The earthquake was particularly devastating because it had a shallow focus. The earthquake had a "strike-slip mechanism." The resulting surface rupture had an average horizontal displacement of about 1.5 meters on the Nojima fault. This fault which runs along the northwest shore of Awaji Island. DEATH TOLL The earthquake caused 5100 deaths, mainly in Kobe.
Geology The Loma Earthquake 1989 Name Course Date due An earthquake is a physical occurrence where vibrations are caused by underlying rocks that are breaking under a lot of stress. The rocks are situated under the earth’s crust and are mostly caused when two tectonic plates come together, and pressure is created along the fault lines. It is then released towards the earth’s surface resulting in an earthquake. In 1989, the Loma Earthquake occurred in the region of the Santa Cruz Mountains that caused a total number of 63 fatalities, 3,557 injured related cases. It also destroyed a lot of property which is estimated to be about $6 billion.
Environmental Psychology Article Analysis Psychology 460 University of Phoenix October 23, 2011 ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY An earthquake so powerful that it knocks the earth off its axis and the coast drops off three feet. A tsunami follows the earthquake leaving tens of thousands of people dead. When watching a live tsunami along the Japanese coast is quite an amazing sight. It was such an extraordinary and dramatic sight to get to witness broadcasting live into the homes across the world. 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 1993 southwest-off Hokkaido earthquake occurred at 22:17 on 12 July 1993 in the Sea of Japan near the island of Hokkaido. It had a magnitude of 7.7 on the moment magnitude scale (newer version of the Richter scale) and a maximum felt intensity of VIII on the Mercalli intensity scale. It triggered a major tsunami that caused deaths on Hokkaidō and in southeastern Russia, with a total of 239 fatalities recorded. The island of Okushiri was hardest hit, with 165 casualties from the earthquake, the tsunami and a large landslide. The earthquake occurred in the backarc region of the convergent boundary where the Pacific Plate subducted beneath the Eurasian Plate.
As a result, earthquakes can and do occur, notably on Luzon Island in 1990. It measured 7.8 on the Richter Scale and killed over 1500 people. A reason for this major difference in death rate compared to California is that the Philippines is poorer than California and so cannot afford as much earthquake-proof buildings and the buildings are of poor quality. This may mean the buildings can collapse easily and so can kill people easily. A natural hazard that does not affect California but common in the Philippines are tropical storms.
Movement in this fault zone resulted in the great Hanshin earthquake. A 30-50 km long rupture of a strike-slip fault occurred close to and under downtown Kobe. The eruption towards the north ruptured towards Kobe. The earthquake’s shallow depth of 16 km and close proximity to the built-up area meant that buildings and structures were subjected to much ground-shaking and soil liquefaction On Tuesday, January 17th 1995, at 5.46 am (local time), an unexpected earthquake of magnitude 7.2 on the Richter scale struck the Kobe region of south-central Japan, the shallow depth of the focus which was only about 16 kilometres below the surface and the fact that the epicentre occurred close to a very heavily populated area caused a great destruction. Seismic shockwaves travelled from Awaji Island (the epicentre) along the Nojima Fault to the cities of Kobe and Osaka.
(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
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.
In addition to loss of life and destruction of infrastructure, the tsunami caused a number of nuclear accidents and the associated evacuation zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents. The overall cost could exceed US$300 billion, making it the most expensive natural disaster on record. 2. The full impact of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami will not be known for some time. The world’s focus at this time is on the enormous loss of life as a result of this tragedy.
Discuss the view that the impact of earthquake hazards depends primarily on human factors [40] An earthquake is a tremor or shockwave in the earth’s crust that is caused by the sudden movement of the crust, resulting in the earth shaking. Most earthquakes are a consequence of tectonic plate movement by tension causing a sudden release of energy or rubbing. These normally occur at plate margins or along fault lines and can cause hazards which need to be prevented where possible. Earthquakes can therefore occur at all plate boundaries, destructive, constructive and conservative but the most damaging tend to happen at destructive margins where the earthquakes have a high magnitude due to the rubbing of the oceanic and continental crusts. A hazard is a natural event that has the potential to effect both life and property.