The U.S. Geological Survey lists earthquakes in which 50,000 or more have died. In 2004, an earthquake comparable to the recent Japan earthquake killed over 200,000 in Sumatra. Last year's quake in Haiti killed 210,000, and since the Richter scale is a logarithmic scale, it had only around one percent the destructive power of this week's earthquake in Japan. In 2005, 86,000 were killed in Pakistan. In 2003, more than 30,000 were killed in Iran by an earthquake that was tiny compared to Japan's. This was mostly due to poor construction and countless buildings collapsed needlessly, killing those inside.
There are news reports stating that the earthquake itself caused most of the damage, but I think that is ignorance about the danger of tsunami, and if you saw any video footage, you could see that the tsunami cleared out everything in its path as far as six miles inland. Most of those buildings were undamaged from the quake, but were washed away like a house of cards. This quake was the strongest in Japanese earthquake-recording history, but the damage from the tsunami was heavier by far. The power of water is unbelievable. There are 10,000 missing from one small town of 17,000 people.
All modern buildings built to very strict earthquake building codes remain standing and mostly undamaged. Tsunami damage is another matter entirely, but based on the physical evidence, I am amazed at the technical prowess of the Japanese. I see this in my work translating patents and technical documents and as a consumer of their products. Japan will recover more quickly that most think and will likely be stronger than they were before.
