Today in Earthquake History

On March 11th...

• M9.1 - Near the East Coast of Honshu, Japan, 2011

  At least 15,550 people killed, 5,344 missing, 5,314 injured, 130,927 displaced and at least 332,395 buildings, 2,126 roads, 56 bridges and 26 railways destroyed or damaged by the earthquake and tsunami along the entire east coast of Honshu from Chiba to Aomori. The majority of casualties and damage occurred in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima from a Pacific-wide tsunami with a maximum runup height of 37.88 m at Miyako. The total economic loss in Japan was estimated at 309 billion US dollars. Electricity, gas and water supplies, telecommunications and railway service disrupted and several reactors severely damaged at a nuclear power plant near Okuma. Several fires occurred in Chiba and Miyagi. At least 1,800 houses destroyed when a dam failed in Fukushima. Maximum acceleration of 2.93 g recorded at Tsukidate. Horizontal displacement and subsidence observed. Landslides occurred in Miyagi. Liquefaction observed at Chiba, Odaiba, Tokyo and Urayasu. The tsunami destroyed or severely damaged many coastal towns in the Kuji-Minamisanriku-Nami area. One person killed and several houses destroyed at Jayapura, Indonesia by a tsunami with a wave height of 2 m. One person killed south of Crescent City, California and several boats and docks destroyed or damaged at Crescent City by a tsunami with a recorded wave height of 247 cm. Several houses, boats and docks destroyed or damaged at Santa Cruz, California; Brookings, Oregon; Hale`iwa, Kailua Kona and Kealakekua, Hawaii. Some buildings damaged slightly in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador by a tsunami with a recorded wave height of 208 cm at Santa Cruz. Several houses destroyed at Pisco, Peru. Several buildings destroyed at Dichato and several boats damaged at Puerto Viejo and on Isla Chiloe, Chile. Felt in Japan, Northern Mariana Islands, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, northeastern China and southeastern Russia as far as Kaohsiung, Beijing and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy. Seiches observed at Leikanger, Norway. Water fluctuations observed in a well in Newfoundland, Canada. The tsunami had maximum runup heights of 29.6 m at Ofunato, 18.4 m at Onagawa and 9.4 m at Iwaki.

• M3.5 - Near Newport, Rhode Island, 1976

  The largest historical earthquake in Rhode Island. Plaster cracked at Rogers, Connecticut; a lamp fell from a table at Newport, Rhode Island; amd snow was knocked off a roof at Westport, Massachusetts. Felt from Oakland, Rhode Island, south to Newport and from Somerset, Massachusetts, south to New Bedford and Westport.

• M6.4 - Long Beach (Newport Beach), California, 1933

  Local time/date: March 10 17:54 PST. This earthquake caused serious damage to weak masonry structures on land fill from Los Angeles south to Laguna Beach. Property damage was estimated at $40 million, and 115 people were killed.
  Abridged from Seismicity of the United States, 1568-1989 (Revised), by Carl W. Stover and Jerry L. Coffman.