An earthquake registering 9.0 on the Richter scale hit Japan on 11 March 2011. Its epicentre was about 130 km off the town of Sendai on the northeastern coast and within minutes a tsunami had devastated several fishing villages, killing over 20,000 people. It later emerged that a local nuclear power station had been damaged and was emitting radiation. These shocking and tragic events illustrate how important it is for us, as geographers, to understand clusters of hazardous events and to look more at the risks that accompany our everyday lives.
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