Geography:Kobe Earthquake:Medc

The earthquake happened on Tuesday 17th of January 1995 at 5:46am so most people in Japan were still in bed.

The epicentre of the earthquake was on a small and sparsely populated island called Awajii just of the cost of the main island of Japan where Kobe is.

In the south part of Kobe the earthquake measured around 7.2 on the richter scale and lasted for around 20 seconds.

The Phillipene plate is oceanic therefore more dense and the eurasian was continental. The Phillipene plate sank below the Eurasian (subduction), this a destructive plate boundary.

The population of Kobe was 1.5 million people and this is because Kobe is a main city in Japan, it is very close to a popular shipping port.

102, 000 buildings to collapse railways were also destroyed and part of the Kobe highways broke off. (The Hanshin Highway).

The city lost most resources. Water was very limited.

Fires were caused all over the city, these were caused because the electricity cables snappede because of falling objects such as building, (which were meant to be able to with stand the force of an earthquake) and then exploding gas pipes made the fires worse, the firemen started to run out of water in the underground water tanks.

More than 400,000 people were rendered homeless, as their homes were knocked down because they could not withstand the force of the quake.