ИСТИНА

The last two years set a sad record in the number and scale of natural disasters and clearly demonstrated high vulnerability of the global economy to their impact. The most serious consequences have the so-called natural-technological disasters that have place when natural hazards trigger accidents and disasters at technological objects such as nuclear power plants, chemical plants or oil refineries and pipelines. Natural-technological disasters caused by earthquakes and devastating tsunamis have the most serious impact. One of the most large-scaled natural-technological disasters occurred on March 11, 2011 in Japan as a result of a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake off the northeast coast of Honshu Island, that caused a more than 30-meter tsunami. A distinctive feature of such events is their synergistic nature with a disaster impact on the technosphere, resulting in simultaneous occurrences of numerous technospheric accidents. This disaster was yet another tragic confirmation of the vulnerability of modern techno-sphere and society, even such a highly developed one, as the Japanese, to the impact of natural hazards. The greatest number of fatalities and losses was caused in the Miyagi, Iwate, Fukushima, Chiba, and Ibaraki prefectures. The infrastructure in the north-east of the country is damaged to a considerable extent. The disaster had drastic social, ecological and economic consequences not only in Japan, but also around the world. At the same time, Japanese society has shown its resilience.