1. Earthquakes in Rich Countries
How much damage do they cause and how do people respond?

2. Objectives By the end of the lesson students will:
Describe the effects of an earthquake in a rich country such as Japan
Describe the response to an earthquake event and understand how the short term and long term responses are affected by wealth
Explain the need to predict, protect and repair

3. Kobe earthquake On Tuesday, January 17th 1995, at 5.46 a.m
Magnitude 7.2 on the Richter Scale
Population of about 10 million people
Lasted only 20 seconds
5,000 people died
300,000 people became homeless
Damage worth an estimated £100 billion was caused to roads, houses, factories and infrastructure

4. Great Hanshin Earthquake, Kobe, Japan 1995
Japan is made up of a series of islands and is located in off the east coast of China.
It is a tectonically active zone as three tectonic plates in this area
Japan is home to a number of active volcanoes and suffers from regular earthquakes
The Kobe earthquake of 1995 was one of the most devastating in recent history

6. Why did the earthquake occur?
The denser oceanic Philippines Plate is being subducted beneath the lighter continental Eurasian Plate at a rate of about 10 centimetres per year.
The Japanese island arc has been formed from the molten magma released by the melting Philippines Plate. Earthquakes are very common here and happen because of the friction resulting from the two plates colliding along this destructive margin.

7. What were the primary effects?
The immediate effects of the earthquake are known as primary effects
They include the collapse of buildings, bridges and roads resulting from the seismic waves shaking the crust.
During the 20 second earthquake, the ground moved up to 50 centimetres horizontally and up to 1 metre vertically. Some of the deaths were caused by these primary effects.

9. Hanshin Expressway
The great destruction which resulted from the 1995 Kobe Earthquake was due to the shallow depth of the focus which was only about 16 kms below the surface and the fact that the epicentre occurred close to a very heavily populated area

10. Liquefaction (above)
3m offset (right)

11. Most of the deaths were due to collapse of homes

12. What were the secondary effects?
The secondary effects include:
Fires that broke out all over the city of Kobe
Congestion and chaos on the roads
Closure of businesses
Homelessness
Many more people died in the fires that followed the earthquake.
Problems were made worse by the large number of aftershocks (over 1,300).

15. Almost 300,000 people were made homeless by the earthquake and had to be given emergency shelter. The severe winter weather (-2°C.) made this a serious problem. People were put into schools, town halls, open parks, etc. and were forced to live, in some cases for long periods, in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. Food, blankets, medical supplies and clean water were, for the first few days, in short supply. The scale of the problem made it difficult for the authorities to cope.

16. Summary of human factors..
Many buildings were from 1960 or older (not built to current standards
Many houses in the suburb areas were of wooden design with heavy tile roofs (due to Typhoon protection)
Because of dense population, highways had been elevated
Because of dense population, buildings were close together so fire spread quickly

17. Because of population, reclaimed land (Port Island) had been used to build on (liquefactions and lateral spreading)

19. What were the immediate and long term responses?
Immediate responses
Long term responses
Emergency services responded to rescue people trapped or injured and to put out the fires
Emergency shelters were set up in schools and public buildings which still stood
Emergency food, water and blankets were given to the homeless
Emergency gas crews worked to stop gas leaking and starting new fires
80% of the port was working 1 year after the earthquake
January 1999, 134,000 housing units had been constructed
New laws were passed to make buildings and transport more earthquake proof.
Schools and factories have regular earthquake drills
More instruments were installed in the area to monitor earthquake movements

20. Water, electricity, gas, telephone services were fully working by July 1995
The railways were back in service by August 1995
A year after the earthquake, 80% of the port was working but the Hanshin Expressway was still closed.
By January 1999, 134,000 housing units had been constructed but some people were still having to live in temporary accommodation.
New laws were passed to make buildings and transport structures even more earthquake proof.
More instruments were installed in the area to monitor earthquake movements