Earthquake damage:

Preparation for Earthquakes

Preparation For Earthquakes:

In certain major cities that have previously been damaged by eartquakes (eg. San Francisco) there are preparations being made for possible future earthquakes.

Earthquake proof buildings:
Although there is no way of creating a 100% earthquake proof builiding there have been atempts to help buildings that may be struck by an earthquake in the future:

Some of these buildings have been built using "isolated base technology" which uses a coil or another form of flexible support and placing it between the building and the foundation for the building.

Earthquake safety drills:
In schools in countries such as The united states and Japan, schools have earthquake evacuation plans and run earthquake drills which can be compared to fire drills.
united states official school earthquake safety handbook:
Schools Earthquake Safety Guide

Chinese earthquake (2008)

Chinese earthquake:
More than 10,000 people died when a 7.9 -magnitude earthquake struck southwestern China on monday 12th May 2008, The earthquake, felt as far away as Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam, struck about 100 kilometres northwest of the capital of Sichuan, Chengdu, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its website. It hit at 2:28 p.m. local time, when schools were full and office buildings were packed.

Greater than 200 people died in three other provinces, including Gansu and Yunnan, and in the municipality of Chongqing.

In Beijing, more than 1,500 kilometres from the epicentre, thousands of people fled office blocks, which were swaying wildly for more than two minutes after the quake struck.


Relief efforts:
The government and its media quickly mobilized, with nearly 20,000 soldiers, reservists and police sent to the area. But their efforts were being slowed by blocked routes and nightfall.

China's deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing an estimated 240,000 people.

The San Francisco Earthquake (1906)

The San Francisco Earthquake:

The first sign of the horrors to come was a small foreshock However, it offered just a quick warning, for massive devastation was soon to follow. Roughly 20 to 25 seconds after the intial foreshock, the large quake hit. With the epicenter close too San Francisco, the entire city was rocked.Walls caved in,Chimneys fell and gas lines broke.Many people didn't have time to even get out of bed before they were killed by falling debris.
The earthquake lasted for roughly 40 to 60 seconds. Soon after, fires broke out across the city from broken gas lines.The fires spread quickly across San Francisco.
The quake and subsequent fire left more than half San Francisco's population homeless, destroyed 28,000 buildings, and killed approximately 700 to 3,000 people

This quake was measured as between 7.7 - 7.9 on the richter scale and scientists predict that another earthquake of simialiar size will hit san francisco in the near future

Earthquake video (japan)

Earthquake In Japan Real Video Clips - More amazing video clips are a click away

Fault Line

Fault Line:

How Earthquakes are measured

How Earthquakes are measured:

The Richter scale is used to measure the amount of energy released in a given earthquake. The Richter scale's reading will not be affected by the how far the observer is from the quake, although the perceived strength will be larger near to the epicenter and generally decrease as the distance increases. Richter readings are helpful in comparing earthquakes that occur in different places and at different times. There are many other factors that contribute to the damage, such as the building construction, underlying rocks, and poulation density. The Richter reading by itself does not give enough information to tell what the effects will be in any particular place.However, usually, the larger the Richter reading, the greater the damage will be close to the epicenter., 7 and 8 will cause a lot of damage, 5 or 6 will be enough to cause some damage and 3 or 4 will cause a mild shaking