Comparison of the Two Earthquakes
Kobe Earthquake
On January 17 1995, an earthquake that had a magnitude of 7.2 on the Ritcher Scale took place in Kobe, Japan, which is a heavily populated area. The ground shook for about twenty seconds, and it resulted to 6,434 people being killed, 35,000 people were seriously injured, and over 300,000 people became homeless. The cause of the earthquake was as follows: three plates meet near the coast of Japan, which is close to Kobe. The denser oceanic Philippines Plate was being pushed beneath the lighter continental Eurasian Plate. The focus was very shallow i.e. it was only about 15 kilometers. The effects of the earthquake can be categorized into two i.e. Primary effects and Secondary effects (Kapucu & Ozerdem, 2013). The primary effects of the earthquake were 6,000 people were killed, 35,000 people were injured following the earthquake. In addition, it led to the buildings and the bridges to collapse despite most of them having been designed in an earthquake proof design system. The secondary effects of the earthquake were buildings were destroyed by fire, when the gas mains became fractured. It led to 316,000 people being left homeless and the refugees were moved to temporary housing. The response can also be divided into short term and long term. In the short-term response, people were evacuated and there were emergency rations that were provided. The rescue teams also searched for survivors for 10 days. The long-term response to the disaster was that many people moved away from the area. In addition, it led to job creation in the construction industry during the rebuilding program.
Japan 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami
On March 11, 1011, there was an earthquake, which took place on northeastern Japan, and it had a magnitude of nine, resulting into a huge tsunami. The effects of the earthquake were felt in different parts of the world i.e. in Norway’s fjords, and there were reports that the Tsunami’s debris were being washed up on North American beaches as of 2013. The Tohoku earthquake struck offshore of Japan along a subduction zone where two of the Earth’s tectonic plates collide. In the subduction zone, one plate slid beneath the other into the earth’s mantle. These plates are rough and they stick together, leading to building up of energy, which is released as earthquakes. The earthquake started on March 11 at 2:46p.m.and its epicenter was 72 kilometers east of Tohoku and at a depth of 24 kilometers (Oskin, 2015).
The primary effect of the earthquake was in less than an hour after the earthquake it led to tsunami waves hitting the Japan’s coastline. It was estimated that the height of the tsunami wave reached 39 meters at Miyake City and it travelled inland for about ten kilometers. The secondary effects of the effects of the earthquake were, as of 2015, the confirmed death toll was 15,891 and most of the people died because of …
