Vanessa Su Ms.

OMarra Geography 12 Oct 22nd, 2013

Eye on Disaster News Report Seismic events such as earthquakes and volcanoes occur all over the world and may have serious consequences. Examples are earthquakes that occurred in Christchurch, New Zealand and in Tohoku, Japan in 2011. Examples of volcanic eruptions are Mt. Tambora on Sumbawa Island in Indonesia in 1815 and Mt. Saint Helens in Washington, USA in 1980. Earthquakes appear when tectonic plates cannot resist the stress and there is a huge release of energy that shakes the earth crust. Earthquakes occur frequently on the Ring of Fire which follows the boundaries between tectonic plates and 95 percent of earthquakes happen at tectonic plate boundaries. P-Waves and S-Waves are sent out by the focus when earthquakes come up. P-Waves are the longitudinal wave which are the first obvious waves that recorded by seismograph and S-Waves are the transverse waves which are slower than the P-Waves. Moreover, the earthquake of magnitude 9.0 had happened in Tohoku, Japan in 2011 and the epicenter of this earthquake was approximately 245km south-east of Kamiashi at the deepness which was about 36km. This earthquake was the fifth largest earthquake in the world which aroused a tremendous tsunami that almost damaged Tohoku. This

earthquake had shifted earths axis; from this point, people could understand how powerful this earthquake was. In Christchurch, New Zealand, there was also an earthquake that made a great effect to the people. The magnitude of this earthquake is 6.3 and the epicenter was just 10km south-east of Christchurch business area. All volcanoes are created by the movement of tectonic plates. Mt. Tambora is still the largest active volcano in the world that has been recorded and it is also one of the tallest mountains in the Indonesian archipelago. Tambora is formed by an active subduction zone and the magma is leaked into a chamber inside the mountain. When the explosion occurred in 1815, the epicenter was 168Km south west of Bima, Sumbawa, Indonesia. The magnitude of this huge explosion was 7. Another example of volcanic activities is Mt. St. Helens which an active volcano is also and presently it is about 8,363 feet tall. However, it is 1,314 feet shorter than was before the explosion in 1980 and it is presently in the state of rebuilding. The magnitude of that eruption in 1980 had reached to 5.1. Mt. St. Helens is a composite volcano which is the resource of subducting plates that are melting. As the melted rock moves to the surface, it forms steep peaks called andesitic volcano. In addition, all the examples of volcanoes eruptions and earthquakes that show in this report had a serious influence in physical, environmental, economic, political and social areas. Peoples houses, buildings, pastures, habitats for animals were destroyed and a mass of people were killed by these unexpected disasters. The economy, policy, society of these countries also had an enormous change. In order to placated and supported the panicky people who lost their relatives and home, the

governments had a huge investment in medical treatment, insurance, aid funds, reconstruction and so on. Furthermore, some politicians ran for the president (or other leadership positions) because they used this rare opportunity to show the people in their country the responsibility they had. They also guaranteed that they would have an impeccable approach to solve all the problems to the people. All the nature catastrophes cannot be controlled by people because it is a normal procedure for the earth to operate. Nevertheless, the only thing people can prevent is to stop damaging the environment; therefore, earth can be a more comfortable and wonderful place for people to live.