Essay On Earthquakes

Comparing Earthquakes

Earthquakes occur when the Earths ' tectonic plates shift .This shifting of one plate causes it to rub against or push under or over a plate. The place where two plates meet is called a fault line, and earthquakes occur there.The strong vibrating of earthquakes can cause damage to homes, roads,bridges and lead to injuries and death, but earthquakes can also lead to other natural disasters.Avalanches and landslides often happen, earthquakes shake most things right off a sloped surface. Landslides have been a particular problem in California, a few homes where on the mountainside have ended up in the Pacific Ocean because of them.Another problem is Tsunamis, they are a series of waves that are caused by the large amounts of

The people in MEDCs tend to be more and better educated so in most cases , they know what to do in a situation like an earthquake.for example, on 17th January 1995, an earthquake struck Kobe(Japan-MEDC), a heavily populated urban area in Japan. It measured 7.4 on the Richter scale and occurred because of plate movement along the boundary between the Philippines Plate, Pacific Plate and Eurasian Plate. Some primary effects are :injury of 35000 people and some Buildings and bridges collapsed despite their earthquake proof design.While the secondary effects are : Buildings destroyed by fire when the gas mains fractured and 316000 people left homeless and refugees moved into temporary housing.There are also some short terms and long terms as a response.the short terms are :Peoplev were evacuated and emergency rations provided.And rescue teams searched for survivors for 10 days.The long term effects are: Many people moved away from the area permanently and jobs were created in the construction industry as part of a rebuilding programme. So MEDCs doesn’t keep the people 100% safe but it would help cause less damage . But in an LEDC things go much worse than you think.On 8 October 2005, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on