...English 81/ 1999 04/17/2012 What Causes Earthquakes It takes an earthquake to remind us that we walk on the crust of an unfinished planet. “Charles Kuralt” Earthquakes as the name implies are among the earth’s natural disasters. Earthquakes are mother nature. Earthquakes are the trembling or shaking caused by sudden release of energy which usually associated with faulting or breaking on rocks. The tectonic plates are always moving. The moving causes the earthquakes and the earthquakes causes disasters. According to my research, l discovered that there are four types of earthquakes and their causes. First, the explosion earthquakes are man-made earthquakes and occur due to nuclear or chemical explosions. Collapse earthquakes are minor earthquakes that are caused by the collapse of undermined areas like caves and mines. Also, the sudden eruption of volcanoes can cause earthquakes. These occur when lava under the earth’s crust is under pressure and as a result of the pressure the lava is thrown out causing earthquakes. Furthermore, the most common causes of earthquakes are the tectonic plates. These plates are always moving, but they get stuck at their edges due to friction. When these plates move, they grind against each other. The motion of these tectonic plates is what causes earthquakes. Examples would be the earthquakes that happened in Haiti in 2010 and in Japan in 2011. The consequences of earthquakes are many. Earthquakes destroy buildings, roads and other...
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...The New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–12, were three large earthquakes that happened near New Madrid, Missouri, from December 1811 to February 1812. There were thousands of aftershocks, about 1,874 of them were so large that they could be felt 190 miles away as far as Louisville, Kentucky. It is unknown how many lives were lost during the quakes. Scholars say that the number most likely wasn’t very large. The area that was affected by the quakes had a small population. The main one of the shocks produced by this quake happened around in the morning on December 16th in 1811. It is thought to have happened because of movement along the a fault in Arkansas. It was then followed by three considerably large aftershocks that had magnitudes that ranged...
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...To what extent can preparedness and planning mitigate the effects of earthquakes? Whittow in 1980 defines a hazard as a “perceived natural event which has the potential to threaten both life and property, and a disaster is the realisation of this hazard.” Earth hazards can therefore include all natural events including earthquakes, volcanoes, flooding and mass movement. Due to the very nature of these events “mitigating” (measures taken to reduce the impacts of a hazard beforehand) can be more successful for hazards such as volcanoes which are arguably more predicable than earthquakes and flash flooding. Despite the advances over the past few decades there is no “magic bullet” (Dr Charles Connor) in earth hazard prediction, and therefore mitigation – and the success remains very much dependent upon a number of factors including money available, and the number of vulnerable individuals. Firstly, earthquakes, which are caused by sudden movements of the earth’s crust which result in violent shaking, liquefaction, and in extreme cases tsunamis, can to an extent be prepared for and mitigated for, and this is where money is being channelled into. Preparation and planning involves the retrofitting of buildings to create “earthquake-resistant” societies, aseismic design features (including concrete and steel frames to provide stability), as well as planning exclusion zones and evacuation routes in the case of an earthquake. Earthquake prediction is very closely linked to preparedness...
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...Haiti earthquake of 2010 was the “perfect disaster”. To what extent is this statement true? Haiti, one of the anomalies in the Northern Hemisphere, being that it is amongst the world’s poorest countries. Having 32% of its GDP relying on remittances is just an indicator of the dire situation Haiti has struggled to deal with. On a scale on 1 to 10, when 10 is the perfect disaster the 2010 earthquake in Haiti would easily rate 9.9. Its dire economic situation along with decades of government mismanagement and its precarious geographic location all adds to Haiti being a perfect disaster. A perfect disaster criterion is that the preconditions of the country were dismal including an unstable government and an ailing economic situation, a large ratio of humans were killed, and on top of that the post-disaster response would be slow and inadequate leading to the country not being able to recover quickly or at all. Before the 2010 earthquake Haiti had a bad reputation for corruption, in 2008 Haiti was ranked 4th most corrupt country in the world. Due to the corruption, the little building codes Haiti had were not correctly enforced because of fraudulent officials being paid off with bribes, enabling construction workers to cut corners creating unstable buildings with no earthquake resistance. This meets the criteria of a perfect disaster by having dismal preconditions with corruption integrated with the way of life. As any other typical LEDC, Haiti had very poor urban planning largely...
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...‘Technology is the best way to reduce the impact of an earthquake’ to what extent do you agree with this view? (40 marks) An earthquake is a sudden violent shaking of the ground, typically causing great destruction, as a result of movements within the earth’s crust or volcanic action. Impacts of an earthquake can include short-term impacts such as fatalities, or long-term impacts such as income lost through lack of tourism. Technology can be used to predict the likelihood of an earthquake occurring in a particular area, for example by detecting plate movement, and this can reduce the impacts of an earthquake in return. This essay will discuss whether technology is the best way to reduce the impact of an earthquake or not. Technology can predict earthquakes through a seismometer. A seismometer is used to pick up the vibrations in the Earth’s crust and this can help predict earthquakes as an increase in vibrations may indicate a possible earthquake. Through the use of this technology, people living in earthquake zones are able to evacuate the area, which reduces the likelihood of fatalities from the earthquake and the falling debris caused by it. There are also other ways in which earthquakes can be predicted such as using laser beams to detect plate movement, monitoring the levels of radon gas that is being released from cracks in the crust and monitoring changes in ground levels. In February 1975 in the city of Haicheng in China, scientists identified changes in the ground...
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...Eartquake What is an earthquake? An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another. The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane. The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter. Sometimes an earthquake has foreshocks. These are smaller earthquakes that happen in the same place as the larger earthquake that follows. Scientists can’t tell that an earthquake is a foreshock until the larger earthquake happens. The largest, main earthquake is called the mainshock. Mainshocks always have aftershocks that follow. These are smaller earthquakes that occur afterwards in the same place as the mainshock. Depending on the size of the mainshock, aftershocks can continue for weeks, months, and even years after the mainshock! Causes of earthquakes and How earthquakes happen The earth has four major layers: the inner core, outer core, mantle and crust. (figure 2) The crust and the top of the mantle make up a thin skin on the surface of our planet. But this skin is not all in one piece – it is made up of many pieces like a puzzle covering the surface of the earth. Not only that, but these puzzle pieces keep slowly moving around, sliding past one another and bumping into each other. We call these puzzle pieces tectonic plates, and the edges of the plates are called the plate boundaries. The plate...
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...Earthquakes are one of Mother Nature’s most powerful forces and have plagued our lives for as long as people have inhabited the earth. These dangerous acts of the earth have been the cause of many deaths in the past century. So what can be done about these violent eruptions that take place nearly without warning? Predicting an earthquake, until now, has almost been technologically impossible. However, with recent improvements in technology and science, many lives have been saved and many more will be. What is an earthquake and how do they occur? Did you know that most of the famous mountains are a result of an earthquake? (Cosmeo, 2008) That tidbit of information was just a little side note; now back to the paper. Earth is a planet that is made up of multiple layers. These layers include an inner layer and an outer layer and layer in between. The inner layer of the earth is a ball of molten rock that rotates within the earth. The other layers that are on top of the inner layer are floating about as a pliable ball of molten rock. The outer layer is what we refer to as the crust. The crust is very thin when compared to the other layers of the Earth. For example, think of the outer layer of an orange as it relates to the interior of the orange. This example relates closely to what the Earth looks like when we examine the crust. The crust and other layers floats upon the mantle core. The crust of the earth is made up of multiple pieces. Each of these giant pieces is called a tectonic...
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...Prof: Tanya Crail What’s a earthquake? According to the Geology Labs on-line website an earthquake is the sudden release of stored energy, caused by the shifting of tectonic plates. The energy release is a shock wave or seismic wave. The seismic wave is what causes the ground to move or shake, when this occurs we have a earthquake. According to the 2008 United States National Seismic Hazard Maps a lot of the west coast as far south as Hawaii, and north to Alaska has a lot of earthquake activity. The Pacific “Ring of Fire” (named for the large amount of active volcanoes), has a lot of tectonic activity. Tectonic plates are large plates of rock that make up the foundation of the Earth's crust and the shape of the continents. Question: What patterns do you see in the distribution of earthquakes across the continental United States? Answer: Earthquakes occur on fault lines, a location where tectonic plates have collided together and shifted or are sliding past each other. The size of the earthquake depends on how much slide or shift occurred. Most fault lines are located in costal areas, because of the continental and oceanic plates colliding together. Most of the United States earthquakes occurs on the west coast. California, and the entire west coast including Hawaii, and Alaska have the highest hazard rating at 64+, central locations of the United States like Texas, North and South Dakota seem to have the lowest risk of earthquakes, however Missouri, Illinois, Indiana...
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...of choice that I chose to write about for my short report paper is Earthquakes. I chose earthquakes because I am fascinated by them, and would like to learn as much information as I can about them. I have found out that these are phenomenons of nature and I am going to enlighten you on what the causes are behind them, the tools we use to track them, and some of the worst ones that have ever happened in history. The following paragraphs will be a complete review of all of the information I have found. I hope you enjoy my paper and let’s get started. First off let’s ask ourselves do we really know what an earthquake is? Not many people do but they have heard of them before, and know that they can be catastrophic. “An earthquake is a sudden and violent shaking of the ground caused by pieces of the crust that violently shift.”( ) Now let’s ask ourselves do we know what causes an earthquake? I have found that what causes an earthquake to form is that when the pieces of our earths four major layers move around they bump into each other, and we call these pieces tectonic plates. The edges of these plates which we call boundaries are made up of faults, these faults are most of the earthquakes in the world today occur. Since the edges of the plates are rough they get stuck together while all the other plates are moving. And then finally when the plates have moved to far from these edges that is when an earthquake will occur. () So how does this movement of these plates shack the...
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...Real Time Earthquakes Luis Perez Kaplan University July 31, 2012 The patterns that I observed I’ve noticed that the majority of earthquakes occur along the shorelines of California all the way to the coast of Washington. There are some small amounts of seismic activity in the central part of the United States and also on the eastern shore of the United States. Most of their earthquakes range up 6 to 8 on the scale. These earthquakes occur along the Pacific coast and continue southward along the Pacific coast and North along the Pacific coast. According to the map, there are a few states in the northern region that don’t see any seismic activity including parts of Texas and Florida. Looking at the map currently I live at El Paso, TX and it shows it in the 8-16 area that is susceptible to an earthquake, but in the zone where my home of record is located, the state of California they are more susceptible in having big major earthquakes for example; the San Francisco earthquake in 1989. The earthquake zone for that area is shaded in with the red and orange which the highest in the scale. According to the data from USGS, in the past 7 days the State of California recorded 207 earthquakes. Earthquakes happen around the world on a daily basis in Japan, South America, and other regions of the world. Most of the earthquakes appear along the western coast of the United States and in different parts of the ocean. Patterns also show a lot of the earthquakes that occur in the world...
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...Methodology Post-Earthquake Relief Action Contents 1. Abstract 2. Background 3. Literature review 4. Aim 5. Hypothesis 6. Scope 7. Method of Data collection 8. Survey Questionnaire 9. Gujarat’s Vulnerability to Earthquake 10. Case Study: Bhuj Earthquake 11. Drawbacks of the Bhuj earthquake 12. Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) 13. Data Analysis 14. Conclusion 15. Bibliography ABSTRACT India has been traditionally vulnerable to natural disasters on account of its unique geo-climatic conditions. Floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides have been recurrent phenomena. About 60% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of various intensities; over 40 million hectares is prone to floods; about 8% of the total area is prone to cyclones and 68% of the area is susceptible to drought. In the decade 1990-2000, an average of about 4344 people lost their lives and about 30 million people were affected by disasters every year. This paper emphasis on management during and after an disaster and readiness of the state in response to future earthquakes. BACKGROUND Many Natural Disasters in India have caused havoc to the life and property of citizens and nature as a whole from time to time. These disasters include Cyclones, Floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, Famines, Drought, and Landslides etc. Amongst all the ones mentioned floods and earthquakes are the most common in India...
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...THE OCCURRENCE OF EARTHQUAKE: IT’S OUR FAULT! BY: WILFREDO D. BARTOLO, JR. TEACHER III GUIDE CARD During an earthquake, blame it on the fault! Earthquake is one of the most frightening calamities that human beings can ever experience. You grew up believing that beneath the earth are steady, solid and hard rocks, but why it can suddenly shake? You do not know what to believe anymore? Earthquake is unstoppable! Just remember, if God is with us who can be against us? In the same manner that if we have clear understanding of earthquake and fault, why stop believing, right? Can you tell what happened in the picture? Why does an earthquake occur? What is the relationship between a fault and an earthquake? This lesson introduces you to earthquake and fault. If there isThis lesson introduces you to earthquake and fault. If there is an earthquake, there is a fault. If there is a fault, there is an earthquake. As a challenge to understand this cause and effect relationship, from me to you are exercises about earthquake and fault. Have a fault – y journey ahead! ACTIVITY CARD NO. 1 BEFORE AND AFTER Pictures show before and after an earthquake. Can you identify these? ACTIVITY CARD NO. 2 FAULT FINDER Do you see anything unusual? Find the difference. Find the fault. ACTIVITY CARD NO. 3 FAULT TO FAULT There are to kinds of fault. Tell one from the other. ASSESSMENT CARD ALL ABOUT EARTHQUAKE AND FAULT Fill...
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...“Earthquake - Shake, Rattle, & Roll” Submitted by: Dana Peebles For Instructor: Stephen Underwood July 14, 2014 PHSC 210-A02 Liberty University Online Elements of Earth Science I. Introduction Music can be calming and even sometimes relaxing. However, the only music that might describe an earthquake, would be the song “Shake, Rattle, and Roll”. The very nature of earthquakes cause us to get anxious, and there is nothing calming about the “earth moving under your feet.” In this short report, I will be giving a general overview of how earthquakes are formed and what causes them. I will also discuss the methods that seismologist use to study these occurrences. As humans, curiosity can get the best of us. This curiosity causes us to ask questions and seek further discoveries as to why these events happen. In addition, I will also talk about the new inquiries concerning earthquakes and what leads up to these questions that may still be unanswered. II. General Overview To understand how earthquakes form, what causes them, and the components that make it up, one must know exactly what an earthquake is. Webster’s Dictionary states that an earthquake is the “shaking or trembling of the earth that is volcanic or tectonic in origin.” While this describes the movement and the cause, it doesn’t describe why. Earthquakes happen when the underground rock immediately burst against the fault. This activity causes seismic waves that travel along the earth’s crust...
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...Assignment: Earthquakes Axia Colleges of the University of Phoenix By To understand why the Earth moves the way that it does along and through its diverse layers, we must have a better understanding of the physical science surrounding both plate tectonics, and earthquakes. This is a summation on earthquakes; what causes earthquake to occur, the effects of earthquakes on surroundings, how the strength of earthquakes are measured, and the regions in which earthquakes are most likely to take place. There are two types of plate margins exist; divergent margins and convergent margins. Convergent margins are the boundaries which are on two plates that proceed into one another and return (Murck, Skinner, & Mackenzie, 2008). As a result, this leads to the two distinctive forms of plate margins; it is dependent upon if the boundary is in between two continental plates, in between two pelagic plates, or in between both. However, divergent margins are by far different from convergent margins in that these margins are boundaries along two plates traveling apart from one another; taking place within the pelagic or continental crusts (Murck, Skinner, & Mackenzie, 2008). Earthquakes have a tendency to be most frequent along these boundaries being the most unmistakable expression of dynamic...
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...What Is an Earthquake? Earthquakes are one of the many natural disasters, but one of the deadliest. In the past few centaury’s they have taken away the lives of millions of people. However earthquakes are a natural part of the earth “they happen”. An earthquake is a sudden release of energy from the movement of the earth’s surface. The roots of an earthquake lie in the lithosphere as it blows on the earth’s surface. There are many different types of earthquakes. They vary from seismic activity which is hardly detectable using scientific instruments, to devastating earthquakes which destroy anything that comes in its way. These earthquakes can also cause a tsunami and volcanic activity. But because of these earthquakes more than a million people die each year. The location inside where the earthquake starts is called the focus. Right above the focus is the epicenter. The strongest shake occurs at the epicenter. The solid ground is said to be stable but an earthquake can destroy the ground. [pic] |What Is an Earthquake? | |Earthquakes are one of the many natural disasters, but one of the deadliest. In the past few centaury’s | |they have taken away the lives of millions of people. However earthquakes are a natural part of the earth | |“they happen”. An earthquake is a sudden release of energy from the movement of the earth’s surface. The | |roots of an earthquake...
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