This GCSE Geography quiz is about tsunamis. At about a quarter to three in the afternoon of the 11th March 2011, a huge and powerful natural hazard known as a tsunami crossed the coast of Japan and flooded buildings and farmland up 10 km inland. About 16,000 people were known to have died with about 2,500 missing and over 200,000 made homeless. A nuclear power station was damaged and the people living within 20 km of it had to be evacuated to escape the radiation leaks.
All this happened when the fourth largest earthquake in the world (since records began in 1900) occurred a few km off the east coast of Japan - two of the Earth's tectonic plates had suddenly moved about 20 metres.
Tsunamis are caused by large underwater landslips or earthquakes. They travel as a fast-moving wave or series of waves through a sea or ocean and are hardly noticeable in deep water.