Japan's Killer Quake

Gr 9 Up—This Nova episode focuses on the March 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami that devastated Japan. It educates viewers about this timely event with expert interviews, footage of the disaster and aftermath, and computer animations that demonstrate the causes of the quake and tsunami. Interviews with survivors and footage of rescue workers frame the disaster within its humanitarian context. The program highlights a few specific examples of engineering failures, including a protective sea wall that allowed the tsunami to devastate a coastal city as well as the Fukushima nuclear power plant. However, the episode provides little information about the power plant and resulting nuclear scare aside from a time line leading up to an explosion of the second nuclear reactor (which was not the end of the nuclear crisis). Overall, the production is captivating and does a good job of presenting the facts of the first few hours of these disasters. This is a timely example for classes studying plate tectonics. However, the film's timeliness comes at the cost of further scientific analysis of the data; an exploration the economic, ecologic, and humanitarian toll of the disasters; and in depth study of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.—Ryan Henry, Daviess County Public Library, Owensboro, KY