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.