Earthquake Report

Introduction

In this world governed by natural laws means a world also plagued by natural disasters. The inevitability of these catastrophes is too much to handle even by the most world-renowned agencies such as the United States Geological Survey. The fact of the matter remains that nobody actually knows when exactly these destructions will occur. One of which is an earthquake. Earthquakes is considered one of the most destructive of all the Earth’s natural forces; at their most devastating they can be 10,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima Japan. It is the shaking of the Earth’s surface due to the sudden and violent movement of the tectonic plates below the surface of the Earth. In basic terms, according

There are also many fault lines around Asia most especially in China and Japan Kobe for example is on the Nojima fault. In measuring earthquakes, seismologists use the concepts of magnitude and intensity. The number that characterizes the relative size of an earthquake and the measurement of its maximum motion recorded by the seismograph is called magnitude. Richter scale is used to determine the amount of energy released by the earthquake. The average magnitude level is 7.0 – 7.9, 8.0 or greater is considered disastrous. On the other hand, the measurement describing the severity of the effects of an earthquake on the Earth’s surface, on humans and their structure is called the Intensity. It is measured through Modified Mercalli scale and the Rossi-Forel scale. These concepts are all included in the study of earthquakes called seismology. Earthquakes and phenomena happening on earth’s surface are being analyzed and studied under this branch of earth science. Examples are the Geoscience Australia, United States Geological Survey and the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) which all focuses on studying the behavior of the things that matter when it comes to earthquakes

As such, in this part of the narrative where it all sourced from CNN, three of the worst earthquakes are highlighted. First, was in Sumatra,Indonesia on December 26th year 2004 with a magnitude level of 9.1 to 9.3. This was the second highest seismic activity recorded with the longest duration of tremors. This particular earthquake was so intense to the point where its aftershocks reached the geographic location of Thailand and the island of Maldives in the Indian ocean. Additionally, it caused the Boxing Day Tsunami which eventually led to the occurrences of five more tsunamis along the coastlines of Indian sea. Overall, the death toll reached a peak of 100,000 to 225,000 with a damage costs $7 billion dollars worth of rescue operations and casualties. The second deadliest earthquake ever recorded was on January 12, 2010. A 7.3 magnitude level earthquake struck Haiti, a Caribbean Island located in the Americas, where more than 230,000 people were fatally killed and 300,000 injured due to the buildings destruction after collapsing. With these initial casualties, many citizens were forced to leave Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, towards the extremities of the capital. The effect of such movement constitute to the displacement of 1.5 million people, roughly the 20% of the country’s population. Lastly and one of the most recent recording of