Anyone know how many people died during the Japan earthquake?

[GKirk]

Am I correct that most of the deaths were cause by the tsunami and
not the earthquake that preceded it on March 11th?

[northoftheborder]

1. That's what I heard. The tsunami is what took everybody and everything in the area.

[hlthe2b]

currently: 13228 people dead and 14529 missing

Last month's earthquake and tsunami it triggered left 13228 people dead and 14529 missing per BBC... Nearly all from the tsunami.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13055656

[tularetom]

2. I heard 25,000 but I don't think they differentiated

between deaths casued by the earthquake and those due to the tsunami.

Based on what I've seen I'd agree with your assumption.

[pscot]

4. The number I saw was 27,000-plus

[barbtries]

3. i doubt if that will ever be known

as the tsunami happened fairly quickly. i do believe that many more people were killed by the tsunami but an earthquake of that magnitude had to have taken a toll as well.

[hayu_lol]

5. The present death toll is slowly climbing from...

approximately 27,000 to 30,000. It may well reach 40,000 before the counting stops. Since there was only a 10 to 15 minute gap between the quake and the resulting tsunami hitting the coast, most people in the area were out doing whatever they do on a normal day. Warnings would have been late and would have confused people...as they sorted out the problem, the tsunami came ashore.