JAPAN'S 2011 EARTH QUAKE

DISASTER
Man is constantly progressing from the day of his existence. He has
learned to fly, to use electricity and to use certain powers of nature. He has
been trying to overcome natural disasters but has failed to do so and will
perhaps never succeed. There are several kinds of natural disasters which
human beings are suffering from beginning. One of them is earthquake. I am
going to mention briefly the cause of happening earthquakes and its history
related with the region in which Japan is located. I will discuss the most
recent earth quake which struck Japan a month ago.

How Earthquake Happens:

There are many factors involved but the main reason is our earth is
made up of slowly-moving sections called tectonic plates. These plates
have been crawling for billions of years under the surface layer of our
planet. These plates have rough edges known as plate boundaries. Since
these edges are rough sometimes they can get stuck and locked up with one
another while the rest of the plates keep moving. When the force finally
releases, all the stored up energy is released from the locking point in all
directions in the form of waves as ripples on a pound. This results in motion
of earths surface which is known as earth quake.

Earthquakes and Japan:

Japan is located in the region which has got the greatest number of
earthquakes in the history. It has an average of approximately fifteen
hundred small and big earthquakes a year. According to Wikipedia since 648
A.D. Japan has faced more than 40 earthquakes which have magnitude 7.0
or greater.

Japans Recent Earthquake:

11th March 2011 Friday. Citizens of Northern Japan were unaware of
what is going to happen this afternoon. They went to their jobs normally as
they do in routine, at 2:46 pm Tokyo time, the quake struck. The recorded
magnitude of the quake was 8.9. The surface of the earth started trembling;
skyscrapers were shaking as they were trees swaying in the breeze. It was in
fact a treble look. Almost half an hour later huge waves of Tsunami about 30
feet high rushed onto shore, carrying away cars, ships and strongly built
buildings. Although mostly all of the buildings were made quake-proof but it
was such a powerful quake along with Tsunami waves that it carried away
each and every thing.
On Saturday morning, Japan was filled with the scenes of destruction
and desperation. Thousands of homes were destroyed, many roads were
blocked, trains and buses were stopped and power and communication
systems went down. One of the rail officials told that three trains were
missing as a result of flood and quake. Sendai airport was drowned in water
and plane service was cutoff in Northern Japan. Another big problem
occurred when radiations were leaked from two nuclear plants near the
quake zone. Japanese officials issued evacuation orders for people living
near two nuclear power plants that had experienced breakdowns in their
cooling systems as a result of earthquake.
The death figures from the earth quake and Tsunami was the biggest
ever recorded in Japans history. According to the latest reports of media the
number of casualties has reached up to 30000. About 300 bodies were found
along the shore in Sendai. Although thousands of people lost their lives yet
many lives were certainly saved by Japans disaster precautions and strict
construction codes. Fortunately the centre of the quake was far from the
Japans industrial heartland so; the countrys economy was spared from a
devastating damage.
Rescue teams struggled to reach survivors on Saturday morning.
Rescuers found 870 people in one school and tried to reach 1200 people in a
junior high school waiting for help. According to a newspaper 600 people

were on the roof of a public high school in Sendai city. Japans defense
forces and firefighters rescued them on Saturday. On the roof of Chuo
Hospital doctors and nurses were calling for help waving white flags by
writing HELP on them.
In fact that was a treble earthquake and it became worst accompanied
with the huge waves of Tsunami. It remembers us the powers of nature and
out littleness in this universe.