Kobe Earthquake
Case study on an MEDC
- Created by: Eloise Smith
- Created on: 14-03-13 20:25
View mindmap
- Case Study
- Location
- Kobe, Japan
- When/What?
- 5:46am
- 17 January 1995
- Measured 7.2 on the Richter Scale
- Lasted 20 seconds
- Focus very close to surface
- Epicenter very close to Kobe
- Event
- Lies near destructive plate boundary formed by convergence of Philippine (oceanic) and Eurasian (continental) plates.
- Philippine plate forced downwards on contact with Eurasian Plate
- Increased pressure in subduction zone which is released as earthquake
- Effects
- 5500 people died
- 40000 injured
- 230000 made homeless
- 20000 buildings collapsed
- Hanshin expressway collapsed and railway bridges wrecked
- Roads at gridlock, delaying emergency services
- Quays destroyed
- Electricity, gas and water supplies disrupted
- Fires caused by broken gas pipes and ruptured electricity cables
- Spread rapidly as houses made of wood
- Responses
- Very frightened, especially of aftershocks
- Reluctant to move back into buildings
- 230000 homeless lived in temporary shelters
- Government replaced infrastructure
- Fully operational again by July
- Housing rebuilt
- Fewer wooden buildings, built stronger
- Increased number of seismic instruments in area
- Very frightened, especially of aftershocks
- Location
Comments
No comments have yet been made