters can occur repeatedly and that their scale is sometimes larger than expected.     

Analysis of dust events in 2008 and 2009 using the lidar network, surface observations and the CFORS model

The Asian dust events in 2008 (May 24–June 4 in 2008) and in 2009 (March 12–25, October 13–26, and December 15–28 in 2009) were analyzed with the lidar network observations, surface observations in China, Korea, Japan, and Mongolia, and with the chemical transport model CFORS. Transport of Asian dust and mixing of dust with air pollution aerosols were studied. The event of May 24 to June 4 in 2008 was a significant event unusually late in the spring dust season. The dust event of March 12–25, 2009 was an interesting example of elevated dust layer, and transport of dust from the elevated dust layer to the ground by the boundary layer activity was observed with the lidars and surface observations in Japan. The concentration of air pollution aerosols was relatively high during the dust event, and the results suggest that vertical structure as well as transport path is important for the mixing of dust and air pollution aerosols. The dust events in October and December 2009 were examples of dust events in autumn and winter. The online mode CFORS reproduced the observation data generally well, except for the event of May 24 to June 4 in 2008. The results of the fourdimensional variational assimilation of the lidar network data reproduced the dust concentration in Korea and Japan reasonably in that event.     

Possible variation in methane flux caused by gas hydrate formation on the northeastern continental slope off Sakhalin Island, Russia

The Sakhalin Slope Gas Hydrate Project (SSGH) is an international collaborative effort by scientists from Japan, Korea, and Russia to investigate natural gas hydrates (GHs) that have accumulated on the continental slope off Sakhalin Island, Okhotsk Sea. From 2009 to 2011, field operations of the SSGH-09, -10, and -11 projects were conducted. GH-bearing and -free sediment cores were retrieved using steel hydro- and gravity corers. The concentrations of sulfate ions in sediment pore waters were measured to investigate sulfate concentration–depth profiles. Seventeen cores showed linear depth profiles of sulfate concentrations. In contrast, eight cores and two cores showed concave-up and -down profiles plausibly explained by sudden increase and decrease in methane flux from below, respectively, presumably caused by the formation of gas hydrate adjacent to the core sampling sites.     

Migration of a volcanic front inferred from K–Ar ages of late Miocene to Pliocene volcanic rocks in central Japan

K–Ar ages have been determined for 14 late Miocene to Pliocene volcanic rocks in the north of the Kanto Mountains, Japan, for tracking the location of the volcanic front through the time. These samples were collected from volcanoes located behind the trench–trench–trench (TTT) triple junction of the Pacific, Philippine Sea, and North American plates. This junction is the site of subduction of slabs of the Pacific and the Philippine Sea plates, both of which are thought to have influenced magmatism in this region. The stratigraphy and K–Ar ages of volcanic rocks in the study area indicate that volcanism occurred between the late Miocene and the Pliocene, and ceased before the Pleistocene. Volcanism in adjacent areas of the southern NE Japan and northern Izu–Bonin arcs also occurred during the Pliocene and ceased at around 3 Ma with the westward migration of the volcanic front, as reported previously. Combining our new age data with the existing data shows that before 3 Ma the volcanic front around the TTT junction was located about 50 km east of the preset‐day volcanic front. We suggest that northward subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate slab ended at ～3 Ma as a result of collision between the northern margin of the plate with the surface of the Pacific Plate slab. This collision may have caused a change in the subduction vector of the Philippine Sea Plate from the original north‐directed subduction to the present‐day northwest‐directed subduction. This indicates that the post ～3 Ma westward migration of the volcanic front was a result of this change in plate motion.     

Phreatomagmatic eruptions associated with the caldera collapse during the Miyakejima 2000 eruption,Japan

The 2000 AD eruption of Miyakejima was characterized by a series of phreatomagmatic eruptions from the subsiding caldera. Six major eruptive events occurred, and they can be divided into the first and second periods separated by a 25-day hiatus. The phreatomagmatic eruptions produced a total of ~ 2 × 10¹⁰ kg of tephra, which mainly comprised fine-grained volcanic ash. The tephra layers could be divided into six fall units corresponding to the six major eruptive events.     

The interdecadal variation characteristics of arctic sea ice cover-Enso-East asian monsoon and their interrelationship at quasi-Four years time scale

l.Introducti0nTheclimateformationandvariabilityisnotonlythereflectionofatmosphericinternalbe-havi0rbutalsotheinnuencefromtheinteractionexistSintheclimatesystem.Becausetherela-tivecooIingandheatingsourcesofatmospherearelocatedinthePOlarandtropicalregionrespectively,itiseasytounderstandthattheArcticseaicecoverandSSTanomalieswhichim-pocttheatmosphericheatingtosomeextentcanexerttheirinfluenceontheremotCatmosphericcirculation-Inthisregard,thefocusrelatedtheinflueneeofArcticseaicecoverandtropica…     

Metallicity Distributions of Elliptical Galaxies and Globular Cluster Systems

Gradients of absorption line indices are studied and mean stellar metallicities are estimated for 46 elliptical galaxies. The mean stellar metallicities range from 〈 [Fe/H] 〉 ≃ =0.8 to +0.2 and ellipticals with smaller central velocity dispersions tend to have lower 〈 [Fe/H] 〉 thus the mass-metallicity relation holds not only for the galaxy center but also for the whole part of the galaxy. There is an evidence that the magnesium is enhanced systematically in all ellipticals by 0.2 dex with respect to the iron. Giant elliptical galaxies show lack of metal-poor stars (the G-dwarf problem). Metal-poor globular clusters of ellipticals formed well in advance of the formation of metal-rich ones which formed simultaneously with the bulk of stars of mother galaxies under the influence of galaxy chemical enrichment. The bimodal [Fe/H] distribution of globular clusters does not necessarily mean that elliptical galaxies formed by the mergers of disc galaxies. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Correlation study between suspended particulate matter and DOAS data

Continuous data of aerosol optical thickness monitored using differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) are correlated with the concentration of ground-measured suspended particulate matter (SPM). A high correlation is found between the DOAS and the ground SPM data, making it possible to calculate the mass extinction efficiency of the aerosols in the atmosphere. It is found that the value of mean mass extinction efficiency (MEE) varies over a range of 2.6–13.7m2 g?1, with smaller and larger values occurring for size distributions dominated by coarse and fine particles, respectively.     

Effects of the seasonal variation on forming the steady state of an atmosphere-ocean coupled system

 A three-dimensional, coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model is developed and effects of the seasonal variation on forming a steady-state coupled atmosphere-ocean system are studied. Case studies are carried out for a basin of idealized geometry by changing the period of the seasonal variation in the solar forcing. The coupled system shows significant differences depending on the existence of the seasonal variation, where the heat transport by the oceanic circulation plays a central role. For the regular seasonal variation, a stronger oceanic meridional circulation, which accompanies larger poleward heat transport, is realized compared with that for the annual-mean solar forcing. The stronger meridional circulation is associated with a larger wintertime meridional gradient of the sea surface temperature. The meridional gradient of the annual-mean sea surface temperature is smaller for the regular seasonal variation, which results in a smaller atmospheric poleward heat transport. In consequence, the total of the atmospheric and the oceanic poleward heat transport is almost identical for the two cases. Cases with the seasonal variation of the doubled period and with the time-filtered flux exchange between the atmosphere and the ocean are also studied, showing that the system is not sensitive to those factors.     

Petrology of green polished stone axes of the Jomon period from the Sannai-Maruyama site,Japan, investigating the origin of source rock

Numerous green polished stone axes have been excavated from the Sannai-Maruyama site, one of Japan's largest archeological sites in the Jomon period (5.9–4.2 cal kyr BP). The axes are composed of weakly metamorphosed fine-grained volcaniclastic rock having a peculiar texture that includes numerous acicular actinolites growing in random directions within a quartz and albite matrix. Cobbles of Aotora stone found along the Nukabira River, Biratori town, southern Hokkaido, are the most likely raw material for these stone axes. Aotora stones have alternate bands of a soft dark-green picritic layer and a hard SiO₂-rich pale-green layer. The pale-green layer has a texture similar to the stone axes. Basaltic and picritic volcanic rocks of the Sorachi-Yezo Belt occupy the area along the Shidoni River, a tributary of the Nukabira River. Volcaniclastic rocks similar in texture, mineralogy, and bulk rock compositions to the Aotora stone are exposed in the area. These rocks underwent metamorphism under the actinolite-pumpellyite facies conditions. Their protolith is submarine hyaloclastic rocks that are intercalated with laminated picrite detritus. The stone axes, pale-green layers of Aotora stone, and those of the volcaniclastic rocks of the Shidoni River area all have high SiO₂ (~ 55 wt%), Cr (~ 840 μg/g), and Ni (~ 370 μg/g). The rare earth element patterns with abundant light rare earth elements and depleted heavy rare earth elements of stone axes were also consistent with the pale-green layers of the outcrop. These pale-green layers, interleaved with dark-green layers of picritic detritus, were the likely source rock of the stone axes. The high SiO₂ content in the pale-green layer caused the crystallization of quartz and albite in the matrix, which resulted in high-quality raw material for making stone axes.