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Recovering from natural disasters
Tsunami causes
The cause and effect of tsunamis
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On the 29th September 2009 at exactly 6:48, Samoa was hit by a Tsunami. The Tsunami was created by an earthquake, measurement of 8.3, this tragedy put Samoa into an economic disaster, leaving families homeless, starving, with unclean water and feeling helpless. Not only did it hit Samoa, but it also hit some countries nearby. How and why did the earthquake occur in Samoa? The earth's crusts are separate rocks also known as tectonic plates. It is the outermost layer of our planet. The earth's layer is made up of rocks. It consists of many different kinds. Igneous rocks and metamorphic rocks are the main group of rocks. Oceanic crust is made up of basaltic rocks (fine-grained volcanic rock). Earthquakes happen when two tectonic plates of the …show more content…
How did the Tsunami affect them? Tsunamis occur when earthquakes happen underwater. When two tectonic plates come together, one plate pushes beneath the other plate, this action causes much friction between the two plates, which also causes the top plate to be pulled along with the plate going beneath the other plate. This doesn't take moments, it takes thousands of years because it is a slow process. So, then the pressure of the top plate takes charge and flips upwards and causes a megathrust, an unexpected move in the ocean which creates an epic but terrifying tsunami. The created series of waves go in all separate directions. Some of the waves would go and meet the nearest land, and some waves would just disappear. If the waves do meet land they wouldn't be as tall and wide as they were when they were first formed because the waves had travelled a long way. The tsunami struck the islands of Savai'i, Upolu, and Tutuila (Samoa) minutes after the earthquake happened, Waves that were ten feet in Samoa, and in America Samoa, Pago Pago the waves were around 4.6 …show more content…
Some people had heard the warning and hurried to the nearest mountain they saw. People in Samoa, America Samoa and Tonga lost their homes, some still have missing family members, villages were entirely damaged, they had contaminated water and there was no food to eat. The combination of Samoa and America Samoa were homeless because there was not a single building that was not unharmed by the quake and Tsunami. There were 862 buildings that were demolished, 14 schools that needed rebuilding and 5274 people lost their homes. Men and women waited for a long time before they could go back to work, children remained as well before they could go back to school and learn. New Zealand, Australia and the United states were some of the countries that had reached out to Samoa, who were in need of urgent help. New Zealand had given Samoa $12 million to assist with emergency support, and reconstruction. In addition, they had sent vehicles, staff and emergency supplies. Oxfam (a charity in New Zealand) had sent medical staff, and supplies to assist. Overall, countries from around the world were giving Samoa the support and resources for them to recover from the agonizing
About 20 million years ago the last part of the Farallon sea floor plate subducted under the North American plate. This put the North American plate and the Pacific plate into contact, but unlike the Farallon sea floor plate, the Pacific plate sheared against the side of the North American plate. Because there was no plate subducting, the North American plate was in direct contact with the mantle (Tierney, 29). Heat from the mantle made the continental crust more ductile, which allowed the crust to extend and thin.
The survivors had no home, clothes, food, and most of all, they lost their loved ones, relatives, and friends. The government helped the survivors, sending the military with relief goods in order for them to live through their hardships. The survivors slept in the Presidio and city parks, like the Golden Gate park, with tents, waited in line for food and clothing that were being distributed by the government and other organizations (National Archives, 2016). The survivors were required to do their cooking in the streets in order to minimize more fires. The administrators of relief goods included San Francisco Red Cross, Relief Corporation, and The United States Army. This earthquake was considered one of the worst natural disasters in United States. The city of San Francisco received helped from people around the country, other cities, states, federal government, and other countries, totaling up to $9 million in relief (“Quick facts about the 1906 earthquake and fires,”
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami took place on December 26th, 2004 and had a magnitude of 9.15. The cause of the Sumatra Tsunami was due to the sliding of two tectonic plates. Sumatra, an island in Indonesia, is situated on the boundary of the two plates; part of Sumatra is situated on the India/Australian plate and the other part is on the Eurasian plate. The Indian/Australian plate and Eurasian plate connect on the ocean floor at the boundary, a little over 100 miles off the short of Sumatra. Sumatra was one among the many countries that was impacted by these natural disasters. To fully understand the Sumatra Tsunami one must examine the events that led up to it, what a tsunami is, and the damage caused.
The Red Cross has done many things to help the people that are hurt, injured, or lost lives of people that matter to them. The Red Cross has provided at least 10,000 families with essential household items including blankets, water containers, personal hygiene items, mosquito nets and tarpaulins. ( Doc A). The Red Cross has only been able to meet the shelter needs of 1,200 families ( Doc A). “ People still need relief supplies, water and health services but we also need to assist those who need to repair their homes, and help rebuilding homes,” said Richard Gordon, chairman of Philippine Red Cross ( Doc A ).The Red cross has already met the needs for many people, so I hope that the Red Cross continues to help the people of Bohol and the central Philippines.
The earthquake happened on a known fault line between the conservative plate boundaries of the North American and Caribbean plate. The North American plate is moving west while the Caribbean plate is moving east. As the plates are sliding past each other, pressure is building up and evenly it is released as an earthquake. In the Caribbean region, earthquakes don’t usually happen but they are not unheard of. This is known as a transformative as the plates are rubbing against each other. It lasted for 30 seconds. The last major earthquake, which happened in this region, was in the 18th Century. This means that the pressure has been building up since and on January 12th the pressure was released. The fault line is the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault. The stress has been building up for approximately 250 years. Faults are usually where earthquakes occur.
The Great Kanto Earthquake also known as the Tokyo-Yokohama Earthquake of 1923 hit the metropolitan area of Kanto on September 1st, 1923 around 11:58 pm. It was a 7.9 on the Richter magnitude scale, killing over one-hundred and forty thousand people due to its high magnitude and the time it happened. The earthquake struck around lunch time, when many Japanese people were at home cooking at their charcoal or gas fueled stoves. At the moment the earthquake hit, it knocked down buildings that caught flames from the stoves that fell over, enflaming the city. The fire was swept up and able to spread due to the gusts of wind that occurred for two days afterwards, resulting in firestorms. Charles Blauvelt experienced the ordeal of the fire describing the flames as “[covering] the whole city [as they] burned all day and night.” In addition to the firestorms and the earthquake itself, there was a shock because of all the fallen debris which triggered tsunamis to fill and flood Japanese cities. These tsunamis, that were about thirty feet tall, destroyed central Tokyo and immensely added to the death toll.
moving back and forth in the same direction as the waves are traveling, as secondary or transverse shear waves, known as S
Convection currents deep in the mantle of the earth, begin to well up towards the surface. As the pressure increases, it sets the crustal plates in motion. There are different kinds of mountains - Volcanic, Folded, Fault-block, and Dome mountains. Volcanic mountains are formed when magma comes up through cracks in the Earth’s crust and explodes out of lava and ash. The Hawaiian volcanoes, Mt. Hood, Mt. Etna, Vesuvius, and Mt. Saint Helens is an example of volcanic mountains.
An earthquake occurs abruptly and causes severs damage to people, property, landscape and more. A great mega-thrust earthquake, known as the Great Tohoku Earthquake has shaken Japan at 5:46:24 UTC on March 11, 2011. It caused a severe disaster, including tsunami and nuclear radiation exposure.. This mega-quake located at the latitude 38.297 degree North and longitude of 142.372 degree East, near the east coast of Honshu, Japan (USGS, 2013). An earthquake and tsunami waves caused widespread damage to many areas of Japan. People in Japan are still recovering from the damages.
Igneous rocks are formed from the ejection of earth’s volcanoes. Deep down inside earth’s mantle there lies hot magma. Magma is molten rock that is kept below the surface. This mixture is usually made up of four parts: a hot liquid substance which is called the melt; minerals that have been crystallized by the melt; solid rocks that have made themselves tangled in the melt because of loose materials, and finally gases that have become liquid. Magma is created by an increase in temperatures, pressure change, and a alter in composition. When this magma is ejected from earth’s crust it earns a new name called lava. The lava hardens and becomes an Igneous rock.
There was a multitude of causes of the disaster in Japan. The first cause was a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred off the coast of Japan. Japan is located in “The Ring of Fire,” an area in the Pacific Ocean that has multiple faults and earthquakes (Pedersen 13). Tectonic plates shifted off the North Pacific coast of Japan and created a massive earthquake. The next cause was a thirty-three foot wall of water that swept over cities and farmland in Japan (Branigan 2). Martin Fackler, a journalist, stated, “The quake churned up a devastating tsunami” (Fackler 3). The tsunami reached speeds of 497 miles per hour while approaching Japan (Fackler 3). The third and final reason of the disaster was that the cooling systems at multiple nuclear power plants failed. At Fukushima, a nuclear power plant in Sendai, Japan, the radioactive rods began to overheat due to the absence of water, which cools it. Explosions occurred at three of the reactors, which spewed radiation into the air (“Comparing nuclear power plant crises”). In conclusion, the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant issues were the causes of the disaster in Japan, but they also had a myriad of effects.
The crust is the consequence of exploded mantle material originating from below the plate, cooled and in most cases, chemically changed by the seawater. These explosions occur typically at mid-ocean ridges.
The interior structure of the earth is made up of crust, the mantle and core (inner core and outer core). Earthquakes occur on the crust. Crust forms the external layer of the earth surface. On the crust, the plate tectonics forces are in charge of causing the abrupt earth movements. Due to the existence of an immense temperature and concurrent pressure difference in the outer layer and inner layer of the earth, convection currents occur at the mantle. This energy results from overwhelming decomposition of radioactive substances contained by the rocks found at the interior of the earth. The developed convection currents lead to movement of lava; cold lava finds its way to the interior of the earth crust, while the molten lava which is generally hot, leaves the interior of the earth to the outside of the earth crust. These kinds of circulations occur at different locations of the earth surface and consequently results in segmentation of the earth due to movement in different directions.
The magma lives in the Earth’s crust. Magma is made from rock and gases. When two tectonic plates collide they push magma to the Earth’s surface and as a result a volcanic eruption is caused.