TOKYO . IT will take years to rebuild this region. Credit: US Navy. Start of New Tsunami Warning System Operation (PDF, 918 kB) There were many earthquake and tsunami-related solutions put into place in Japan both as precautions and direct consequences of the natural disasters. The Tokohu-oki earthquake 11th March 2011 caused a massive tsunami that devastated the shores of Japan's Honshu island. Warning Service – reading the signals An effective warning system requires continuous monitoring of our planet; on local, regional and global scales. … Japan’s earthquake monitoring and tsunami warning system is one of the most sophisticated -- and costliest -- in the world, befitting an economically … That Japan was not adequately prepared for the tsunami that hit the northeastern Honshu coast on March 11, 2011, first became apparent at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A tsunami warning was issued for the entire Pacific basin except mainland United States and Canada. A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off Japan’s northeastern coast, near the Tōhoku region. The powerful earthquake that unleashed a devastating tsunami Friday appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis. Two years after the 3/11 disaster, in 2013, a group of scientists at the Seismological and Volcanological Department of Japan’s Meteorological Research Institute (MRI) (Now the Seismology and Tsunami Research Department) 20 devised a new warning system for tsunamis that they say could have saved hundreds of lives. 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami timeline March 11, 2011: Map of the 2011 Japan earthquake epicenter off the northeast coast of the Tōhoku region of Japan’s Honshu island. When the earthquake severed the connection between the nuclear power plant and the Japan electrical grid, the diesel backup system turned on as it was supposed to. An energy map provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows the intensity of the tsunami caused by the magnitude 8.9 earthquake which struck Japan on March 11, 2011. On 11 March, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) warned that a 3-metre-plus tsunami would hit northeastern Japan. The event began with a powerful earthquake off the coast of Honshu, Japan’s main island, which initiated a series of large tsunami … Japan has the world's densest seismometer network, the biggest tsunami barriers and the most extensive earthquake early-warning system. Tsunami waves smashed the coast, causing massive damage and flooding. Lessons learned from the tsunami disaster caused by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and improvements in JMA's tsunami warning system (PDF, 1.2 MB) NEW! The Japanese government issued a local tsunami warning three minutes after the quake struck, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, run by NOAA, issued its regional warning … Japan earthquake and tsunami, severe natural disaster that occurred in northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, and killed at least 20,000 people.