Earthquake

January 17 1995


Introduction


On January 17 1995 a big earthquake struck Kobe in Japan. The earthquake was called, 'The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake'.It happened at 4.46 am, in Japan time zone, and lasted for twenty seconds. The earthquake reached a 7.2 on the Richter scale which is considered a major earthquake on the Richter scale. The Richter scale gives a number to the quantity of the amount of seismic energy which is released by an earthquake.

What Caused It ?

It was caused when the Eurasian plate, the Philippine sea plate and the Pacific plate collided. It was a convergent plate boundary, which means that one plate was going under another one. The Oceanic crust went under the Continental crust.

What Was The Effect Of The Earthquake ?

The effects that happened immediately after the earthquake were called the primary effects. The primary effects were buildings collapsing, bridges and roads this was all caused by the seismic waves that was shaking the crust. During the 20 second earthquake the ground moved 50 centimetres horizontally and 1 metre vertically. Only some of the effects were caused by the primary effects.

The secondary effects were things that happened because of the earthquake but not immediately after. These were:

• fires starting,

• congestion on the roads,


• businesses closing,

• people becoming homeless.
  

All these problems were made worse by the aftershocks. There were over 1,300 after shocks. An aftershock is an earthquake that happens after another earthquake, which is called the main shock. More people died from the fires, which occured after the main earthquake, than from the earthquake. More than 5,500 people died and more than 300,000 were left homeless.

The fires were caused by all the broken gas pipes and sparks from electrical wires.

It was chaos on the roads because Kobe has a motorway which has many sections which were built above the grounds, which were on concrete stilts collapsed. This meant that the Hanshin Expressway had to be closed. The railway was also closed.

Businesses were closed, which was bad for Japan because some of Japan's industry is in Kobe. Movement of the ground led to liquefication in areas where there were businesses caused problems and it was also difficult to transport goods there so businesses suffered.

At least 300,000 people were left homeless because either their home collapsed during the earthquake or if their home was made out of wood it was burned in the fires after the earthquake.They had to be given emergency shelters. Not everyone was left homeless because some modern buildings had been made earthquake proof, so they suffered little damage.

CSI: Pompeii

Pompeii was located in Italy next to a volcano, Mount Vesuvius. Two thousand years ago Mt Vesuvius was very active, but at that time no one knew it was a volcano. On the last day of Pompeii, 27th August 2000 years ago, no one knew what was going to happen so they just went round doing the daily routines. Then Mt Vesuvius started sending earth tremors but at first nobody took notice of it.

When the volcano erupted nobody knew what was happening because no one knew what a volcano was at that time. Fifteen minutes after Mt Vesuvius started erupting ashes were flying 15 kilometres into the air. The sky was covered in ash and it covered the sun so the place was in complete darkness. At this point everyone was terrified.

The ash started to rise fast and when ash freezes it turns into magma. Magma pebbles started to fall down from the sky at 200km/h which hit people and could have killed them or seriously injured them. Roofs started to fall under the weight of the magma, so some people died in their on houses before the rest of the horror started.

Thousands fleed an hour after Mt Vesuvius started erupting. The slaves were expected to stay with their masters to look after them but some slaves ran away even though if they survived the eruption they would have been severely punished.

A cloud of volcanic gas tumbled down the volcano and filled the air with toxic gases making it impossible to breathe, therefore suffocating people. Two clouds of gas hotter than boiling water were sent down from Mt Vesuvius. One went to a island with people on the beach trying to wave to boats for rescue and the second cloud went to Pompeii. Bones were shattered and brains were boiled. Seven hours after the eruption started the streets were deserted. Roughly five thousand people died.

Pompeii now lies in ruins.