# Tohoku Earthquake -- Any Estimate How Many Killed By Quake Alone?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tohoku-earthquake-any-estimate-how-many-killed-by-quake-alone/615579>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 12, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tohoku-earthquake-any-estimate-how-many-killed-by-quake-alone/615579 "2012-03-12T19:36:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tohoku-earthquake-any-estimate-how-many-killed-by-quake-alone/615579/1 "2012-03-12T19:36:49Z")

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Obviously some people could have been killed by collapsing buildings then washed away so we’ll never know.

But has anyone seen figures estimating how many died/would have died absent the tsunami?

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**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tohoku-earthquake-any-estimate-how-many-killed-by-quake-alone/615579/2 "2012-03-13T01:17:57Z")

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> [@Huerta88](#):
>
> Obviously some people could have been killed by collapsing buildings then washed away so we’ll never know.
> 
> But has anyone seen figures estimating how many died/would have died absent the tsunami?

About a month after the earthquake, Tokyo Metropolitan Police conducted an investigation to determine the cause of death of victims. They examined close to 16,000 corpses and found that 92.5% of them drowned. 4.4% died of trauma, 1.1% of burns. In 2% of cases, the cause could not be determined. Extrapolating with today’s numbers of dead and missing, we get about 17,500 deaths by drowning, 838 deaths by trauma and 209 deaths by fire.

Note, however, that deaths by trauma were not all caused by the earthquake itself as many people were killed or injured by debris from the tsunami. The actual death toll strictly from the quake itself is probably quite low. For instance, no one died in the city of Kurihara (pop. 73,000) despite tremors of intensity 7 on the [Japanese scale](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Meteorological_Agency_seismic_intensity_scale).

Sources:

> **[47NEWS（よんななニュース）](https://www.47news.jp/)**
>
> 全国47都道府県・52参加新聞社と共同通信の内外ニュース。地方創生・写真・動画。地域の文化や活力を発信。野球、サッカー、ゴルフなどスポーツも地域密着から五輪まで。新商品・技術、観光、B級グルメ、映画、音楽、新刊、心和む記事コーナーなど

> **[東日本大震災](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%B1%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E5%A4%A7%E9%9C%87%E7%81%BD#.E6.AD.BB.E8.80.85.E3.81.AE.E5.86.85.E8.A8.B3)**
>
> 東日本大震災（ひがしにほんだいしんさい）は、2011年（平成23年）3月11日14時46分に発生した東北地方太平洋沖地震およびこれに伴う福島第一原子力発電所事故（放射能汚染）による大規模な地震災害（震災）である。
> 東日本各地での大きな揺れや、大津波・火災などにより、東北地方を中心に12都道府県で2万2,325名の死者・行方不明者が発生した（震災関連死を含む）。これは明治時代以降の日本の地震被害としては関東大震災、明治三陸地震に次ぐ被害規模である（震災関連死を除いた比較）。
> 発生した日付から、3.11（さんてんいちいち、さんいちいち）と称されることもある。英称は Great East Japan Earthquake など\[注 1\]。
> 2011年（平成23年）3月11日（金曜日）14時46分18.1秒（日本時間）、宮城県牡鹿半島の東南東沖130km（北緯38度06.2分、東経142度51.6分、深さ24km）を震源とする東北地方太平洋沖地震が発生した。地震の規模はモーメントマグニチュード（Mw）9.0\[注 2\]で、発生時点において日本周辺における観測史上最大の地震である。