Seismic shockwaves travelled from Awaji Island (the epicentre) along the Nojima Fault to the cities of Kobe and Osaka. This region is the second most populated and industrialized area after Tokyo, with a total population of about 10 million. The ground shook for only 20 seconds but in that short time around 5,000 people died, over 300,000 people became homeless and economic cost of about £100 billion was caused to roads, houses, factories and infrastructure. However Japan is known for its earthquakes proof structures. So why did so many people die?
(Some geologists argue that this portion of the Eurasian Plate is actually a fragment of the North American Plate called the Okhotsk microplate.) A part of the subduction zone measuring approximately 190 miles (300 km) long by 95 miles (150 km) wide lurched as much as 164 feet (50 metres) to the east-southeast and thrust upward about 33 feet (10 metres). (“Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011, 1”) A series of extremely destructive tsunami waves followed the 9.0 earthquake along with the dozens of foreshocks and aftershocks that came with it. The city of Sendai, its surrounding area and airport were pounded by a wave
It also destroyed a lot of property which is estimated to be about $6 billion. This is the biggest earthquake ever to occur and recorded along the fault lines of San Andreas from the previous massive earthquake back in April of 1906. Most of the property devastation that was caused by the earthquake happened in the Oakland and also in San Francisco areas that were about 100 kilometers northwards from the fault line where the section moved in the San Andreas region. A lot of houses collapsed while several reinforced –concrete viaducts were destroyed in four areas of Oakland and also San Francisco. The areas namely: Embarcadero Freeway, Nimitz Freeway, which is in Highway 10, Oakland and the Interstate 280.
This is an analysis on what is known to be the largest earthquake and biggest tsunami ever to hit Japan on March 11, 2011. The earthquake and tsunami Japans coast lies in ruins after the earthquake hit followed by the tsunami picking up everything in its path like cars, houses, and warehouses. Seismometers, strain gages, and title gages records the disaster. P-waves travel at four miles a second and within seconds warnings flash across the country. The S-waves shake the ground making earthquakes so damaging and the reactor core is shut down (Kerger, 2011.
Compare and Contrast two disaster hotspots in term of their hazards and management of their hazards A hazard hotspot can be defined as a place that has two or more natural hazards affecting it. An example of an MEDC that is a Hazard Hotspot is California, in South-Eastern USA. An example of an LEDC Hazard Hotspot is the Philippines, a group of lots of islands in South-East Asia. California is located on the San Andreas Fault, a conservative plate boundary. This means that it is very susceptible to earthquakes e.g.
The earthquake’s strongest point lasted for around 8-10 minutes. The tsunami created a permanent rise in global sea level by at least 0.1mm and it caused an inactive volcano located in the Leuser Mountain, Indonesia to active. Did you know the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was caused by an earthquake that is thought to have had the energy of 23,000 atomic bombs. *Location* The tsunami was located in 15 different countries. The countries which were affected the most include Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
The earthquake occurred in the backarc region of the convergent boundary where the Pacific Plate subducted beneath the Eurasian Plate. The earthquake shaking caused moderately severe damage, VIII on the Mercalli scale. The jolting movement of the seabed made the water rise and fall, which set off a terrifying tsunami. The fast-moving waves spread in all directions. They hit Okushiri less than four minutes later.
Cities are located near dangerous earthquake zones all throughout the country, from the most infamous on the West Coast to potential time bombs in the Midwest and even on the Eastern Seaboard. Stretching from northern Vancouver Island in Canada to northern California is the Cascadia subduction zone, where one giant plate of the Earth's surface is diving deep beneath another one. “The very largest earthquakes all occur on subduction zones”, said seismologist Geoffrey Abers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York. "These are also the faults that make very large tsunamis that propagate across ocean basins to cause a lot of damage.” This means that our home state, Washington, falls into that “at risk” category. The earthquake threat in Washington is
The shifting of the earth’s plates in the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, 2004 caused a rupture more than 600 miles long, displacing the seafloor above the rupture by perhaps 10 yards horizontally and several yards vertically. As a result, trillions of tons of rock were moved along hundreds of miles and caused the planet to shudder with the largest magnitude earthquake in 40 years. Within hours of the earthquake, killer waves radiating from the epicentre slammed into the coastline of 11 Indian Ocean countries, damaging countries from east Africa to Thailand. A tsunami is a series of waves, and the first wave may not be the most dangerous. A tsunami “wave train” may come as surges five minutes to an hour apart.
‘How do people and society respond to environmental hazards and what factors influence their choice of adjustments?’ (Cutter 1996). Discuss this statement with reference to examples of both natural and technological hazards. Introduction Environmental hazards fall under two headings: Chronic and Catastrophic. Catastrophic hazards are those with a high magnitude and low frequency. They create huge media attention as the rate of change from what would have been considered as ‘normal’ conditions is very high, for example an earthquake can turn an entire city to ruins and kill hundreds of people in just minutes.