Earthquakes Essay Example

An earthquake is a sudden movement of the earth’s crust caused by seismic waves within the earth. Earthquakes also known as temblors can be tremendously destructive to artificial as well as naturally occurring features.
With all the destructive energy that earthquake possess it is difficult to imagine that a few thousands of them occur every year, not with a destructive magnitude but in the form of tremors.
Areas that are on the “Ring of Fire” are mostly hit by earthquakes because of the volcanic activity present in these areas. It recorded that eighty percent of the world earthquakes occur on the rim of the Pacific Ocean. An earthquake usually occurs following tectonic plates collision or sliding against each other along fault lines. When the movements are gradual and almost unnoticeable on the earth surface it's known as a tremor but when the stress is intense and a lot of built up energy is released suddenly, seismic waves are sent through the rocks in the earth’s interior to the surface causing an earthquake. The recent much publicized fatal Nepal earthquake was caused by tectonic plates below the Himalayas. The Indian and Eurasian plates met along a fault line and caused the quake.
Earthquakes are assigned a magnitude according to their strength and how long the seismic waves last. An earthquake of magnitude ranging from three to five is of minor magnitude, five to seven is considered to be a strong quake, seven to eight is a major quake while quakes more than 8 are comparatively great. The Nepal earthquake was of magnitude 7.8.
On Average, earthquakes of magnitude 8 hit somewhere in the world annually and kill at least 10,000 people. In our earlier example, Nepal earthquake suffered a death toll of 8019 people with 17866 others lying injured. Most lives in earthquakes are claimed by artificial features such as collapsing building and breaking bridges but other natural calamities such as landslides, tsunamis and fires usually follow up. Moreover, tremors that follow up after a big earthquake usually cripple the rescue efforts and cause further destruction.
The death and destruction, however, can be mitigated by education and planning in earthquake prone areas. The buildings in these areas can as well be designed to absorb the earthquake movements rather than be made rigid and crumble under the force of the crust movements.
This report is drawn from a documentary on earthquakes by National Geographic Television.