Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Effects of Earthquake

Good Essays
440 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Effects of Earthquake
The destructive effects of an earthquake can be classified into primary and secondary effects.

Primary effects are the immediate damage caused by the quake, such as collapsing buildings, roads and bridges, which may kill many people. Those lucky enough to survive can suffer badly from shock and panic.

Secondary effects are the after-effects of the earthquake, such as fires, tidal waves, landslides and disease.

Fire - earthquakes destroy gas pipes and electric cables, causing fires to spread. Broken water mains prevent the Fires being extinguished. Fires spread very quickly in cities, especially in poor-quality housing areas where wooden buildings are common.
Tsunamis - an earthquake on the sea floor or close to the coast may cause huge waves.
Landslides - earthquakes often cause landslides, especially in steep river valleys and areas of weak rocks.
Disease and famine - fresh water supplies are often cut off causing typhoid and cholera. Lack of shelter and food causes much suffering. soil liquefaction when soils with a high water content are violently shaken they lose their mechanical strength and behave like a fluid and so buildings can literally sink. Excellent clip 2011 Japan
Tsunamis

Mega tsunami caused by a landslide July 9th 1958

Explanation

Outline causes
A tsunami can be generated when destructive plate boundaries abruptly move and vertically displace the overlying water. It is very unlikely that they can form at constructive or conservative plate boundaries. This is because constructive or conservative boundaries do not generally disturb the vertical displacement of the water column. Subduction zone related earthquakes generate the majority of all tsunamis. Tsunamis have a small wave height offshore, and a very long wavelength (often hundreds of kilometers long), which is why they generally pass unnoticed at sea, forming only a slight swell usually about 300 mm above the normal sea surface. and they travel quickly at speeds over 700 km/h. They grow in height when they reach shallower water.
When a tsunami reaches land, its effects will depend upon:

the height of the wave and the distance traveled' the length of the event that caused the wave; the amount of time that a warning was issued; offshore and coastal physical geography; coastal land use and population density
Most occur around the Pacific basin, due to the subduction zones that are found there.

The Indo-eurasian subduction zone has seen three recent tsunamis:

December 2004 Indonesian, Indian Ocean coast, caused by an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 just off the island of Sumatra, killing an estimated 300,000
July 2006, south Java coast caused by a 7.7 earthquake 180 km off shore, killing 600
April 2007, Solomon Islands,
March 2011 Sendai

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Earthquakes are an example of seismic activity caused by the build-up of tension at the three types of plate boundaries: destructive, constructive and conservative. The pressure is suddenly released as the plates jerk past each other, sending out seismic waves from the focus that travel through different parts of the earth. The movement of convection currents within the Earth’s mantle causing the crust to become mobile which creates the different types plate margins, makes the cause due to physical factors. However human activity is suggested to be the cause of some minor earthquakes, for instance the building of large reservoirs where the water stresses the surface rocks or the subsidence of deep mine workings.…

    • 2230 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Earthquake Hazards occur when there are adverse effects on human activities. This can include surface faulting, ground shaking and liquefaction. In this essay I will be discussing the factors that affect earthquakes, whether human such as population density, urbanisation and earthquake mitigation or physical such as liquefaction, magnitude, landslides and proximity to the focus.…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    As early as 426 B.C.[->1] the Greek[->2] historian Thucydides[->3] inquired in his book History of the Peloponnesian War[->4] about the causes of tsunami, and was the first to argue that ocean earthquakes must be the cause.[5]HYPERLINK \l "cite_note-Smid.2C_T._C._103f.-5"[6]…

    • 4534 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is impossible for anybody to argue that human factors do not have an effect on the impact caused by earthquake hazards; however the extent of the effect is debatable depending on the situation. This can depend on many different aspects, for instance the level of development in the relevant country, the standard of infrastructure, the magnitude and location of the quake and lastly what time the quake occurs. In order to properly assess whether the impact of earthquake hazards depends primarily on human factors, it is necessary to look at a range of case studies which will provide a balanced overview. For instance – looking at the LEDW – examples such as the Haiti earthquake in January 2010 as well as the earthquake in the Indian Ocean in December 2004 could suggest that the impact depends primarily on human factors as these countries are not fully developed and thus might have underdeveloped infrastructure and building regulations. Contrary to this, the MEDW with examples such as the Northridge earthquake in 1994 could provide a contrasting argument in terms of how human factors affect the impact. However, there are always multiple factors which the impact depends on, regardless of the development of the relevant country.…

    • 877 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    New Madrid Earthquake

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The results of these earthquakes was devastating. Trees were up rooted and looked to be tossed around like toothpicks. There was wide spread damage extending from St. Louis to all the way to Pennsylvania where supposedly the Liberty bell rang from the strong quakes.(Nuttli) Thirty miles south, in the river town of what is today Caruthersville, Missouri, all twenty houses were destroyed, and the surrounding land was rendered almost unrecognizable. The ground rolled in several-foot-high waves until they burst, hurling up geysers of water, sand, and a charcoal-like substance. Giant fissures swallowed buildings, along with anyone inside.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many horrible things that come with have to take care of the after math of earthquakes. Even through earthquakes usually are not the direct causes of death and injure people they do cause buildings to fall and falling building and pieces of buildings hurt and kill people. Many people have been killed and injured by buildings due earthquakes and the amount of money it costs to repair the damage is very pricey as…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Earthquakes in Los Angeles, California can be devastating to people, cities, and the landscape. Earthquakes can cause millions if not billions of dollars of damage in only a matter of a few minutes. The more populated the area where the earthquake strikes or the earthquakes epicenter, the more the disaster can occur. Buildings are constructed to an earthquake code, but that does not mean there can be no damage to them. Brick faces can fall, windows can shatter, and structures can become unsafe. Bridges can buckle and with that their support beams and vital components can ultimately fall down to the ground in a pile of twisted steel. Water and sewage pipes can rupture filling buildings with water and poisonous…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A hazard can best be defined as a 'situation that poses a level of threat to life, health, property or the environment.' The overall impact of earthquakes as a natural hazard varies greatly from one place and timeframe to another. As do the types of hazards, which are categorised into primary and secondary. Primary hazards are created by the direct seismic energy of an earthquake; this could include liquefaction, slope failure and tsunamis. These primary hazards can in turn trigger secondary hazards such as floods, fires, disease and destabilisation of infrastructure. A number of factors play a part in determining the severity of these hazards.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The first thing earthquakes effects is earth. When two continental plates meet, earthquakes are happening, volcano eruptions and mountain formation caused by continental plates. Earthquakes cause the ground to shake and creates cracks and holes in the ground. They can also make trees and other objects in the wild or nature, fall and crash into the ground. Soil in the ground can change or liquefy because of earthquakes.…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hawaii Beach Observation

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Earthquakes beneath the ocean floor, volcanic eruptions and anything that displace large amount of water can cause tsunami.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    An earthquake is an emergency because it is unexpected and cause severe damage to environment and properties or lands. It can also severely harm human beings who happen to be in the designated area. In order to be prepared for unexpected situations like this there are some procedures people can follow to ensure safety around them. These are before the earthquake happens…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Earthquake Shaker

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The amount of damage caused by an Earthquake does not solely depend on the magnitude of the Earthquake. Factors such as population, geographic location, soil type, and the type of building material commonly used for construction in a region determine the extent of damage caused. If an Earthquake strikes a densely populated region, then life loss and property damage will be high. If an Earthquake of a similar or even higher magnitude strikes a region with a relatively low population, then life loss and property damage will be lower. The 6.4 Richter scale Earthquake (1993) in the State of Maharashtra, India and the 8.3 Richter scale Earthquake (2006) in Kuril Islands, Japan are examples that come to mind. With stone houses and a population of over 2 million, the Earthquake in Latur left nearly 8,000 people dead and brought as many as 30,000 houses to the ground. In contrast, Kuril Islands, with a population of just 17,000 and better disaster preparedness mechanisms, was able to get away with no loss of human life ,despite the fact that the Earthquake was much higher in magnitude when compared to that of Latur.…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Northridge Earthquake

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Earthquakes are vibrations of earth caused by the rapid release of energy. These earthquakes can be caused by faults in the Earth’s crust scraping against each other. Faults are constantly sliding past each other, but can occasionally have difficulty when the earth around these faults cracks, causing the path to become rugged. When they don’t slide easily, they cause tension. When the tension and pressure is released, this causes said vibrations that can be large enough to damage and destroy cities, or so small that they can only be detected by a seismograph.…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Seismic Hazards In Haiti

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This is caused by shallow-focus underwater earthquake; volcanic eruption and large land slide into the sea. The displacement of the water becomes the giant sea wave and they normally have a long wavelength over 100m and low wave height when they are still in the open ocean. When it approaches shallower water near the shoreline the speed and the height increases and it can reach 700km/h. tsunami is one of the most deadly seismic hazards can cause significant damage to buildings and infrastructure. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake shook northeastern Japan, unleashing a savage tsunami. It killed over 15000 people and the total cost of the disaster was over $300billion and Japan is still recovering today.…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I believe peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society. Peaceful resistance is a way to express your beliefs and protest potentially other harmful policies or laws. More importantly, I feel it also inspires change. While violence escalates tensions and leads to revenge, peaceful resistance should inspire thoughtful progress and civilized improvements in a free society.…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays