The 1985 Mexico City earthquake was one of the most devastating earthquakes in the history of the Americas. On Thursday, September 19, 1985, at 7:19 am. local time, Mexico City was struck by an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 on the Richter scale. The epicenter of the earthquake was off the Pacific coast of the Mexican state of Michoacán, a distance of 350 km, in the Cocos Plate subduction zone. It was felt as far away as Los Angeles, California.
Haiti Earthquake, January 2010 Terrah-Leigh Ann Pietersen On the 12th of January, 2010, an earthquake struck Haiti which measured up to 7.0 on the Richter scale. This caused an estimate of 230, 000 to 316, and 000 to have died. The earthquake was produced form the fault line that separates the Caribbean tectonic plate from the North American plate. The fault line ran from east to west. It was miles away from the capital called Port au Prince.
At approximately 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906 the city of San Francisco was struck by a 7.9 magnitude earthquake! The main shock occurred offshore about 2 miles out. The earthquake happened along the San Andreas Fault line, and the shock was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles. The earthquake was extremely catastrophic which also resulted in fires. This earthquake is remembered as one of the most destructive natural disasters next to the Galveston hurricane of 1900, and hurricane Katrina of 2005.
(live science.com) One of the most memorable rogue wave occurrences was on October 30, 1991. It was called the perfect storm. According to CNN.com, an enormous extra tropical low is creating havoc along the entire Eastern Atlantic Seaboard in this infrared image at 1200 UTC (0700 EST) on October 30, 1991. Labeled the "perfect storm" by the National Weather Service, the storm sank the sword fishing boat Andrea Gail, whose story became the basis for the currently best-selling novel "The Perfect Storm" by Sebastian Junger. Ocean waves peaked at 100 feet, the height of 10-story buildings.
Trevor Palmer 4/30/14 5th Period 1960 Chilean & Japanese Tsunami Natural disasters can happen at any moment, ranging from the most deadly to just minor natural disaster, but on this day in May of 1960 something happened that will never be forgotten. They say it was the largest earthquake that ever happened off the coast of Chile and because of that a tsunami happened also. According to the Natural Disaster Organization “the earthquake hit at 7:11 pm approximately 100 miles off the coast of Chile”. The shock of the earthquake had a large magnitude of at most 9.5, this goes without saying that there were warnings of this going to happen the day before. The deadly earthquake caused a large amount of damage and death in the country and in the pacific coastal areas.
Historic Earthquakes Chile 1960 May 22 19:11:14 UTC Magnitude 9.5 The Largest Earthquake in the World Articles N.B. : The magnitude for this earthquake has been recalculated since the following articles were written. Magnitude 9.5 is a better determination of the size of this earthquake. More than 2,000 killed, 3,000 injured, 2,000,000 homeless, and $550 million damage in southern Chile; tsunami caused 61 deaths, $75 million damage in Hawaii; 138 deaths and $50 million damge in Japan; 32 dead and missing in the Phillippines; and $500,000 damage to the west coast of the United States. Abridged from United States Earthquakes 1960, by H. Carroll Talley, Jr. and William K. Cloud.
Japan is well known for being particularly amenable to subduction zone earthquakes, with huge pressures brought to bear by the sticking tectonic plate zones nearby it, and the slipping results in many earthquakes, some of them very big for instance the Tohoku earthquake. The Tohoku earthquake of March 11, 2011 also referred to as the Great East Japan Earthquake in Japan was one of the most powerful earthquakes that ever hit Japan and worldwide it’s recorded as the fifth most powerful earth quake. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that resulted into 15,883 deaths, 6,149injured and 2,652 people missing. The earthquake occurred in the north-western Pacific Ocean and lasted for approximately 6minutes. Initially, the earthquake was reported as having a 7.9magnitude (MW) and later it was raised to 8.8 then 8.9MW and finally to 9.0MW.
The 2010 Chile earthquake is ranked as the sixth largest earthquake to ever be recorded by a seismograph. It had a magnitude of 8.8, lasted three minutes and could be felt over 1,491 miles away. It hit on Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 03:34 a.m. local time (06:34:14 UTC). The epicenter was located 200 miles southwest of the Chilean capital of Santiago with latitude of -36.122 and longitude of -72.898. The earthquake was 22 miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean from a 300 to 375 mile stretch of the fault that separates the Nazca and South American tectonic plates.
2011- The Nuclear disaster in Japan was the most powerful known earthquake ever to have hit Japan, and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. AP Environmental
Ike was the second costliest Atlantic hurricane of all time, only surpassed by Hurricane Katrina of 2005 (not adjusted for inflation; if adjusted, Ike would be the third costliest storm). [8] It became the largest search-and-rescue operation in U.S. history. [9] It was also resulted in millions leaving the Houston/Galveston area and other parts of Texas. However, Hurricane Rita still holds the designation as the largest U.S. evacuation in history.