China, Sichuan earthquake 2008 Location: On the afternoon of May 12, 2008, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan Province, which is 92 km to the north-west of Chengdu City, a mountainous region in Western China, killing about 80,000 people and leaving over 18,000 missing. Over 15 million people lived in the affected area, including almost 4 million in the city of Chengdu. http://sergiu.turcanu.net/strong-earthquake-hits-china/map-of-the-sichuan-earthquake/ Causes: The earthquake was caused by the collision between two tectonic plates, the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate.This collision, is the cause of the high mountains and widespread seismicity observed throughout central Asia. The area of dense circles between India and Asia covers a wide region that is undergoing large strain and deformation. It is this strain that led to the Sichuan quake.
The epicentre was a town named Leogane; about 19km (12 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, thousands were left homeless and up to 80-90% of buildings in Leogane were destroyed. The quake was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitudes. It was the worst earthquake to hit the Caribbean island in 2 centuries. The island lies on the Enriquilla-Plantain Garden Fault however it was caused by an interaction between the North American and Caribbean Plates. After which the barely noticed island became the centre of the world’s news channels, it became one of the most noticed natural disasters in history with celebrities and normal people alike doing allsorts to raise money and aid for the victims of the quake.
The Earthquake On Tuesday January 17th, 1995 an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale struck the city of Kobe at 5.46 a.m. It was the most devastating earthquake to hit Japan since the one that flattened Tokyo in 1923. Major Causes of the Catastrophe One of the main reasons of the severe Kobe earthquake was that it was on a fault. This fault is called the Nojima Fault. It's on a destructive margin (a margin where land/crust is destroyed by it being pushed down under another plate, where the plates are moving together).
9, 000 of those being foreigners. The Tsunami’s energy was so great the wave traveled around the world three times. Seven years later in 2011 an earthquake 60km off the east coast of Tohoku with a magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale struck Japan. The earthquake triggered a huge Tsunami which reached heights of 133 ft. and killed around 15, 839 people, injured 5950 and left 3642 unaccounted for. Causes When a dense oceanic plate collides with a less dense continental plate the denser oceanic plate subducts under the less dense continental plate.
An insurance industry source tallies insured losses at $235 million which is equivalent to $6.08 billion dollars in the present economy. The earthquake struck San Francisco and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on the morning of April 18, 1906. The fault happened to the San Andreas Fault. The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that runs a length of 810 miles (1,300 km) through California in the United States. The fault's motion is right-lateral strike-slip at a horizontal motion.
Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream. The Laki eruption wasn’t really a single event, but rather 8 months’ worth of lava flows and explosions that ejected an astounding 14.7 km cubed of ballistic lava that came out of 140 vents. The eruption was caused by small earthquakes that were hardly detected by the seismometers the eruption caused a gigantic amount of smog and poisonous gasses to envelope Iceland in a matter of days which caused at least 10,000-15,000 deaths in Iceland alone. Consequences in Iceland Affects of a volcanic eruption An estimated 20–25% of the population died in the famine and fluoride poisoning after the fissure eruptions ceased. Around 80% of sheep, 50% of cattle and 50% of horses died because of
Hurricane Sandy destroyed millions of homes, brought a bunch of sand onto the roads, and killed 209 people. Sandy caused $52.4 billion in damages. Another hurricane that has hit the US is Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina caused subsequent floods and caused $81 billion in damaged. Katrina also killed at least 1,833 people in the time that it took to cross most of eastern North America.
Throughout the afternoon an unprecedented amount of rain fell, estimated at over 1.400 million litres in just 2 hours, nearly 200,000 litres a second. The rainfall quickly made its way into rivers that rose at an alarming rate as they flowed through Boscastle. 9 minutes later a flood watch was issued. 3 hours and 1 minute later at 15:00 the first of many power cuts where caused by lightning, 30 minutes later, the river valency began to flood. 16 minutes later there was a reported rise of 2m in one hour.
The tremendous eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815 was the most powerful volcanic eruption of the 19th century. The eruption and the tsunamis it triggered killed tens of thousands of people. And the magnitude of the explosion is difficult to fathom. It has been estimated that Mount Tambora stood approximately 12,000 feet tall before the 1815 eruption, and the top 4,000 feet of the mountain was completely obliterated. Adding to the disaster's massive scale, the huge amount of dust blasted into the upper atmosphere by the Tambora eruption contributed to a bizarre and highly destructive weather event the following year.
At this plate margin, the Pacific plate is being pushed under the Eurasian plate, stresses build up and when they are released the Earth shakes. This is a subduction zone. The focus was only 16km below the crust and this happened on the 17th Jan 1995 at 5.46am. 10 million people live in this area. Effects The effects of this earthquake were catastrophic for an MEDC.