In Mexico City of 1985 and San Francisco of 1989 there were big earthquakes. Many people died and may buildings were destroyed. About 100,000 people were killed and over 300,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged. Both of these Earthquakes were quite similar. The 1985 Mexico City earthquake was one of the most devastating earthquakes in the history of the Americas.
More than 2,000 killed, 3,000 injured and $550 million damage in Chile; seismic sea wave caused 56 deaths, $75 million damage in Hawaii; 138 deaths and $50 million damage in Japan; $500 thousand damage to west coast of the United States. From ISC Bulletin, The International Seismological Summary. The following table lists particulars reported by the Survey for the larger shocks of the series of destructive earthquakes in central and southern Chile which began on May 21 and which is still continuing as of this writing in mid-August. The
The initial impact was devastating which left about 300,000 people homeless out of a population of about 410,000. Many of the people were evacuated to nearby cities, and the others lived in makeshift tents on the beach of North beach. In fact years later in 1908 these refugee camps were still in operation. The overall cost of the damages was estimated at the time to be 400 million US Dollars (around 8.2 Billion present Dollars). The fires that were a direct result from the main shock and the aftershocks were just as damaging because of the uncontrollable burning from ruptured gas lines.
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.
Eruption of Mount St. Helens 1980 On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted and killed fifty-seven people. This was the most recent earthquake in the main forty-eight states since 1915. Mount St. Helens is a stratovolcano located in the state of Washington. A stratovolcano is made up of hardened pumice and lava. Before 1980, the last eruption of Mount St. Helens was between 1840 and 1850.
For Haiti it broke 250 years of strain. Many lost families and were in a state of devastation. The massive earthquake also caused a tsunami, which collapsed many
Frequent collapses of lava-dome complexes, most recently in 1964, have produced large debris avalanches whose deposits cover much of the floor of the breached caldera. During the 1990s, intermittent explosive eruptions took place from a new lava dome that began growing in 1980. The largest historical eruptions from Shiveluch occurred in 1854 and
9-1-1 The earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane in New Orleans, and the Demolition in San Francisco are all examples of National Disasters around the world. The human population has been affected by national disasters since the beginning of time; over billions of people have either become homeless, heart, and in most cases dead. The United Stases is the most powerful and richest country in the world yet the government and celebrities go out and help other countries spending billions of dollars on water, food, and shelter before helping people back home. We have more than 500,00 people homeless right now, that alone is a national disaster. Unfortunately, other countries aren’t so lucky; like Africa.
And lastly, the effects of an earthquake are the prime mover in the world’s continued research on earthquakes. The damage and effects of an earthquake can be very devastating as anything can happen from the hundreds of earthquakes occurring every day. References Brune, D. Fractures and ruptures within the earth. 27 September 2005. Retrieved November 6, 2012 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1598774 Dimley, J. April 2000.
Conservative plate boundaries, such as the Pacific and North American plate, move at 2-3cm/year causing damage to cities along the fault, such as Los Angeles. Earthquakes have different impacts depending on the depth of the focus, the exact point underground where the quake struck, but also the human factors such as land use, population density and the infrastructure apparent. The Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 was created due to an earthquake that displaced 15-20 metres of water along a 1600km slip plane creating an earthquake that measured at 9.1 on the Richter scale. It caused a tsunami wave (as shown in Figure 1) which resulted in the deaths of 250,000 people. The Loma Prieta earthquake that ruined San Francisco in 1989 resulted in 63 deaths and 3,757 injuries.