Questions about 2011 Tōhoku earthquake

[Bharat Muslim]

Since 1990, Japan had so many earthquakes. In all these earthquakes the casualties were almost zero except in 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. In Tōhoku 2011, the number of deaths alone is said to be almost 16,000. Why was the toll so high that time? Were the casualty figures real or was it media propaganda for political purpose?

List of earthquakes in Japan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Vassnti]

Since 1990, Japan had so many earthquakes. In all these earthquakes the casualties were almost zero except in 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. In Tōhoku 2011, the number of deaths alone is said to be almost 16,000. Why was the toll so high that time? Were the casualty figures real or was it media propaganda for political purpose?

List of earthquakes in Japan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A number of reasons it was the largest earthquake to hit Japan, it was shallow 30k depth rather than the more common 200k + and triggered a Tsunami that was 40m high a magnitude 9 earth quake is a rare thing the 7.8 in Kashmir caused 80,000 casualties, the scale is logrithmic so a 9 is a lot more powerfull.

The other point is the richter scale is some times not the best measure the 7.4 in Christchurch caused little damage and no loss of life, the 6.4 6months later flattened the city and killed 200 because of the vertical acceleration the Mercalli intensity scale is often a better measure

 

[Bharat Muslim]

Since 1990, Japan had so many earthquakes. In all these earthquakes the casualties were almost zero except in 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. In Tōhoku 2011, the number of deaths alone is said to be almost 16,000. Why was the toll so high that time? Were the casualty figures real or was it media propaganda for political purpose?

List of earthquakes in Japan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

@Nihonjin1051