Search This Blog

Friday, April 29, 2011

Japan : Gov't warns of risk from quake-caused subsidence

Article from NHK News :

" Japan's land ministry has found that areas of land below-sea-level in the Sendai plain, Miyagi Prefecture, have increased 5-fold after the March 11th earthquake.

It warns that these areas are highly vulnerable to flooding from high tides and typhoons.

The ministry on Thursday released the findings of its aerial probe using an ultra-sensitive, laser-equipped camera to check subsidence across the Sendai plain.

The areas below sea level, shown in blue on the released map, spanned 16 square kilometers.

Before the quake, the plain had only 3 square kilometers of such low-lying areas.

The map also shows, in green, areas lying at full-tide levels. The amount of such areas has increased to 56 square kilometers from the pre-disaster total of 32 square kilometers.

Colored yellow are areas lying below the highest-ever tide level recorded in 1980. These areas have grown to 111 square kilometers from the pre-quake total of 83 square kilometers.

Many river banks and seawalls were damaged by the disaster. The ministry is calling on residents in these areas to be on the alert, and is sandbagging the broken banks."

No comments:

Post a Comment