...Comparing 2 different Earthquake Cases Introduction: In this essay I will be comparing 2 different cases of Earthquakes, 1 in an MEDC (More Economically Developed Country) and the other in an LEDC (Less Economically Developed Country) both of a magnitude of 7.0. The two earthquakes that I will be comparing are the Kobe Earthquake in Japan in 1995 of a magnitude of 7 (for the MEDC) and the Haiti Earthquake in 2010 of a magnitude of 7.0 (for the LEDC).I will be comparing the impact after the Earthquake, the damage inflicted on the city, the cost in damage and the loss of lives and the amount of injuries. I will be doing this to see how the economic bracket and earthquake proof buildings can affect the damage inflicted onto the cities affected...
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...Earthquakes are an example of seismic activity created by plate boundaries. They can be caused by the subduction of oceanic crust which is densest at 2.9 g/cm3 under continental crust which weighs 2.7g/m3 at destructive plate boundaries. Earthquakes can also occur along conservative plate boundaries such as that shared by the Pacific and North American plates which move at 5-9 cm/year and 2-3 cm/year respectively causing the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake along the San Andreas fault alongside which lies the San Gregorio and Hayward faults. Earthquakes have different impacts dependent on the location of their foci, the point at which they originate from underground, the presence of land in the surrounding areas, but also the human factors such as land use, population density and the use of earthquake proofing technologies to limit earthquake impacts. The Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 was created due to an earthquake along the 3 plate junction where the Philippine, Pacific and Eurasian plates all meet. The 15-20 m slip along a 1600km slip plane created an earthquake measures at 9.1 on the logarithmic Richter scale making it one of the most intense earthquakes in history. It caused a tsunami wave which resulted in the deaths of 180000 people according to a UN report, though other sources suggested it reached 300000. The Kobe earthquake which devastated the port of Osaka Bay resulted in 6300 deaths and 35000 serious injuries. This earthquake measured 7.1 on the Richter scale meaning that...
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...Earthquakes are an example of seismic activity created by plate boundaries. They can be caused by the subduction of oceanic crust which is densest at 2.9 g/cm3 under continental crust which weighs 2.7g/m3 at destructive plate boundaries. Earthquakes can also occur along conservative plate boundaries such as that shared by the Pacific and North American plates which move at 5-9 cm/year and 2-3 cm/year respectively causing the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake along the San Andreas fault alongside which lies the San Gregorio and Hayward faults. Earthquakes have different impacts dependent on the location of their foci, the point at which they originate from underground, the presence of land in the surrounding areas, but also the human factors such as land use, population density and the use of earthquake proofing technologies to limit earthquake impacts. The Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 was created due to an earthquake along the 3 plate junction where the Philippine, Pacific and Eurasian plates all meet. The 15-20 m slip along a 1600km slip plane created an earthquake measures at 9.1 on the logarithmic Richter scale making it one of the most intense earthquakes in history. It caused a tsunami wave which resulted in the deaths of 180000 people according to a UN report, though other sources suggested it reached 300000. The Kobe earthquake which devastated the port of Osaka Bay resulted in 6300 deaths and 35000 serious injuries. This earthquake measured 7.1 on the Richter scale meaning...
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...Los angeles: earthquake hits with magnitude 6.7 * 57 people died. Big city earthquake will happen again but will not cause massive loss. City of kobe: 5400 deaths many fires started around the city which burnt the whole city down. Water tanks even became empty and could not take out all the fires. Homes were made out of mud and straw at the bottom and tiled ceilings and roofs which collapsed when the hurricane hit. Why did this happen? Northern japan is sittin on a plate. Los angelas is sittin on a pacific plate. Which is sliding every year few centimeters leading the state up towards Alaska. \however it is not smoothly sliding because of the ridges hiting one another, so there are mountains that have been formed . this is the case both in los angelos and japan. In los angeles most impact of the earthquake was in the mountains, and the city of los angelos was spared. However in kobe, the fault line shifted rite under the city where there were many buildings. Famous saying that “earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings do. Kobe is densily populated. North ridge on other hand was that the earthquake broke off to the northern part of the city where it was away from the city and more so directed into less dense areas. Therefore, less people and damage was done. Why was one area shaking to the ground and one not? Kobe has mountains on one side and basin on other. Basin- soft soil. When waves hit the basin, they go back creating more waves. Kobe lies on a thin...
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...boundaries 2. Constructive boundaries 3. Conservative/transform boundaries You should research what happens at each type of boundary, the resulting tectonic hazards and any landforms that are produced. Remember that different plate boundaries vary considerably - some produce very violent earthquakes and explosive volcanic activity whereas others produce gentle eruptions and earthquakes. I would also note down some named examples of each type of boundary and perhaps case studies of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that were caused by a specific boundary. For question 2, it seems to me that they might be looking for some human factors to be mentioned, i.e. factors that make one particular tectonic hazard much more severe than others. For example: degree of preparation, population density, distance from epicentre, secondary impacts (e.g. tsunami, fire), magnitude of earthquake etc Compare the physical causes of tectonic hazards at contrasting plate boundaries 1.0 A tectonic hazard is a physical occurrence resulting from movement in the earth’s crust which has the potential to cause loss of life or property (Digby) these tectonic hazards include Volcanoes, earthquakes, or tsunamis and have varying impacts depending on the severity of the...
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...damage to humans or buildings. Many volcanic and seismic events happen that cause hazards to humans. Often the world’s poorest people are hit the worst, however wealthier countries can also be adversely affected. The Kobe earthquake in Japan 1995 struck at 5.45am. Many people were asleep in bed, causing the hazard to be increased because the people were unaware. Although many Japanese buildings were of aseismic design, the roofs of their houses were designed to withstand typhoons and so were very heavy. When the earthquake struck many people were crushed in their sleep. Also every year on 1st September Japan has national earthquake preparedness day to remember the 140000 that died in the Tokyo earthquake of 1923 but this did not help many of the citizens of Kobe. The Kobe earthquake was also in December so many people had nowhere to go in the middle of the night in winter and the risk of hyperthermia was extremely high. People were not put into temporary accommodation for up to two weeks after the event because the Japanese government originally refused assistance from foreign countries to help with the aid effort. The secondary effects of the earthquake like the gas leaks and fires killed 3000 people and many businesses were lost in the port. The Kobe earthquake shows that sometimes the wealthier countries can be just as badly affected. The Icelandic volcano, Ejajjallajokall, affected many people around the world, both wealthy and poor. The airspace above much of Europe was...
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...'The hazards presented by volcanic and seismic events have the greatest impact on the world’s poorest people'. To what extent do you agree with this view? Firstly I believe that this statement is true but only to a partial extent. Hazards presented by tectonic activity can be managed and controlled so their impacts are lessened and even not felt. However such management involves planning, prediction and action, all of which may cost considerable amounts of money, unavailable to the poorest people. For example, ever since its primary eruption in 1968 Mount Etna has been constantly erupting every year. Though these eruptions are not always violent sometime volcanic bombs can be fired from the composite volcano and since its eruption in 1968 it has killed around 77 people, most of these unwitting tourists who did not take enough care. However due to the volcano being located in the fairly rich area of Sicily the impacts of its hazards have been managed and fairly efficiently. For example, explosives were first used to relocate the andesitic lava flows away from settlements, protecting people’s housing and property. More recently, Sicily has had the funds to construct artificial lava tunnels to conveniently drain the lava away when Etna erupts. Moreover Sicily has managed to accurately predict the size and frequency of the eruptions of Etna by using remote sensors which measure the bulge of the volcano, a tell tale sign of the imminent eruption. In combination to this, they sample...
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...statement: The extent to which earthquakes present a hazard depends on where they are experienced. (40 marks) A Hazard is best defined as a situation that’s ‘a potential source of harm or adverse health effect on a person or persons’. An earthquake is a tectonic event which can be a huge hazard to people- particularly effecting areas of the earth around convergent, divergent and transform plate boundaries: in both MEDC’s and LEDC’s with equally force. Hazards earthquakes cause can be divided into two sub-categories: primary and secondary effects. Primary effects are the problems that are of direct result of the seismic waves, including effects such as liquefaction, tsunamis and landslides. Primary effects then lead to secondary effects; floods, fires, disease and even malnourishment. However a number of factors can dictate whether these effects present a hazard to people or not- location, whether in a MEDC or LEDC, can dictate the severity of the hazard. To start, I want to highlight the difference in the primary effects of an earthquake. Comparing the factors like death and injuries- or social effects- and then the environmental effects in looking at the destruction of infrastructure experienced in varying parts of the world. To highlight this difference of place: using an EQ in a LEDC and one in a MEDC. So looking at deaths and injuries we can see as an overall trend there tends to be more deaths caused form the initial seismic force of an earthquake in LEDCs. Gujarat in India...
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...damage to humans or buildings. Many volcanic and seismic events happen that cause hazards to humans. Often the world’s poorest people are hit the worst, however wealthier countries can also be adversely affected. The Kobe earthquake in Japan 1995 struck at 5.45am. Many people were asleep in bed, causing the hazard to be increased because the people were unaware. Although many Japanese buildings were of aseismic design, the roofs of their houses were designed to withstand typhoons and so were very heavy. When the earthquake struck many people were crushed in their sleep. Also every year on 1st September Japan has national earthquake preparedness day to remember the 140000 that died in the Tokyo earthquake of 1923 but this did not help many of the citizens of Kobe. The Kobe earthquake was also in December so many people had nowhere to go in the middle of the night in winter and the risk of hyperthermia was extremely high. People were not put into temporary accommodation for up to two weeks after the event because the Japanese government originally refused assistance from foreign countries to help with the aid effort. The secondary effects of the earthquake like the gas leaks and fires killed 3000 people and many businesses were lost in the port. The Kobe earthquake shows that sometimes the wealthier countries can be just as badly affected. The Icelandic volcano, Ejajjallajokall, affected many people around the world, both wealthy and poor. The airspace above much of Europe was...
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...The hazards presented by volcanic and seismic events have the greatest impact on the world’s poorest people. To what extent do you agree? A geologic hazard is an extreme natural events in the crust of the earth that pose a threat to life and property, for example, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and landslides. Volcanic hazards include ash, pyroclastic flow, lava, lahars, landslides, glacial melt and disturbances to the air quality. Seismic hazards can include the initial shaking, buildings collapsing, aftershocks, landslides and tsunamis. These hazards can effect local people, for example homes lost, a national scale, for example cities lost, or on a global scale, for example flights grounded and ash circulates around the world, as well as temporary climate change. However, while it is undisputable that these hazards effect everyone, I agree to a partial extent that they do have the greatest impact on the world’s poorest people. Volcanoes appear in both developed and undeveloped countries. They are dictate by plate boundaries; they never appear at a transform boundary. They always appear on a divergent boundary where the two plates are pulling apart from each other, forming new crust. This creates a gentler volcano, as there is pure mantle forming the magma. They sometimes appear on a convergent boundary. When the two pieces of land are oceanic and oceanic, and oceanic and continental, volcanoes will appear. This is because you will get a subduction zone, where...
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...Haruki Murakami presents after the quake which is a fictional book that is broken up into six mesmerizing short stories. Each short story follows the same three rules Murakami set for himself stated in his interview with The Georgia Review. “The first was that the stories should be written in the third person”(557). “The second was that the stories should be about the earthquake in Kobe, but without describing the earthquake directly”(558) this made it for the stories to be not directly about the earthquake but still dealing with it. Lastly, “the third thing was that the stories shouldn’t happen in or around the earthquake”(558). Murakami’s characters all were not in kobe when there story was being told and the earthquake. In some of the stories the earthquake was...
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...could say about the earthquake, because the seismometers had been 152 knocked out by its severity. He told them the direction from which it came, along with its approximate distance (based on the time between different waves, but not the P and S that are normally used, as described earlier). From these he guessed that the earthquake was near Santa Cruz, and he was also able to roughly guess its strength. He boasted to me that for several hours his information was the best available. I must mention, however, that this “expert” is the same friend who bought a house on dredged coastal fill, the worst possible place to be in an earthquake; that is why he was able to view this earthquake so well. Scope of the problem To begin to see the scope of the problem of earthquakes and people, let’s consider a few statistics: • ~150 earthquakes each year are potentially damaging (Mw 6); • ~20 earthquakes each year cause severe damage (Mw 7); • in the 1990’s, more than 100,000 people were killed in earthquakes, especially those in Iran, India, Russia, and Japan. This was a worse death toll than usual, not because of more earthquakes but because they happened to affect highly populated areas. By comparison, storm surges killed 300,000 people in 1992 alone, mostly in Bangladesh. • the largest earthquake of the last 40 years, the Mw 9.2 Sumatra earthquake, created a tsunami that killed 228,000 people; • globally, the risk of being killed by an earthquake is ~1 in a million...
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...Psychological impacts of Japan earthquake could linger for years The Japanese are beginning to pick up the pieces after Friday's earthquake -- but it could take much longer for their society to heal Alexandra Pope, staff writer March 13, 2011 — As victims of Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami begin the long process of picking up the pieces, an expert on the country's culture and society says the psychological impacts of the disaster could be felt for generations. It could be years before the full extent of the earthquake's impacts are known The physical aftershocks of Friday's deadly magnitude 8.9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami could continue to rattle northern Japan for months. But according to Dr. Mark Watson, an assistant professor in the department of sociology and anthropology at Concordia University in Montreal, the psychological impacts of the disaster could be felt for even longer. Watson, who has spent the past decade studying social and cultural issues in Japan, says earthquakes are part of life for the Japanese, but the sheer scale of this disaster will make it difficult to overcome. “This is a once in a thousand-year event, and the devastation that’s been seen in north Japan is absolutely horrific,” he says. “How people will cope with it is an interesting question, especially given that in the 20th century they had two major earthquakes.” After both the 1923 earthquake in Tokyo and the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan proved its resilience...
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...ARVIN JAY SANCHEZ CE 523EC MW 9:00 – 10:30 AM What is Liquefaction? Liquefaction is a phenomenon in which the strength and stiffness of a soil is reduced by earthquake shaking or other rapid loading. Liquefaction and related phenomena have been responsible for tremendous amounts of damage in historical earthquakes around the world. Liquefaction occurs in saturated soils, that is, soils in which the space between individual particles is completely filled with water. This water exerts a pressure on the soil particles that influences how tightly the particles themselves are pressed together. Prior to an earthquake, the water pressure is relatively low. However, earthquake shaking can cause the water pressure to increase to the point where the soil particles can readily move with respect to each other. How to reduce liquefaction hazards? Avoid Liquefaction Susceptible Soils The first possibility is to avoid construction on liquefaction susceptible soils. There are various criteria to determine the liquefaction susceptibility of a soil. By characterizing the soil at a particular building site according to these criteria one can decide if the site is susceptible to liquefaction and therefore unsuitable for the desired structure. Build Liquefaction Resistant Structures If it is necessary to construct on liquefaction susceptible soil because of space restrictions, favorable location, or other reasons, it may be possible to make the structure liquefaction resistant by designing...
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...would have kept cooling systems running at Fukushima had been disabled by tsunami flooding”. Some people are still debating on whether or not they should accept any food product from Japan. Imports of raw beef from Japan, including premium Kobe beef, have been suspended since last April, because of concerns about foot and mouth disease, according to a spokesman for the United States Department of Agriculture. Poultry and egg imports are barred because the Agriculture Department has not determined that Japan has a sufficient inspection system for those products. Transportations services were shut down during this incident. People were trying to make their way out of this huge disaster but it was not successful. “I never experienced such a strong earthquake in my life,” said Toshiaki Takahashi, 49, an official at Sendai City Hall. “I thought it would stop, but it just kept shaking and shaking, and getting stronger.” This earthquake destroyed families property, disrupted their power, moved their homes, interrupted everyday interaction. When people are in real danger it is not that easy to get away. A lot of people in Japan went missing. The people that were present were being asked to relocate to higher grounds. Not only did this earthquake affect people in Japan, it also had some effects on some other people living in...
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