On Earthquakes
An earthquake is a shaking or trembling of the crust of the earth caused by underground volcanic action or by the breaking and shifting of rock beneath the surface. The volcanic action and shifting rocks create strain which continues to build to a sudden release of pressure resulting in a shock wave. The vibrations produced in the crust can vary from barely noticeable to enormously destructive. Shock waves can be classified into two broad categories. Waves that send particles oscillating back and forth in the same direction as the waves are traveling are called primary. Primary waves, sometimes called compressional waves, travel through the earth beneath the crust. Secondary
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The modern seismograph was invented early this century by a Russian seismologist, Prince Boris Golitzyn. This device made possible the modern era of earthquake research.
Although earthquakes have occurred and affected mankind for as long as humans have been around, historical records are either lacking or considered unreliable before the middle of the 18th century. However, some records do exist and date major earthquake events back to 425 BC when one occurred off the coast of Greece resulting in an island named Euboea. Another occurred in Asia Minor about AD 17 and another leveled much of the Roman city of Pompeii in AD 63. During the Middle Ages, severe earthquakes struck England, in 1318; Naples, Italy, in 1456; and Lisbon, Portugal, in 1531.
Casualties from major earthquakes have resulted in the greatest disasters in history. The worst occurred in 1556 in the Shannxi (Shensi) Province in China and killed an estimated 800,000 people. During the 18th century, the Japanese city of Edo (site of modern day Tokyo) was struck and killed 200,000. Earthquakes in Sicily in 1693 and Lisbon in 1755 each killed about 60,000 people. In 1797, approximately 40,000 died when Quito, Ecuador was struck.
Historically, the most powerful earthquakes to strike North America occurred in 1811 and 1812 in southeastern Missouri. However, the most famous earthquake to strike in North America
In Valdivia, Chile 1960 an earthquake changed the lives of many. An earthquake is the violent shaking of the ground that will destroy homes, buildings, landforms, historical monuments, and lives. Earthquakes begin with the breakage of rock along a fault line. When two tectonic plates rub against each other they create an earthquake. Earthquakes will ride along a fault line which will determine how long the quake will go on. The larger and longer the fault like the bigger the earthquake. Earthquakes send out waves, primary waves or, p waves and secondary waves or, s waves travel along the interior of the earth. These two waves are called body waves. While detecting the waves, the primary waves appear first then the secondary waves. Primary waves travel through solids, liquids, and gasses, which means they are about to travel through the liquid center. Secondary waves are only able to travel through solids which are why scientists have found that there is a loss of these waves once they reach the center.
The two above definitions of the word emergency are different but do come to the same conclusion. It can be identified that the Newcastle earthquake did indeed endanger, or threaten to endanger, the safety of persons in the community. Also, the event did destroy or damage property in the affected area. The event also required the special mobilisation of organisation of authorities. From this it can been seen that the Newcastle earthquake can be classified as an emergency.
The San Francisco Earthquake written by Jack London is journal of his events throughout the devastating acts of God that hit San Francisco in 1906. (461-466)
Earthquakes are caused when two blocks of earth suddenly slip past one another. The surface where the two blocks slip is called the fault. The earthquake starts below the earth’s surface at the hypocenter, and the location above the hypocenter is called the epicenter. Earthquakes can have foreshocks which is a smaller earthquake that happens before the larger quake. Earthquake can also
An earthquake would be classified as a sudden ferocious shaking of the ground, typically causing great obliteration because of manoeuvre within the earth’s crust or volcanic action.
Earthquakes have been recorded throughout history for thousands of years. Even before seismographs in early times, there are records and accounts of mysterious ground shaking. Earthquakes occur when rocks break along an underground fault (UPSeis, 2007). This, in return, causes vibrations through the earth which causes ground shaking. The magnitude of the shaking varies depending on how great the movement along the fault is; the greater the movement, the bigger the earthquake. Some earthquakes are huge and cause significant damage, while others are small and cause little or no damage what-so-ever. Earthquakes are unpredictable, and can happen at any time. It is uncertain where an earthquake will strike, but there is a greater risk
Earthquakes are sudden trembling or shaking vibrations. Earthquakes are large spinning spiral winds, that comes together by rocks underground breaks along the fault. There are two types of earthquakes, there is the body waves and the surface waves. Body waves travel at 7/8 km. The body wave is the fastest of the two waves. The surface waves act as a gravity waves that are between two fluids with different density. Unlike hurricanes,
According to the records of earthquake intensity, this is the strongest earthquake occurred in Japan and one of the most powerful earthquakes in the world ( ). When the Pacific land crashed down and the North American land slide up, the resulting of landslide and outburst of the bottom turn to create earthquake in the Pacific Ocean, and it was the biggest impact in 1200 years. Furthermore, the earthquake occurred from 130 kilometer east of the city of Honshu, Japan on March 11, 2011, and the main shock lasted for 40 minutes. The earthquake created magnitude scale to 9.0 Mw, and 165-foot movement occurred to the seafloor during the earthquake ( ). Moreover, at that time, most city of Japanese affected by that earthquake, and a nuclear power industry is one of the victims which was crashed by the earthquake. Because of that, it release of radiation to large area not only in Japan but also get oversea to another country such as China, Viet
The most widespread impact of the earthquake and the resulting tsunami to was the loss of housing. It is estimated that “three million people were affected by the quake – nearly one-third of the country’s total population.” (Pallardy, 2016). This includes the originally estimated 222,570 people who died in the initial crisis and the more than one million individuals who were left homeless. This massive destruction of housing was due to
The two books that I am comparing are I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake and I Survived the Shark attacks of 1916.
At 5:04 PM on October 17, 1989 night a huge earthquake shook Northern California. The Earthquake was officially named the Loma Prieta Earthquake. The quake’s epicenter, which was a 6.9 on the richter scale, was 60 miles from Southeast San Francisco. The earthquake was eerily similar to the 1906 tremor that killed over 3,000 (although the resulting fire was responsible for over half the deaths). The official death total of this earthquake was only 63. 42 of those deaths came from the collapsed highway in Oakland. One thing that was threatened was the ongoing World Series. The World Series was taking place in San Francisco and Oakland, the two major cities where the earthquake
Earthquakes, called temblors by scientists, occur almost continuously. Fortunately, most of them can be detected only by sensitive instruments called seismographs. Others are felt as small tremors. Some of the rest, however, cause major catastrophes. They
On March 11, 2011 a magnitude 9 earthquake took place 100 km off the northeast coast of Japan. This was the largest earthquake that Japan had ever encountered. In the history of japan there has never been an earthquake above a magnitude of 8.4. Japan lies on a boundary between the pacific plate and the North American plate, positioning the country perfectly for natural disasters cause by tectonics. The energy behind the massive earthquake had reportedly been building up for hundreds of years, which is what caused the massive destruction.
When a tectonic plate overrides, subducts or collides into another plate and an earthquake occurs at the epicentre and releases shockwaves which push the water upwards forming a series of waves. As the speed of the wave decreases near the shore the wave gains height and power.
Earthquakes happen when the movement of two plates of the Earth slip past one another, causing friction of land masses along a surface called fault lines.4 Beneath the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and right above the surface of the earth is called the epicenter (Fig. 2)5 The world’s largest and deadliest earthquakes are megathrust earthquakes, with magnitudes exceeding 9.0 mW at times. These powerful earthquakes occur in subduction zones, a region where one of the Earth’s tectonic plates is thrust under another.6