EARTHQUAKE

How do earthquakes occur?

■ Earth’s crust is made up of massive plates
called tectonic plates.
■ They are in a constant state of motion.
■ As the plates move pressure forms and piles
up until it is too much and the plates crack.
■ This cracking of plates causes violent
motion of earth’s crust which is termed as
an earthquake.
■ An entire city can reduce to rubble in a
matter of seconds which an earthquake
strikes.
Effects of earthquake
■ There are three main effects of
earthquakes.
■ First one is to the physical
environment. Landslides, heavy
rainfalls and snowfalls etc. are some
damages done to the physical
environment.
■ Economy also gets effected by
earthquakes . Emergency relief and
rescue measures and rehabilitation
expenditures increase, tourism gets
reduced, increase in foreign loans
hampers economy.
■ The third effect of earthquakes is the
human environment. Massive loss of
human life, wide scale migration, health
hazards ,destruction of infrastructure are
some of the effects of earthquakes on
human life.
October 8, 2005: Pakistan’s most
destructive earthquake
■ An earthquake of measurement 7.6 on
the Richter scale caused wide scale
destruction throughout Pakistan
especially in the northern areas.