Environmental Impacts Of The Fukushima Disaster

This lab uses earthquake data to construct profiles of two convergent boundaries: the Tonga Trench and the Peru-Chile Trench. Where two tectonic plates converge, if one or both of the plates is an oceanic lithosphere, a subduction zone will form. When crust is formed at a mid-ocean ridge, it is hot and buoyant meaning it has a low density. As it spreads away from the ridge and cools and contracts, or becomes denser, it is able to sink into the hotter underlying mantle. When two oceanic plates collide, the younger of the two plates, because it is less dense will ride over the edge of the older plate. The density of the

But there are some anomalies as there are earthquakes which don’t take place on a plate boundary and it’s the same with volcanoes. An example of this is Hawaii. Hawaii is a volcanic island which is found in the middle of a tectonic plate. Hawaii is an example of a hotspot. The places known as hotspots are volcanic regions thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot compared with the mantle elsewhere. They may be on, near to, or far from tectonic plate boundaries. There are two hypotheses to explain them. One suggests that they are due to hot mantle plumes that rise from the core-mantle boundary. The other hypothesis postulates that it is not high

Plate Tectonics is a scientific theory which study how the Earth’s plates are driven and shaped by geological forces to keep them in constant movement. The theory explains the present-day tectonic behavior of the Earth, particularly the global distribution of mountain building, earthquake activity, and volcanism in a series of linear belt. (Pitman, W.C., 2007)

Over more than 50 decades there has been multiple earthquakes that have been caused by the activity that takes place beneath and above the surface of the earth. For every earthquake there are various effects and consequences, these are generally not preventable but teachable moments. As we study and explore landforms we learn and better understand how today 's structures came about, what took place decades ago and where do we go from here. Thanks to the technology and inquiring minds we are able to study past events like the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the 1964 Alaska earthquake. In comparing these two events we can get an overview of what happened and better prepare ourselves for something like that in the future.

On March 11, 2011 an earthquake that measured 9.3 Richter scale occurred 43 miles of the coast of Northern Japan. This caused tremendous amounts of damage to the island of Tohouku. What happened is the quake initially destroyed buildings and property. However, a tsunami occurred, which devastated the region and the Fukushima nuclear power plant. ("Fukushima Accident")

The tectonic setting for the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake was in the outermost shell of earth consisting 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 Pacific Plate (on the west) slides horizontally northwestward relative to the North American Plate (on the east), causing earthquakes along the San Andreas and associated faults. The San Andreas fault is a transform plate boundary, accommodating horizontal relative motions (usgs.gov).

The intensity of the earthquake was a major factor because its magnitude played a huge role in the damage that the disaster caused. It was reported to have hit a magnitude of 9-0 with the epicenter being located at least 80 miles away. The focus was 18.6 miles lower than the western Pacific. The result was a rapture of the subduction zone and thus led to the Japan Trench being affected. Several foreshocks reached as much as 6.0 and greater effects that ended up acting on the land in the following days and months even after the quake had subsided. The tsunami that accompanied the earthquake originated from a fault along the convergent plate boundary at the section where the Pacific plate joins with the west beneath Japan. The subduction zone was very active seismically at the time of the occurrence of the earthquake. Thus based on my understanding of earthquakes, the March 11 disaster was among the strongest earthquakes ever recorded because of the effects that followed because a portion of the ocean trench immediately went off-shore. In fact, it was later reported that a satellite that was orbiting around the Earth, infrasonics could be detected on the outer edge of the Earth’s atmosphere. The low-frequency waves meant that there were adverse effects that could be felt weeks after the real disaster had hit, hence the reporting that it was the

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.

In 1906 the most deadliest earthquake in the world shook the grounds of San Francisco California The earthquake was caused by a slip that of the San Andreas fault, over a segment about 275 miles long, and shock waves could be felt from southern Oregon down to Los The epicenter of this earthquake has moved around in the past 100 years, as advances in seismology has been made At first it was thought to have been Marin County but, most recently, in the Pacific Ocean about two miles west of San Francisco. The San Andreas Fault is on the boundary between the Pacific plate and the North American plate. During the earthquake, the ground west tended to move northward in the most extreme instance a 21 foot shift upward was measured.

For the fault zone that I chose to research for this project, I chose the Peru-Chile Trench, also known as the Chile Subduction Megathrust and as the Atacama Trench. It is called that because the area between Peru and Chile is called "The Atacama", and such was the plate named. The Peru-Chile trench is located along the western coast of Peru and Chile. It marks the zone where the Nazca plate is being subducted beneath the South American plate and is approximately 3,666 miles long. (Britannica, p.1)

The trench between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate it is 2,200 miles long. The islands have formed on the continental side of the subduction zone. Subduction at this boundary has also caused some of the largest earthquakes for Alaska.The earthquakes originate deeper in the trench each time.The most hazardous place in the Aleutian Islands area is Dutch Harbor and Unalaska. Since the Aleutians are on an active fault zone, many Volcanic earthquakes happen.In addition,the Gulf of Alaska is nearby and causes tsunamis to hit the area. The islands contain mountain ranges on each one, which include the active and inactive

Haiti, Japan, Taiwan...what do they all have in common? All 3 have had unexpected major earthquakes strike them and demolish there land. But what is an earthquake? An earthquake is the movement of earth’s tectonic plates. They happen because a mass energy causes the constantly moving tectonic plates to pass one another in either a transform, convergent or divergent movement, after a long period of time pushing against each other. They usually occur in cities located on the border of the tectonic plates like California, British Columbia (west coast) and Japan. Depending on the intensity of the earthquake, it has the potential to cause a lot of destruction and hurt many civilians. It can degrade community to a point where it would take years to recover. However much destruction has been caused, there are precautions that could be taken before hand to reduce the damage. This report will be comparing 3 major recent earthquakes from Haiti, Japan and Taiwan and how each country is doing post-earthquake.

The San Andreas Fault is one of the most widely studied faults in the world. Scientists use an array of methods in collecting data and providing analysis of fault characteristics both past and present. Presently there are many differing hypothesis and models used to describe crustal movements and deformation within the Pacific and North American plate boundary. Historical earthquakes along this fault have proven to be rather large and devastating. This is important since the San Andreas Fault runs along many highly populated areas throughout Northern and Southern California. Through further research and analysis of this fault system scientists hope to solve

Japan is known for having a long history of earthquakes as it sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is a series of tectonic plates that stretches from the tip of South America and along the coast of North America, it goes across the Bering Strait, through Japan and into New Zealand. It is the site of where most earthquakes occur and is filled with seismic activity as well as active volcanoes. Since Japan lies on The Pacific Ring of Fire it is hit with numerous numbers of earthquakes. Because of this, the Japanese government has issued safety measures by having every household to keep a survival kit (supplied with food, water, flashlights and first aid kit) and enforcing buildings to become more resistant to earthquakes in areas

Figure 3 shows the high seismicity of West Sumatera. On the map shows that the density of seismicity of West Sumatera is more visible around the island of Nias (Zone 5), south of Siberut Island, around the Mentawai Islands (Zone 7), along the active fault zone of Sumatra and also in the subduction path. This high seismic density is thought to be influenced by tectonic activity owned by West Sumatra. These tectonic activities include subduction zones located in the western part of Sumatra Island stretching along its coastline, underwater active fault activities such as the Mentawai fault, and the activity of the Sumatran Fault. Most of the earthquakes caused by the subduction zone and the active fault zone of Sumatra are potentially large