Background and Scope - Tohoku, Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011 - page 15

economy than the 2008 bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers financial services firm.
Citing that the affected areas represented less than 2.5% of the Japanese economy and
speculating that industry in these areas would return to 90% of pre-earthquake levels
by summer, the government estimated total damages between 16 to 25 trillion yen
($203 to $316 billion dollars) over three years (Office of the PM 2011). On July 16th,
Japan lowered its estimate of reconstruction costs — to between 10 and 12 trillion
yen ($126 to $152 billion) over the next five years (Reuters 2011). The International
Monetary Fund, in an annual assessment on July 21, predicted Japan's economy
would likely show a 0.7% contraction in 2011 but growth would likely rebound to
2.9% in 2012 (IMF 2011).
1.4 Tectonic and Geologic Setting
1.4.1 Geography of North‐Eastern Honshu Coast
The islands of Japan formed primarily from the subduction of tectonic plates from the
Pacific under those of the Asian continent. This process, which separated Japan from
the Asian mainland and formed the Japan Sea about 15 million years ago, is also
responsible for Japan's long history of volcanic and earthquake activity.
Figure5.DiagramofnortheasternHonshucoast
In the Tohoku region of Northeastern Honshu, (Figure 5), the spreading Pacific Plate
subducts at a rate of about 80 millimeters per year under a subplate near the Eurasian
continent, the Okhotsk plate. On this interface at the sea floor, the Japan Trench runs
roughly southward from the Kuril Islands 800 kilometers to the Bonin Islands. In
places, the trench extends to 9 kilometers in depth. Near Tokyo, the Japan Trench lies
about 150 km offshore; however, in the Tohoku region, it runs between 190 and 250