NASA photos show flooded coast after Japan tsunami

March 14, 2011 By Jeffrey Van Camp

NASA has released two photographs showing the damage done by the 8.9 magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan last week.

Last week, Japan endured one of the worst earthquakes and tsunamis on record. We posted some information and videos on Friday, but today NASA has given us a look at the entire coastline before and after the waves hit.

The image on the right shows the coastline after the tsunami east of the city of Sendai. As you can see, the entire coast is eroded and far less defined with areas of water extending far into the mainland. These pictures were taken at 10:30 a.m. on March 12, 2011 by NASA’s MISR (Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer) on its Terra spacecraft. The region shown extends from the Abukama River to just south of Minamisoma, a town of 71,000.

This second photo shows the topography around the city of Sendai after the 8.9 magnitude quake struck 80 miles offshore. Sendai is the capitol city of Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture and has a population of about 1 million. The city lies in the center of this picture, between the mountains and the shore. It had little geographic protection from the oncoming waves.

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SamanthaT at 1:43am 17th March 2011 The tsunami and earthquake that devastated Japan destroyed many lives and livelihoods of people. This is one event that people will remember in history. It also made way to the nuclear plant explosion in Fukushima where it brought a big threat of radiation.