Abstract
The East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami caused serious damages in the coastal
area of eastern Japan. Many houses and cars on the road were swept away by the
tsunami. Also, industrial facilities such as chemical plants in the coastal area
were completely destroyed. Damage from saline seawater was not limited only to
the rice field areas, and there were also serious anxieties regarding the possibility
of ground contamination as a result of harmful heavy metals that leaked from
destroyed chemical plants. In light of this scenario, we carried out a quantitative
survey to examine these areas. This paper reports on the results of our survey. It
was found that high salt concentrations were detected on the ground surface but
predictions state that these concentrations can be diluted with rainfall. It was also
revealed that serious ground contamination due to the harmful heavy metals was
not detected.
