Japan Struck After Disasters Hit Australia, New Zealand

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The Pacific has never been the quietest place on planet earth. 
 Yet the intensity and rapid fire Pacific disturbances show that like it or not, nature is hitting back at manmade civilizations like never before. 3 major natural calamities struck the Pacific belt during the last three months that destroyed life and property worth billions and made headline news the world over. 

First came the extreme wet weather in the north eastern part of Australia leading to torrential rain that continued for weeks.  Tropical storms that began in November continued through the month of December without respite. This led to the unusually high water levels  of 4 major rivers in the mining rich belt of Queensland affecting over 200,000 people in the state. On the 3rd of January Cyclone Tasha emerging from the South Pacific ocean lashed the already devastated state with wind speeds of over 60miles per hour, triggering a further 10 inches of rainfall in the next 24 hours to bring about flash floods and  enhance the misery. 

The Australian calamity was soon upstaged by the Christchurch earthquake in neighboring New Zealand a month later when nearly a hundred people were killed and half the city was razed by an earthquake of the order of 6.3 in the Richter scale. The Quake losses were estimated to be over $20 billion.

Before the ink could dry on the news and the losses of these disasters, arrived the biggest  natural calamity of the decade when an massive earthquake of the order of 8.9 on the Richter scale,about 1000 times powerful than the Haiti quake ripped through  north eastern Japan , the world's most well prepared  bastion against earthquakes.  As per scientists the Pacific plate slid almost 50 feet below the Eurasian plate around 30 miles below the surface leading to this massive quake the 5th largest in all time history. 

The earthquake was followed by a Tsunami within a few minutes and 10 meter high waves several miles wide rolled in to drown the  coastal  town of Sendai, besides Miyagi and  Fukushima prefectures. The Ichihara refinery in the outskirts of Tokyo found its storage tanks enmeshed in blazing fires following the quake. The reactors at the 40 year old Daiichi nuclear power station failed to shut down in Fukushima in the affected zone leading to a blast and rapid depletion of cooling water and overheating of nuclear rods that could result in a nuclear meltdown.

The three great natural calamities in the Pacific coast in rapid succession has been devastating and could be the beginning of an age of  great turmoil, as  nature hits back at man made civilization at a furious pace.