The earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011 was one of the most powerful ever recorded. It caused widespread damage along the coast, including enormous tsunami waves that swept many miles inland, destroying towns and killing over 15,000 people. The tsunami also caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate due to radioactive contamination. In the aftermath, rescue workers searched through devastated areas for survivors as people began the long process of rebuilding their lives and communities.

1. Gas storage tanks explode after
the earthquake hit the Cosmo oil
refinery in Ichihara city, Chiba
PrefectureAsahi/Reuters

2. The sixth anniversary of the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear
disaster that devastated swathes of Japan on 11 March 2011.
At 2.46pm on 11 March 2011, Japan was struck by an earthquake with a
magnitude of 9.0 – the biggest in the nation's recorded history and one of the five
most powerful recorded ever around the world. The epicentre was located about
70km east of Tohoku in Miyagi prefecture, north-eastern Japan. The six-minute-
long tremor and its thousands of aftershocks shook buildings across much of
northern Japan and the nation's capital.

3. A huge whirlpool is seen in the Pacific
Ocean off the coast of Oarai, Ibaraki
prefectureKyodo/Reuters

4. 11 March 2011: A powerful wave
crashes onto a street in Miyako in
Iwate prefecture, sweeping all
before itMainichi Shimbun/Reuters

5. Enormous tsunami waves hit the coast of Minamisoma in Fukushima prefectureJiji Press/AFP

6. The sea sweeps far inland in coastal areas of Iwanuma, Miyagi PrefectureKyodo/Reuters

7. 11 March 2011: Toya Chiba, a
reporter for local newspaper
Iwate Tokai Shimbun, is swept
away by the tsunami as he was
reporting at Kamaishi port,
Iwate prefecture. Chiba
managed to survive by grabbing
a dangling rope and climbing
onto a coal heapKamaishi Port
Office via Kyodo/Reuters

8. Huge waves sweep ashore and flood Sendai AirportKyodo/Reuters

9. Fishing boats and vehicles are swept away by a tsunami wave at Onahama port in Iwaki city, Fukushima prefectureJiji Press/AFP

10. Houses that caught alight during the earthquake are swept out to sea by the tsunami in Natori, Fukushima prefectureKyodo/Reuters

11. Cars and aeroplanes are
jumbled up among debris at
Sendai AirportKyodo/Reuters

12. Total devastation is seen in an area of Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, the day after the earthquake and tsunamiJiji Press/AFP

13. People paddling a floating container in Miyagi prefecture are rescuedKyodo/Reuters

14. A soldier carries an
elderly man on his
back to a shelter in
Natori, Miyagi
prefectureYomiuri
Shimbun/Reuters

15. 12 March 2011: A picture
taken from a Japan
Ground Self-Defense Force
helicopter shows the town
of Minamisanriku in
Miyagi prefecture, thea
day after it was flattened
by a massive
tsunamiKyodo/Reuters

16. 12 March 2011: A huge ship is
washed up onto shore next to
damaged homes in the city of
Kamaishi in Iwate
prefectureYomiuri Shimbun/AFP

17. 12 March 2011: A man looks out over an area devastated by the earthquake and resulting tsunami in SendaiKyodo/Reuters

18. 12 March 2011: A derailed train and a car are seen at a devastated station in Shinchi, Fukushima prefectureKyodo/Reuters

19. 12 March 2011: People paddle small boats down a road flooded by the tsunami waves in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefectureJiji Press/AFP

20. 12 March 2011: People
waiting to be rescued spell
out the letteres 'SOS' on top
of a building in Kesennuma,
Miyagi prefectureYomiuri
Shimbun/AFP

21. 12 March 2011: Smokes rises from the badly damaged town of Yamada in Iwate prefectureYomiuri Shimbun/AFP

22. 13 March 2011: A plane and vehicles lie among the rubble outside Sendai Airport, Miyagi prefectureMike Clarke/AFP

23. 13 March 2011: A woman cries while sitting on a road amid the destroyed city of Natori, Miyagi prefectureAsahi Shimbun/Reuters

24. 13March 2011: A
woman wrapped in a
blanket surveys the
damage caused by the
earthquake and tsunami
in Ishimaki, Miyagi
prefectureYomiuri
Shimbun/Reuters13

25. 13 March 2011: One building rests
on another in Minamisanriku,
Miyagi PrefectureKyodo/Reuters

26. 13 March 2011: A house is seen adrift in the Pacific Ocean off SendaiUS Navy/Reuters

27. 13 March 2011: Debris covers a large area in Natori, Miyagi prefectureMike Clarke/AFP

28. 13 March 2011: The roof of a
building is seen buried amid the
rubble in Rikuzentakata, Iwate
prefectureLee Jae-won/Reuters

29. 13 March 2011: A woman walks towards an overturned
squid fishing boat that was tossed onto land by a
tsunami in Hachinohe, Aomori prefectureKyodo/Reuters

30. 13 March 2011: An aerial view of people waiting for water at a school in Sendai, Miyagi prefectureKyodo/Reuters

31. 13 March 2011: Sixty-year-old survivor Hiromitsu Shinkawa is rescued by members of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force about 15km off Fukushima prefecture. He was spotted clinging to the roof of his house
two days after the tsunami swept him out to seaJapan Maritime Self-Defence Force/Reuters

32. The tsunami also led to a nuclear disaster when the Fukushima Daiichi power plant was
inundated by waves, causing a cooling system failure, followed by a nuclear reactor meltdown
and the release of radioactive materials. Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate
an area 20km radius around the reactor. The plant's owners, Tokyo Electric Power Company
(Tepco) said 45 metric tons of radioactive water were released into the ocean.

33. 13 March 2011: Damaged reactors are seen after an explosion at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear PlantKyodo/Reuters

34. 14 March 2011: A girl who
was isolated at a
makeshift facility to
screen, cleanse and isolate
people with high radiation
levels, looks at her dog
through a window in
Nihonmatsu, Fukushima
provinceYuriko
Nakao/Reuters

35. 20 March 2011: An aerial view of damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power StationAir Photo Service/Reuters

36. 14 March 2011: A survivor
pushes his bicycle through
the remains of the
devastated town of Otsuchi
in Iwate prefectureDamir
Sagolj/Reuters

37. 14 March 2011: Boats that
were washed ashore by the
huge waves are seen in
what remains of a
residential area near Sendai
in Miyagi prefectureNoboru
Hashimoto/AFP

38. 14 March 2011: Destroyed houses and boats lie in a mass of splintered wood in Yamada, Iwate prefectureKyodo/Reuters

39. 14 March 2011: A patient's dead body lies in the hallways of a hospital in MinamisanrikuAdrees Latif/Reuters

40. 14 March 2011: A house drifts in the ocean east of SendaiUS Air Force/Reuters

41. 14 March 2011: Members of the Japanese Self Defence
Air Force check a Mitsubishi F-2 fighter after it was
pushed by the tsunami into a building, at the
Matsushima Air Base at Higashimatsushima city in
Miyagi prefectureJiji Press/AFP

42. 14 March 2011: Oil leaks from boats that were capsized by the tsunami in Fudai Village, Iwate PrefectureYomiuri Shimbun/Reuters

43. 14 March 2011: A man walks
past the destroyed local
government building in
Tanohata, Iwate
PrefectureKyodo/Reuters

44. 14 March 2011: A Japan Self-
Defence Forces officer smiles as
he holds a four-month-old baby
girl who was rescued along with
her family members from their
home in Ishimaki City, Miyagi
prefectureYomiuri
Shimbun/Reuters

45. 15 March 2011: Rescue
workers search through
twisted wreckage in the
fishing town of Otsuchi,
Iwate prefectureAly
Song/Reuters

46. 15 March 2011: South Korean rescue workers
walk past a car on the rooftop of a house in
SendaiJo Yong-hak/Reuters

47. 16 March 2011:
Heavy snow falls
as rescue workers
search a
devastated factory
area in SendaiKim
Kyung-
Hoon/Reuters

48. 17 March 2011: A man
cycles through an area hit
by earthquake and
tsunami in KesennumaKim
Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

49. 17 March 2011: A man cries
next to his destroyed house
where his dead mother was
still buried in the rubble in
Onagawa town, Miyagi
PrefectureYomiuri
Shimbun/Reuters

50. 18 March 2011: Toyoki Sugawara looks out
from his destroyed liquor shop in
Kesennuma as he collects items he can
salvagePaula Bronstein /Getty Images

51. 20 March 2011: A ship crushes a house in the port town of
Higashimatsushima, Miyagi prefectureMike Clarke/AFP

52. 22 March 2011: A car is seen on top of a building in Minamisanriku town, Miyagi prefectureCarlos Barria/Reuters

53. 26 March 2011: A wrecked train carriage lies over a cemetery in Onagawa, Miyagi prefectureYasuyoshi Chiba/AFP

54. 26 April 2011: People look at a boat that was swept onto the roof of a tourist hotel in Otsuchi, Iwate PrefectureToru Yamanaka/AFP

55. Buildings burn following an
earthquake in Yamada, Iwate
prefectureYomiuri Shimbun/Reuters

56. END11-MARZO-2017