This article was published on April 18, 2011

How Fukushima’s Radioactive Cloud Influenced Social Networks


How Fukushima’s Radioactive Cloud Influenced Social Networks

Check out this cool infographic from SocialIntensity.org that highlights the relationship between the movement of the radioactive cloud from Fukushima and the number of tweets posted under the affected areas and the countries in its path.

On March 11, 2011, when Fukushima nuclear reactor blew its top, the global social interest in the unfolding events surrounding the Fukushima catastrophe exploded. Twitter was used as the data source after more than 500 million tweets about Fukushima’s radioactivity were sent in the last month. The data for the Radioactive cloud was obtained from The Austrian Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics.

Here are some of the noteworthy milestones mentioned on the site:

March 11, 2011 A 9.0 magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Japan. The earthquake triggered an extremely destructive tsunami with waves of up to 37.9 meters.

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March 11, 2011 – 177 million tweets were sent, while the average number of tweets is 140 million per day.

March 12, 2011 A massive explosion rocks the power station Fukushima.

March 12, 2011 572,000 new Twitter accounts created. The average number of new accounts per day over the last month is 460 000.

March 15, 2011 Seven of Germany’s 17 nuclear power stations were shut down.

March 18, 2011 Radioactive cloud from Japan headed for U.S. west coast.

March 23, 2011 Radioactive cloud reached Europe.

March 23, 2011 Fukushima became the most expensive natural catastrophe in history, reaching $309 billion.

April 5, 2011 Radioactive water from Fukushima NPP was dumped into the Pacific ocean.

April 6, 2011 Twitter reached 277,559,946 users.

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