A Story Map About Global Earthquakes

earthquake, any sudden shaking of the ground caused by the passage of  seismic waves  through  Earth ’s rocks. Seismic waves are produced when some form of energy stored in Earth’s crust is suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one another suddenly fracture and “slip.” Earthquakes occur most often along geologic  faults , narrow zones where rock masses move in relation to one another. The major  fault  lines of the world are located at the  fringes  of the huge tectonic plates that make up Earth’s crust. (See the  table  of major earthquakes.)

   earthquake epicentres 

Little was understood about earthquakes until the emergence of seismology at the beginning of the 20th century.  Seismology , which involves the scientific study of all aspects of earthquakes, has yielded answers to such long-standing questions as why and how earthquakes occur.

Short term effects

• deaths, destructions, landslides, avalanches, tsunamis, loss of services, liquefaction

long term effects

• outmigration from the area, disease, economic slowdown

• Distance from the epicenter
• Duration
• Population density
• Building construction
• Geology
• Economic wealth

• Seismic prediction
• Tiltmeters
• Radon gas
• Lasers
• Animal behaviors
• Level of water in wells

• Earthquake-proof building
• MDCs: rollers, flexible columns, fire proofing, deep foundations, cross beams
• LDCs: low-rise buildings, hollow blocks, reinforced concrete pillars, fixing items to the wall

Japan was hit by an earthquake with magnitude of 8.9 in March 2011.The subduction zone was along the pacific plate and the Eurasian plate and they moved 5-8km.This happened 130km off the coast of Japan. It was a shallow focus earthquake and it caused a 10m tsunami and tsunami warnings were issued. The coast became a muddy swamp,27,000 people were killed and there was damage of the nuclear plant at Fukashima.500,000 people were left homeless.