Two Main Reasons Why Kobe's Disappearance

One of the main reasons of why Kobe suffered way more than what Northridge in the earthquake was because of the natural and man made causes. Earthquakes are devastating, but that doesn’t mean that thousands of people have to die from it. Kobe, Japan and Northridge, California are two good examples. In 1/17/1995, Kobe, Japan suffered a magnitude 6.9 earthquake. Similarly, Northridge, California suffered a magnitude 6.7 earthquake exactly one year before. Kobe, Japan’s focus, or the place where the earthquake started in the ground is approximately 17km in the ground in an Island 20km away from Kobe. Northridge, California’s focus was in the mountains. One of the biggest differences between them are the death tolls with Japan with over 5000 and Northridge with 57
The damage that the earthquake causes like collapsing buildings and fires do most of the deaths. When an urban city like Kobe experiences an earthquake like that, the people on the streets and in the buildings would be in great risk since buildings would topple over and crush the streets. In Northridge, California, where there were less buildings and less people living there, they suffered less casualties and damage. Another reason was the structure and material for the buildings. Besides earthquakes, Japan is also prone to typhoons. This led Japan to make roofs out of heavy tiles, which provided defense against typhoons, but not so much for earthquakes. In addition, Japan suffered more loss because of the soil of the land. In Kobe, Japan, the soil was very soft. Earthquake waves can go through soft soil more easily than hard soil. When the earthquake waves came, the soil was easily broken and thus caused more damage. In Northridge, the soil was hard and made the earthquake less damaging. Another reason why so many people died in Kobe was the durability of the buildings. In some places in Japan, houses were made out of mud and straw, which were not durable.