Earthquakes
LQ2 - Japan tsunami 2011
Long term effects
Fishing & tourist industry affected
radioactive contamination
300 tonnes radioactive water leaks from plant daily
- Pacfic Ocean
Affect marine life
Governament
import large amounts of fossil fuels to meet electricity
needs
€70 billion per year deficits
138,000 building destroyed
Death
Nuclear Power Plant
level 7 meltdown
Infrastructure destroyed
road & rail
over 20,000
Short term effects
Towns washed away
Aftershock- magnitude 6.0 or greater
farmlands under water
Tsunami - 6m high
10km inland
Tsunami - 8m uptrust of 180km seabed
Epicenter 130km east of city of Sendai
Earthquake Focus 30km below sea floor
10km deep trench - Japan Trench
Magnitude 9
Plates - Pacific subducts Eurasian Plate
Destructive Plate Boundary
11/03/2011
LQ3 - Tectonic Cycle and distribution
of earthquakes
Passive Plate Boundary
Example: 1960 San Fran - San Andres Fault Line - 1300km long
North Westerly Direction
Pacfic plate and N. America plate slide past eachother
Pacfic Pate 5cm a year
Destructive Plate Boundary
Pacifc plate subducts Eurasian Plate
Japan 2011
LQ1 - Preventing
Government's
Prepare rescue & recovery plans
Earthquake proof buildings
Protect building - structural damage
Earthquake drills
LQ1 - Predicting
Seismometers
vibrations in the earths crust
Crustal Stress levels
holes 1.5km deep
Oil & water levels
rising levels = ground under pressure
Radon Gas Emissions
escape from earths crust
Unusual animal behavior
Ground tilting
Lasers
Recording and Measuring Earthquakes
Seismographs
detect waves
Richter Scale
Energy released
Magnitude
Modified Mercalli Scale
intensity and effects
Def
Parts of an earthquake
Subtopic
Tremor
Epicenter
Focus
Vibrations or tremors in the earths crust caused by the movement of the plates in the mantle