1 Introduction:
A natural hazard is an extreme event that occurs naturally and causes harm to humans or other things we care about, while a Geomorphic hazard is that originating from the lithosphere including, volcanic eruption, earthquake and tsunamis. An earthquake is a sudden violent shaking of the ground, typically showing great destruction. This report will focus on the Great Chilean earthquake. I will report and examine the causes, details, effects including, social, environmental and economical. I will also examine what has been done to prepare, prevent and minimise the hazard and suggest ways to further minimise the effects of this hazard.
2 Information about the event:
2.1 The great Chilean earthquake; the largest earthquake ever recorded struck Valdivia, Chile (See figure 2.1)
2.2 On May 22, 1960, at 3:11 pm origin time.
2.3 The 1960 Chile earthquake was caused by the Nazca plate releasing tension and descending 15 meters underneath the South American Plate. (See figure 2.3)
2.4 At 3.11pm an 8.5-magnitude quake rocked southern Chile. The epicentre being off the coast of Chile was just under the Pacific ocean causing huge landslides of debris. At 4:20 pm a 26ft wave came in hitting most structures and building, several minutes later a 35ft wave rolled in killing more than 1000 people.
2.5 Casualties ranged between 1000-7000 people. Historians do not know for sure the exact numbers but they estimate the numbers between 1000-6000 people died, many not
Before the quake hit the day before, there were a series of shocks that tipped off to people of Chile that something was coming. The day that the earthquake hit, it was a rated a 9.5 on the Richter Scale. The intensity of this caused thousands of buildings to be destroyed and 2,000,000 people left homeless. The population of the city had greatly decreased and the city also needed to pay for the damage to be repaired. It would be 800 million American dollars to complete the cleanup and repairs of the city almost completely. This earthquake was called “The Great Chilean Earthquake” because of the total destruction and because of the expansion of it where other countries received the aftershocks and effects. Japan had received a tsunami a day later, killing 138 people and leaving 1600 homes destroyed. Japan was left to pay 34 million dollars for damage
A natural disaster has the capability to cause large scale damage and destruction to an area. Seismic events have been known to alter landscapes and affect the livelihoods, health and development of communities. No two earthquake events are the same and the level of threat posed by an earthquake can vary due to both the human and physical factors of an area. The 2010 magnitude - 7.0 earthquake that occurred in Haiti is an example of where a natural disaster caused a previously vulnerable area to suffer tremendous loss and debilitating socio-economic impacts, to an already poverty-stricken nation.
According to the research report, it will cause thousands of people die, towns submerged, buildings and bridges damaged once a huge earthquake and tsunamis happened on the Pacific Northwest area near American coast. And losses will be estimated at over 5 billion dollar US dollars. This shocking article was composed by seismic safety advisory committee in Oregon. According to materials, a super-strong earthquake once happened in A.D. 1700 Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) on the Pacific Northwest coast. There are some experts forecast that another super-huge earthquake will occur in the future. The report has shown that once the earthquake occurs, the regions from North California to British Columbia Coastal region will suffer devastation, cause heavy casualties. Water and electricity shortage issues definitely follow this heavy disaster, meanwhile, communication and heating system and gas supply will definitely broken off in the light of this earthquake. The CSZ is a 1,000 km long dipping fault that stretches from Northern Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino in northern California. It separates the Juan de Fuca (Juan
The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake tectonic setting was in the outermost shell of earth known as the crust this is composed of rigid plates that have been moving for hundreds of millions of years. Two of these moving plates meet in western California; the boundary between them is a zone of faults, the principal one being the San Andreas fault. The horizontal sliding of the Pacific Plate relative to the North American Plate, causes earthquakes along the San Andreas fault and similar plates near the region. The San Andreas fault is a transform plate boundary, accommodating horizontal relative motions (usgs.gov).
A social factor that influenced the severity of the earthquake was where people chose to live. Haiti is located on fault lines, where the epicentre of the earthquake is and where the earthquake is most severe. The earthquake’s epicentre was estimated to be around a mere 25 km away from the Port-au-prince, the capital of Haiti and home to ¼ of the population. The closer the area was to the epicentre, the more intense the earthquake was and the greater the destruction. The area was also urbanised with many buildings, due to the great number of people who resided there which meant that many buildings were destroyed and many people were killed.
On October 15th an earthquake killed nearly 90 people. In the Philippines killed nearly 200 and displacing tens of thousands of dollars. The quake wrecked about more than 45,000 homes. These earthquakes have affected many people, damaging homes and even lives and causes millions of dollars for repairs. The quake, the strongest to hit the disaster-prone country in recent years, struck Bohol on October 15th. Felt across several neighbouring provinces, more than 2,500 aftershock have rippled through the region since.(Documents
On April 18, 1906, in San Francisco, California there was an earthquake that was a major geological disaster that affected people in many ways. According to www.History.com, San Francisco had a population of around 400,000, and 3,000 people. The earthquake destroyed over 28,000 buildings and around 250,000 people became homeless. The damage costs were $500 in 1906. The magnitude of the earthquake was estimated to be a 7.8, but only lasted for 1 minute. The earthquake started many fires that burned for days and destroyed around 500 city blocks. The earthquake could be felt from Los Angeles to southern Oregon, and in central Nevada. This earthquake was caused by the transform plate boundary from the pacific and North American plates. The 2 plates rubbed against each other creating the earthquake. (decodedscience.org).
A sequence of strong earthquakes hit the country of Chile between 21st of May and the 6th of June with first recording was the Conception Earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1 on the Richter scale. Then the most powerful of them, the Valdivia earthquake hit; affecting all of Chile more than 400,000 square kilometers with devastation point in magnitude between 9.4 and 9.6 on the Richter scale. The United States Geological Survey would later confirm that the magnitude of the earthquake
There are many dangers to an earthquake. Earthquakes can cause damage to cities and many people end up injured or dead. The shaking of the ground can cause mudslides and landslides.Earthquakes can also cause terrible tsunamis.Earthquakes can occur on convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries. They can also can occur on subduction zones. In this case, the earthquake occurred on a subduction zone. Subduction is the process of which the denser plate sinks under the less dense
This report will focus on examples of different earthquakes happening around the world and explain why some countries cope better than others. To cope well, the country should have low death tolls, good communication with rescue services and other countries willing to help, evacuation and other emergency plans are planned well, and minimizing the amount of damage done to the country.
This earthquake left 2 million homeless and $600 million in damage this earthquake led to a tsunami 15 hours later a 35 foot wave smashed into hilo (the big island of hawaii) hawaii is more than 6 thousand miles away from chile. 1,600 homes were destroyed and 185 and more are dead ore missing. 1 day later a deadly 18 foot wave smashed into japan. this earthquake lasted for 11 minutes. this earthquake was big enough it rang the world for days like a bell. The earthquake hit at 7:11 pm approximately 100 miles (160 km) off the coast of Chile, parallel to the city of Valdivia. The shock is generally agreed to have had a magnitude of 9.5, though some studies alternately proposed that it may have been 9.4 or 9.6. A series of foreshocks the previous
In 2010, an 8.8 Mw earthquake shook Chile. It was approximately 200 miles southwest of Chile and was approximately 375 miles long. A 2014 study attributed the quake to immense water pressure located between the two plates. The region was stricken by strong aftershocks for months after the quake, many of a magnitude of 5.0 Mw or greater.
The Chiapas Earthquake, otherwise known as the Southern Mexico earthquake, had catastrophic results on Mexico as a whole. The disaster struck off the coast of Chiapas, Mexico 11:49 on Thursday, September 7, 2017. The magnitude, a whopping 8.2 m, marked this earthquake as the largest Mexico has seen since 1976, shocking and surprising Mexico’s citizens. The tremors from this disaster was felt all the way in Mexico City, nearly 600 miles away, and the aftershocks continued all through Friday, leaving victims on edge and terrified.
An earthquake is the shaking of the earth by seismic waves radiating away from the disturbance, most commonly fault movement. The great Chilean earthquakes origin was of the coast of Chile at a subduction zone, referred to as a hot spot for seismic activity.
“An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another.” (Wald). The earthquake is one of the most dangerous events than can happen in the world, with the past of the time, the scientists are trying to create an artifact that could help to detect when an earthquake happen and what could be the magnitude and effects that could occur. In this time the technology has to many benefits but by the moment there isn’t an artifact or item that could detected or at least prevent the population about this dangerous event.