The quake was named for the nearby Loma Prieta Peak which lies 8 km to the northeast. Although much of the damage and most of the fatalities occurred in the San Francisco/Oakland area, geologists estimate the earthquake's intensity near the epicenter at between 6.9 and 7.1 on the Richter Scale. The communities nearest the epicenter are all in Santa Cruz County. This is somewhat unusual for an earthquake of this magnitude. Some of the statistical results of the disaster were: more than $7 billion in property damage, 414 single-family homes destroyed, 104 mobile homes destroyed, 18,306 homes damaged, 97 businesses and 3 public buildings destroyed and 2,575 businesses
The most devastating effect of drought in California is wildfires – dry vegetation is extremely flammable, so fires spread quickly over wide areas. 5. The wildfires in Southern California in October 2007 killed 22 people and destroyed 1300 homes. Tsunamis 1. A tsunami is a series of large waves that can flood 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.
This earthquake is remembered as one of the most destructive natural disasters next to the Galveston hurricane of 1900, and hurricane Katrina of 2005. The death toll is believed to have soared past the 3000+ casualty mark. San Francisco was the 9th largest city in the US, and the largest city on the west coast. Over the years San Francisco had become a financial, trade powerhouse and was even referred to as “gateway to the pacific” because they had the busiest port on the West coast. The initial impact was devastating which left about 300,000 people homeless out of a population of about 410,000.
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 deadly earthquake caused a large amount of damage and death in the country and in the pacific coastal areas. Also the tsunami that took place afterwards was the result of this earthquake, which is said to be the largest earthquake that ever happened. According to the Chilean government they estimated around 2,000,000 people were
At least six of the injuries were classified as critical. In Vallejo, 49 people were injured, including two who were hospitalized. One person died September 5 as a result of injuries from the quake. Following the earthquake, several older commercial buildings in downtown Napa showed signs of extensive external damage even though many had been retrofitted for earthquake safety protection. All of these buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Gonzalez Jesse Period 3 5/5/2011 Japan and Haiti’s earthquake Japan and Haiti, two countries that got hit by enormous earthquakes. Japan of the richest countries in the world, was shookened by a 9.0 magnitude after a tsunami and then nuclear crissis. Haiti, one of the poorest countries, got hit by a 7.0 earthquake and then an outbreak known as cholera. Japans earthquake caused a lot of casualties , damage, and weakened its economy. Haitis earthquake had casualties, a lot of damge, and their economy was weaker than it was.
It was miles away from the capital called Port au Prince. The quake moved horizontally, the tectonics plates moved past one another, southwest of the capital which was densely populated. An associate coordinator, Michael Blanpied, of the Geological Survey’s Earthquake Hazards Program described the plates as grinding and crushing past one another. He also said the quake was a relatively shallow earthquake as it occurred 6 miles below the Earth’s surface and that this caused the populated areas to be shaken extremely strongly. Rene Preval, the president of Haiti, said to the Miami Herald that she would think that the death toll would be “unimaginable”.
It registered a 7.0 on the Richter scale. The earthquake’s epicenter was extremely shallow at only 8.1 miles below ground, which released the energy close to the surface and intensified the shaking. The increased level of destruction led to a high loss of life. The earthquake epicenter was only 15 miles from Port-au-Prince and was the strongest earthquake to hit the area since 1770. “The 7.0-magnitude earthquake would be a strong, potentially destructive earthquake anywhere, but it is an unusually strong event for Haiti, with even more potential destructive impact because of the weak infrastructure of the impoverished nation” (Thompson, 2010, p.1).