Historical On March 11th 2011 a 9.0 magnitude earthquake 80 miles off the coast of Japan caused a massive tsunami over 100 ft tall that slammed into the coast of Japan killing thousands of people wiping out hundreds of buildings, and left Japan under water. A day later, A nuclear reactor melted and exploded due to the quake releasing radiation into the flooded city, leading to the second worst nuclear accident ever. The disaster was estimated at 36 billion US dollars, and on top of that Japan payed 183 billion US dollars in an effort to stabilize global markets making it the costliest disaster in history.