Kobe Earthquake

Kobe Earthquake Japan
th
17 January 1995
5:46AM (LOCAL TIME)
8:46PM (ENGLISH TIME)…read more

Basic Facts
Magnitude: 7.2
Duration: 20 Seconds
Number Injured: 33,000
Number of Deaths: 5470
Epicentre: 20km underneath the
island of Awaji
This region is the second-most
populated and industrialised area after Tokyo, with a
total population of about 10 million people…read more

Plates Involved…read more

Why Did It Happen?
The denser oceanic Philippines Plate is
disappearing beneath the lighter continental
Eurasian Plate, on this Destructive plate margin.
The great destruction which resulted from the 1995
Kobe Earthquake was due to the shallow depth of
the focus which was only around 16 km below the
surface
The epicentre occurred close to a very heavily
populated area.
Seismic shockwaves travelled from Awaji Island
along the Nojima Fault to the cities of Kobe and
Osaka…read more

Effects:
Many of the older, wooden houses completely
collapsed.
Office blocks built in the 1960's of steel and
concrete frequently collapsed in the middle and
pancaked the floors below
Most modern buildings designed to be earthquake
proof did quite well and sustained little damage
however were commonly left standing at an angle
due to the liquefied ground below…read more

Age of Buildings…read more