Earthquakes!

Entry 3, March 1st
Topic: Earthquakes

What is an earthquake? Shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane or from volcanic activity.
Earthquakes have been going on for millions of centuries on our planet. They have caused or created many disasters and devastations. Many houses, cities and countries have been completely destroyed and millions of people have lost their lives, and the ones that survive have to start new lives as their homes have turned to dust and have no food, money or economy. Earthquakes can create a huge problem if the country has no economy to support it as everything will break.
So many countries struggle having to put up with them. On top of that, investments and money and outrageous effort must be put to put a country back together after everything has been destroyed. This can cause a mental and physical downfall in people’s lives as they lose hope and have to try harder to get back to their past positions as they remain unemployed.

Article 1: Haiti (with American reporters)
CBS
Rare Earthquake Hits Haiti
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPYi4asn4wo

In this documentary/small clip we hear what some of the geologists and people that predicted the Haiti earthquake happening had to say. It goes on to talk about Haiti’s economy, being very poor as many people started loosing their lives within the first ten minutes of the earthquake. More than thirty thousand people lost their lives as all buildings collapsed and there was no hope. The Americans predicted it happening as they had signals from the Richter scale going high which was ‘unusual’ but they knew that sometime Haiti would be struck with an earthquake because of the two plates that were getting closer and closer to each other. Eight earthquakes have taken place in that area in two hundred and twenty years. “7.0 Richter earthquake is equivalent to 32,000 atomic bombs!” Now many people from all around the world are trying to raise money to fix up the economy in Haiti and to help the surviving members of this disaster.

Article 2: China
Chine Government official web portal
Gov.cn- Magnitude of SW China earthquake revised to 8.0
http://english.gov.cn/2008-05/18/content_981724.htm

In May, 2008, what is now called the 8.0 Richter Sichuan earth quake hit Sichuan, China and killed sixty eight thousand people. Up to five million people lost their homes, and around twenty thousand where never found again. This had killed the economy of the country as they had to raise over one trillion yuan(Chinese currency) in order to bring the country back to its original state. Many people lost their lives although they survived because they had no water or food and the ability to survive after the destruction of almost every building in the country. This earthquake was the second most violent tremor that ever occurred in the history of China. Luckily some people were found amongst the ruins of the collapsed buildings and managed to live on. Others were completely killed to pieces. One of the downfalls of this event was that on top of the destruction, the country faced large amounts of rain as well as rockslides during the period of scavenging for alive people to save their lives; this made it a lot harder, as the rescuing teams would not dare walk into certain areas and more people lost their lives.

Article 3: Santiago, Chile
Fox News/ Vivo News
2010 Earthquake (Magnitude 8.8) and Tsunami hit Chile affecting the capital Santiago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdnGQkyhIII

Our most recent earthquake took place on 27 February 2010 in Chile with a magnitude of 8.8 and not only, a diagnosed tsunami being formed with an unknown date. They had no signs of electricity and the death rate of humans was rising over the next few days after the earthquake. By the end there were around 730 deaths, thousands injured and bridges, motorways, houses and buildings destroyed. It is said that about four years of rebuilding will need to take place in order to cover the damages. Not many people were injured compared to Haiti because of the country’s economy. Nevertheless, the country is scared of an upcoming tsunami that might turn the country into bits. Otherwise survivors have been given homes and places to stay until they recover. This earthquake has been one of the strongest recent earthquakes known, and has causes numerous important buildings such as the governmental building of Chile, contemporary art building to be damaged.

Reflection

For thousands or even millions of years because of the earth’s tectonic plates many global disasters have taken place. Earthquakes being one of the most important or disastrous.
Many people in the world who have to face earthquakes have lost their lives, are injured and physically have to put up with the after effects. Many economies have been destroyed because of buildings collapsing as well as roads and houses. People that are left homeless and have children have to struggle with and keep them alive. Whenever an earthquake occurs it becomes a huge issue because of all these things. Our most recent disaster being the earthquake in Haiti has been unbelievable as the whole country was destroyed. In my opinion I think as a global nation we should help other countries who have a poor economy to fix their way of living. Many of us have given charity money to help Haiti. (Even myself through music). These disasters can not be avoided as they occur naturally, but we should help countries to stabilize and be ready for them.