Kobe Earthquake Research Paper

The 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami was an horrific natural disaster. On Sunday 26th of December 2004 at 7.58 am local time there was an earthquake of a massive magnitude 9 on the Richter scale. The earthquake struck off the northern tip of Sumatra in Indonesia. It was the result of the Indio-Australian Plate subducting below the Eurasian Plate. Indonesia was hit by the tsunami first. Forty-five minutes later it reached Thailand.

The loma prieta earthquake was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded ed with a magnitude of 8.9 on the richter scale.Since many forecasts had been presented for the region near Loma Prieta, seismologists were not taken by surprise by the October 1989 event.between

The earthquake was located on the San Andreas fault which is a seismic zone between two of the earth’s tectonic plates. Seismic events which occur is caused as a result of the earth’s tectonic plates moving against each other and this can cause huge earthquakes and volcanoes (“Young”). The transform boundary passes through California and this is where the Pacific and North American plates move past each other without colliding. The event in which this occurred was the San Andreas fault (“Young”). When the plates move past each other and the resistance builds up, this causes an earthquake like the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. This earthquake caused a separation and displacement in the landscape which was seen over several kilometers

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).

California, and thus San Francisco, lies on the San Andres fault. The earthquake was caused when this fault suddenly shifted, with the rupture spreading for a total of 476 kilometres in northward and southward direction. “This fault is a continental transform fault, which forms part of the tectonic boundary between the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate.” (1906 Earthquake: How long was the 1906 Crack? USGS Earthquake Hazards Program – Northern California, Accessed September 3, 2006). 1 The distance of the fault is of about 1300 kilometres, which runs the length of California from Cape Mendocino in the north to the Salton Sea in the south. Geologists have estimated that the fault moved as quickly as 2.74 kilometres per second. The San Andreas Fault, the source of this disaster, lies ten miles or deeper, at the meeting point of two tectonic plates, the Pacific and the North American. “The right-lateral strike-slip fault is characterized by mainly lateral motion in a dextral sense, where the western plate (Pacific plate) moves northward relative to the eastern plate (North American

The damages were catastrophic as houses lay in ruin and debris littered the roads. There were mudslides and fallen rocks that paved the roads and made them impassible for vehicles to get through. Ultimately by the roads being clogged up the response time by rescue workers and essential personal were hampered. This also made it exceptionally difficult for supplies to be rushed to the locations for the earthquake survivors. As some were digging and excavating for survivors they were being halted by aftershocks and falling debris from above. Approximately 8000 people were killed either by their houses caving in or by the other disasters this earthquake triggered. It was a real life tragedy that

Not only did the Earthquake of 64? claim the lives of around 131 people in Alaska alone as well as 16 deaths between Oregon and California. For an earthquake this size, the death toll was actually quite small, but this was due to the low population, the time of day in which it occurred as well as the fact it was a holiday. It also caused about $2.3 billion, in property damages. Luckily due to wood frame construction, as well as low-rise structures and the modesty urban density, this helped to limit the fatalities. As a result of the earthquake there were several ground fissures and failures that caused major structural damage, as well as property damage. One of the towns greatly affected by the event was Anchorage. They suffered severe losses such as homes, buildings, streets, sidewalks, electrical systems, among other things. Additionally, the Port of Valdez was affected by a major landslide. In the collapse of the city harbor, the docks, and the ship that was docked, 30 people perished. Coincidentally, during this time, a 27 foot tsunami tore though the village of Chenega, which resulted in the

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

The 9th of February 1971 an earthquake occurred in the lower parts of the San Gabriel Mountains in southern California. The San Fernando earthquake was measured to have a magnitude of around 6.5, which caused severe damage to buildings and major freeways in the Los Angeles area. Two huge health care buildings in San Fernando caused the majority of deaths when they collapsed at both sides. The epicenter of the earthquake was located in the mountains and the most severe damages occurred in northern San Fernando Valley. However, the event impacted other densely populated areas in Los Angeles and caused huge difficulty for transportation as a result of failure in several roadways and freeway interchanges.

On Friday March 11th, 2011 at 2:46 pm, the fifth largest earthquake recorded since 1900 with a magnitude of 9.0, 1.7 Richter scale points greater than the devastating Vancouver Island earthquake of 1946, struck the coast of Japan, 231 miles northeast of Tokyo1, causing a devastating regional and global catastrophe.

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).

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on April 18 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.8 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI . Severe shaking was felt from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Devastating fires soon broke out in the city and lasted for several days. As a result, about 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city of San Francisco was destroyed. The events are remembered as one of the worst and deadliest natural disasters in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history and high in the lists of American urban disasters.

Although the Kobe earthquake and the Northridge earthquake had similar magnitudes, the Kobe earthquake led to much more damage and causalities. A combination of series of factors led to the large amounts of damage in Kobe, but the main factor was the difference in infrastructure between Kobe and Northridge. More than 5,000 people died as a result of the Kobe earthquake and more than 50 people died as a result of the Northridge earthquake. The great difference in the number of casualties is mainly due to the difference in environments. Kobe is an urban environment with a higher population than the Northridge suburban environment.

The Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on October 17, 1989 at 5:04 p.m. It had a moment magnitude of 6.9, and lasted 15 to 20 seconds. The epicenter was near Loma Prieta, and this earthquake again caused severe damage to the San Francisco Bay Area, this time claiming 63 lives but almost 4,000 people were injured as a result of the earthquake.

On May 12, 2008, in the Sichuan Province in China, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9