Earthquakes And Its Effects On Natural Disasters

Some believe that the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was caused by an Indian-Israeli-American nuclear test. The possibility that it was some kind of human intervention that destabilized the tectonic plates, an invention that is caused only in nuclear experiments and explosions. The most popular theory is that the Indian and U.S. military are the “main cause of the disaster by testing tectonic weapons, which use electromagnetic waves, thus triggering

“The American Dream,” a phrase that every immigrant is familiar with. What that looks like is different to each individual. Often, immigrants come seeking a better life or they are refugees that were forced to leave their country under extenuating circumstances. Such is the case of the Hmong people that emigrated to the United States. This essay examines their culture, their reasons for relocating to the U.S., the cultural conflicts they face, and some solutions for providing Hmong students with the support and resources they need.

The Boxing Day Tsunami had occurred on the 26th of December 2004. The tsunami had started under water, in the Indian Ocean. The cause of the tsunami was that the Indo-Australian plate had subducted below the Eurasian plate, this process is called a convergent plate boundary. This resulted with an underwater earthquake, making waves approximately 20-30 metres high and travelling at speeds up to 500km/ph. Theses waves travelled throughout Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand and left each country in terrible conditions. The earthquake that occurred underwater had

As survivors from the quake rushed around in fear and confusion, they were greeted by yet another disaster. Shortly after the earthquake, a tsunami occurred. The tsunami’s waves struck the coastline beginning at twenty feet. But as more waves hit the coast, the height of the tsunami grew to just under forty feet, taking out everything that hadn’t already been destroyed by the earthquake, reducing the entire city to rubble. The tsunami stretched across sixty-two miles of coastline near Messina, and another twenty-four miles of coastline near Calabria. The damage from the tsunami was greater near the Calabria coast, where waves were higher and the water quickly swallowed houses and bridges, and flooded rivers. The tsunami that occurred in Messina still holds the title for one of the biggest tsunamis in today’s history. Recently, however, geologists have revisited origin of the tsunami, which is now widely debated. Some

Tsunamis occur when an earthquake happens in the ocean and the energy goes to the water creating huge waves. Tsunamis are very dangerous they can be so strong that they wash away the city, harm thousands, and cause hundreds of thousands to billions of dollars in damage. “A giant tsunami along the West Coast would wash away coastal towns, destroy U.S. Highway 101 and cause $70 billion in damage. More than 100 bridges would be lost, power lines toppled and coastal towns isolated. Residents would have as few as 15 minutes’ notice to flee to higher ground, and as many as 10,000 would die” (Dangerous tsunami threat off U.S. West Coast). This shows what kind of damage this geo-process can

All along the coast of Central America the tsunami was observed. (February 4, 1965, Alaska Earthquake, Rat Islands, Magnitude 8.7) This earthquake was recorded at a magnitude 8.7 and caused a big tsunami of over 10 m on Shemya Island. It barely caused any damage, though. Just two months after the initial shock, an aftershock earthquake at a magnitude of 7.6 hit the same area. (March 28, 2005, Sumatra Earthquake aka Nias Earthquake) Just off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, was a devastating earthquake that killed 1,300 people. A majority of the devastation occurred on the island of Nias. The massive earthquake sparked a panic around countries along the Indian Ocean because there was a massive tsunami just three months earlier in December. ( August 15, 1950, Assam, Tibet Earthquake, Magnitude 8.6) There were at least 780 people who died in this 8.6 magnitude earthquake. Many buildings completely collapsed in areas of Eastern Tibet. Landslides and ground cracks/fractures ended up washing away and entire village. The village of Yedong collapsed into the Yarlung Zangbo River and literally washed

Since these earthquakes are caused by tectonic plate movement therefore displacing the ocean floor they are almost always accompanied by massive ocean waves, sometimes reaching heights of over 100 ft and reaching speeds of 500 mph, known as seismic sea waves or more commonly known as Tsunamis4. Alongside the catastrophic events that megathrust earthquakes ensue on an affected region these colossal Tsunami waves further destruct costal lines in their path, sometimes reaching many miles inland.

There are many earth hazards everywhere on earth which both humans and nature share a role, natural hazards such as volcanoes, floods, forest fires, and avalanches, and purely of human origin like the chemical leak, oil spills, and human made earthquake. But one of nature's most dangerous hazard that we have to live with in California must are earthquakes. A earthquake is when two tectonic plates slowly slip past each other and get stuck which creates friction. The point where the two blocks slip is called the fault or fault plane. When the earthquakes start is at the hypocenter, and the point above the hypocenter is called the epicenter. After a earthquake, there are aftershocks that are smaller earthquakes, some aftershocks can be as large

This generated one of the deadliest tsunamis known to mankind, killing over 230,000 people and leaving over two million people displaced. The epicenter of the earthquake was located in the Indian Ocean, right off the west coast of Sumatra. The tectonic plates beneath the ocean floor had been colliding and building up pressure for hundreds of years, until this day when subduction occurred between the Indian and the Burma plates. The process of subduction displaced billions of tons of water, creating waves that traveled towards the shorelines at hundreds of miles per hour and as high as sixty to one hundred feet. There was absolutely no warning for the people of Southeast Asia, as the tsunami progressed quite rapidly. (National Geographic,

“I felt very at home in California, but the place is prone to earthquakes, and the one in 1944 scared the life out of me. For months afterwards, I felt that every time I sat down, I should have to put on a seatbelt.” Earthquakes are when tectonic plates slip past each other causing a “snap’. The ground shakes violently and can even crack. Though the occurrence of an earthquake is dreadful, familiarizing yourself with the causes and effects can be useful, and in turn make it less scary.

The Tsunami that took place after the initial quake was caused by a portion of seabed rupturing upwards, and displacing a large portion of the water being displaced. This water traveled at 450 miles, at 8 feet tall, to the Chilean and Peruvian coast. Early viewers of the tsunami later reported waves being up to 10 feet tall. This rupture was believed to be caused by 2 unusually dense pieces of seabed that had been previously undetected by scientists, and consequently caused a large displacement of water. There were also small ruptures of seismic

In the U.S. alone, the average annual cost to repair damage caused by earthquakes is $4.4 billion USD. The worldwide figure is much larger than this but unquantifiable due to poorer countries unable to accurately determine the amount of damage that occurred. Year after year the cost of damages barely fluctuates from these ridiculously high figures and money must be pumped into repairing the damage done. Although a lot is being learnt about earthquakes and the fact that humans are now normally able to be alerted in time to evacuate the area the earthquake will affect, there have been no breakthroughs into reducing the amount of damage earthquakes cause to buildings and infrastructures.

A tsunami is a series of huge waves occurring when there is a major disturbance on the ocean floor. Tsunamis often occur due to earthquakes, volcanoes, or landslides (Park 16). Underwater earthquakes may produce waves that travel in all different directions. Some tsunamis lose power and die out under water, others may produce large waves as they approach land. Tsunamis may look like an onrushing tidal wave as they approach land, but do not occur because of tides (Park 6). Their walls of water can move across the open ocean at speeds of up to 560 miles per hour. When the waves hit the coast, they can reach up to 100 feet (Park 5). The tsunami in Japan is believed to have occurred after two of Earth’s tectonic plates collided in the

Volcanoes and Earthquakes are two of the most intriguing natural disasters that can occur on earth. Unlike hurricanes and tornadoes, they can awaken at almost any point in time throughout the year. These two natural disasters are also different from others because they occur on the layers of the earth itself. Volcanoes, while large to us, are actually small, conical patches of earth that spurt and ooze hot molten lava from the core, and can destroy areas of land triple their size. Earthquakes, on the other hand, are severe jolts felt on land due to the movement of earths tectonic plates. Some may describe earthquakes as being similar to riding a bike down a flight of stairs. The impact of an earthquakes can take down even the largest buildings and strongest structures. All natural disasters can have damaging effects on land, some more than others, and all can be measured or predicted in different ways. Although earthquakes and volcanoes are similar to each other, the two are still very comparable. A few of these similarities and differences include the cause of their occurrence, and how their occurrence impacts the environment.

It is no secret that earthquakes are natural disasters that can have devastating consequences. Earthquakes are defined as “vibration of Earth produced by the rapid release of energy” (Lutgens and Tarbuck, 2014, p. 548). These vibrations are the result of seismic waves, which are emitted from the epicenter during an earthquake (Lutgens and Tarbuck, 2014, p. 191). The epicenter is defined as the “location on Earth’s surface that lies directly above the forced of an earthquake” (Lutgens and Tarbuck, 2014, p. 548). Seismic waves are not all the same. There are two types used to determine the location of the epicenter: P-waves and S-waves (New York State High School Regents Exam Prep Center, n.d.). According the the New York State High School Regents Exam Prep Center, P-waves, or primary waves, travel faster than S-waves and go through solids liquids and gases. They are compressional waves and are smaller than S-waves which are shear waves (Southern California Earthquake Center, n.d.). As a result of P-waves moving faster than S-waves, P-waves reach measuring devices more quickly than S-waves (New York State High School Regents Exam Prep Center, n.d.). According the the U.S. Geological Survey (2016), seismograph is used to “detect and record earthquakes” by using a hanging mass over an unmoving base, so the mass records on the base when the ground moves.