By most measures, humans are considered the planet’s most successful creatures, living thickly upon land, sea and even in the air. But on March 11, 2011, in Sendai, Japan, we, the world’s master builders, met our limitations. As you know, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake not only shook our works into smithereens, it followed up the shaking with massive waves of water that washed kilometers inland, sweeping away homes, car, trees and people.
As clever, intelligent and powerful as we think we are we were helpless when the ground gave way and the sea broke its bounds.
Some of us expounded the scientific facts. We noted the height of the wall of water and the location of the fault. We calculated that the quake moved portions of Japan four meters closer to North America. Some parts of the Pacific Plate moved as much as 20 meters west – one of the largest fault movements ever recorded. The powerful shaking actually shifted the Earth’s axis by some 16.5 centimeters, speeding up the Earth’s rotation and permanently shortening each subsequent day by 1.8 millionths of a second.
The 2011 Tohumu earthquake will go down in history as one of the greatest natural disasters of all time. In its wake, we human beings, having been designed to reflect on such things, try to understand our pain and loss. We struggle to find answers. And on everyone’s mind, no matter their other occupations in the light of this tragedy, is this question: “Why?”.
