Fill In The Gap Exercise

(Word bank: earthquake/seaside town/rescue/death estimates/nuclear emergency/triggering/faced/Richter scale/tsunami)




On March 11, 2011, an _________ struck off the coast of Japan, _________ up a devastating _________ that swept over cities and farmland in the northern part of the country and set off warnings as far away the west coast of the United States and South America. Initially recorded as 8.8 on the _________, it was upgraded to 9.0, an effective doubling of its power. In the days after the quake _________ went up astronomically, with officials saying that more than 10,000 had died in one _________ alone. As the nation struggled with a _________ effort, it also faced the worst _________ since Chernobyl; partial meltdowns were presumed to have taken place in two reactors and four others _________ serious cooling problems.