Why Korea Was Spared from the Tsunami on March 11

A Map of South Korea and North Korea (yellow
and green) and Japan (orange) on the right / east.

It's best to watch the video clip full screen.

The video clip shows how the tsunami originated just on the east of Japan from where it swept in concentric circles throughout the North Pacific Ocean. The Japanese islands acted as an ideal buffer, shielding Korea from the tsunami. Notice in the video that the East Sea, aka the Sea of Japan (the sea between Japan and Korea), stays a bright clear blue, instead of the dark rippling blue that indicates the tsunami's turbulence. The Japanese islands that slope south-east of Korea effectively deflected the waves away from Korea. One can see the ripplings just touching the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, but with hardly any effect.

In a post I wrote last year November I explained why South Korea is actually quite safe as far as natural disasters are concerned and why Japan is so prone to get major earthquakes. You can read that post here.

The New York Times has a nice visual explanation of the earthquake and tsunami that you can see here.