By the time it hit Sri Lanka and India it was 9am. Two hours later the waves hit Sri Lanka, 150 people were reported dead and within half an hour, the figure reached 3,000. From 10am -11am a massive rescue operation began. The estimated death toll reached up to 26,000, with at
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?
(USGS) There are two types of faults called dip-slip faults and strike-slip faults. Dip-slip faults occur when vertical displacement takes place and strike-slip faults happens when there is horizontal displacement. (Chapter 3&4 Powerpoint) Haiti is located in the western part of the island of Hispaniola and is situated between Puerto Rico and Cuba as seen in the picture to the right. (USGS) On January 12th 2010 at 4:53 p.m., an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 occurred 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. The earthquake was said to be felt in areas of Aruba, Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos, Venezuela, Bahamas, US Virgin
(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
Washington Earthquake Risks Earthquakes can strike any location at any time. But history shows they occur in the same general patterns year after year, mainly in three large zones of the earth. The world's greatest earthquake belt, the circum-Pacific seismic belt, is found along the rim of the Pacific Ocean, where about 81 percent of the world's largest earthquakes occur. It has earned the nickname "Ring of Fire". The belt extends from Chile, northward along the South American coast through Central America, Mexico, the West Coast of the United States, and the southern part of Alaska, through the Aleutian Islands to Japan, the Philippine Islands, New Guinea, the island groups of the Southwest Pacific, and to New Zealand.
It increased by 7 ft a day.” Earthquakes You can predict when a volcano will erupt because you get earthquakes. This is because most volcanoes follow a regular pattern of increasing seismic activity as the eruption is about to take place, usually in the form of small earthquakes. Scientist use special equipment seismometers that tell and record earthquakes that happen underneath the volcano. Long period earthquakes- are beneath volcanoes and are believed that it is caused by magma moving through cracks that then shake the ground. Short period earthquakes- earthquakes under the volcanoes that is believed to be caused by rock breaking events Both types of
This earthquake had a magnitude of 7.3 and was on the Johnson Valley fault line. The next earthquake was the Kern County earthquake on July 21, 1952. This earthquake had a magnitude of 7.3 and it was on the White Wolf Fault. In the West of Eureka on January 31,1922, there was an earthquake with the magnitude 7.3 and on the Mendocino fault line. One last earthquake was the Great San Francisco earthquake on April 18, 1906.
This tragedy has left more than 11,000 people dead with more than 15,000 people missing. The Earthquake and Tsunami have caused extensive structural damage in Japan. More than 100,000 buildings are reported damaged or destroyed, including damage to roads, railways, fires in many areas with a dam collapse. More than 4 million household in Northeastern Japan are left without electricity and 1.5 million without water, with electrical generators taken down. It does not end here.
Within this past century, there have been five major floods that were recorded to have claimed hundreds of millions of lives, millions of acres of farmland, destroyed thousands of homes, and billions of dollars of damage. In 1998, a flood of such catastrophic level in the Three Gorges area caused 4,000 casualties, left 14 million people homeless, and created $24 billion in economic loss. The proponents of the Three Gorges Dam believe that it will serve to protect 15 million people and 1.5 million acres of farmland in areas of the Yangtze River that are vulnerable to flooding. In order to do this, the water height of the reservoir upstream from the dam will change according to season. During the dry season, from November to April, the water level will be allowed to reach 185 meters above sea level, but during the flooding months, the water level will be reduced to 135 meters in order to attempt to contain flood waters.
The Sichuan 2008 Earthquake Factors On 12 May 2008 at 14:28:01.42 CST, an earthquake, measuring up to 8.0 on the Richter scale struck the Wenchuan County of the southwest Sichuan province of China. The epicentre location was 31°01’16”N and 103°22’01”E. Between 64 and 104 major aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from 4.0 to 6.1, were recorded within 72 hours of the main quake. According to Chinese official counts, by October 23, there had been 34,498 total aftershocks. By September 2008, the recorded number of dead was 69,227, with 374,643 injured, 17,923 missing and at least 5 million homeless.