Astrium Satellites Observe Disaster in Japan

On Friday, March 11, 2011 Japan was struck by a powerful earthquake registering an 8.9 magnitude on the Richter scale. An hour later, a tsunami washed over the Japanese coast with water levels reaching over 30 feet high. Since the initial earthquake, there have been more than 50 aftershocks, seven of which have registered at least a 6.2 on the Richter scale.

That same day, a state of emergency was declared and approximately 3,000 people were forced to evacuate due to a cooling system failure at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Following the cooling system failure and subsequent evacuation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, an explosion occurred near nuclear reactor #1. In addition, it was reported that cooling systems in 3 out of the 4 reactors at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant (approximately 7.5 miles south) had also failed. As a precaution, a mandatory evacuation was ordered for those within 12.5 miles of the two plants.

SPOT-5 was able to obtain images of both nuclear power plants on Saturday, March 12. To see these dramatic images, along with the evacuation area, check out the images above.

To learn more about the International Charter and view additional SPOT-5 images of Japan, click here.