The Land of Earthquakes

Understanding Earthquakes, Japan’s Preparedness, and the Global Impact of Historical Disasters
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Read about earthquakes and which country suffers from the greatest number of earthquakes. Understand how bad an earthquake can be in terms of its magnitude and effect.

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Just recently, Japan released a warning about a ‘megaquake’ which will most probably happen soon there. This is going to be one of the worst earthquakes to ever occur and the destruction this will cause is undoubtedly going to be unmatchable. Said to be a once-in-a-century earthquake, the meteorological survey predicts that the in the worst-case scenario, more than 300,000 people would be dead.

The Japanese are used to earthquakes- their country experiences some 1,500 earthquakes every year and this has made them very agile and resilient in the face of such dangers. But what to do in the case of a megaquake?

What is an Earthquake?

Earthquake and Tsunami Japan

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Earthquakes are deadly natural disasters which kill hundreds of people and cause serious damage every year. Their suddenness and strength are what make them so dangerous- you never know when one might hit. A sudden release of energy in the Earth’s crust causes the shaking of the tectonic plates which becomes the source of an Earthquake. The place where an earthquake starts is called the focus of the earthquake and the exact point at the surface above this focus is called the epicenter.

In order to measure the strength of an earthquake, two properties are measured: the magnitude and the intensity. The magnitude measures the size of an earthquake from the inside of the earth while the intensity measures the movement of the ground.

The former is measured by using seismograms which detect ground motion and then record it. This is then observed by using Richter Scale. This scale can be broken down into:

  1. If the scale shows less than 2.0, then it’s a micro earthquake which happen the most and annually worldwide.
  2. For a reading between 2.0 and 2.9, the magnitude of the earthquake increases than the one before but is still a minor one.
  3. A reading between 3.0 and 3.9 means that the earthquake is a light one.
  4. A moderate earthquake has a reading between 4.0 and 4.9 which is characterized by noticeable shaking of items.
  5. If the earthquake has a reading between 5.0 and 5.9, then, it is characterized as a strong earthquake. This causes significant damage to infrastructure.
  6. A major earthquake has a reading between 6.0 and 6.9 and causes a lot of damage and is very strong.
  7. A reading of 7.0 and more means that the earthquake is a great one which haven’t occurred much because of how strong they are. As of yet, an earthquake of 10 or higher has never been recorded.

Most prone to it

If you ask anyone which country observes the greatest number of earthquakes in the world, everyone would answer with Japan. This is the correct answer but there are three more ways of answering this question.

Japan is the country where the most earthquakes occur because it is located in a very active seismic area. It also has the densest seismic network in the whole world which makes it easy for it to record a large number of earthquakes. But Indonesia is the country which actually records the most earthquakes in the world because it is larger than Japan and also lies in an active seismic zone.

If someone asks which country records the most earthquakes per unit area, what would be the answer? You have three countries to answer with- Indonesia, Tonga, and Fiji. These three don’t have enough seismic instrumentation which doesn’t allow us to record smaller earthquakes.

Which countries suffer the most because earthquakes? According to historical records, the most catastrophic earthquakes have occurred in Turkey, Iran, and China.

In History

If we look back into history, the deadliest earthquake ever recorded took place in 1556 in Shanxi, China. This ranking has been measured and provided by the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) and they estimated that about 830,000 people were killed because of its high magnitude reading of 8.

The second deadliest earthquake was more recent; in 2010, Haiti recorded the 7 magnitude Port-au-Prince earthquake which left 316,000 people dead in the aftermath. An earthquake of reading 7.5 and one of reading 7 were both recorded in Antakya, Turkey in the 115 B.C. and 525 B.C. respectively. Both of these killed a total of 510,000 people.

As for Japan, it has had its fair share of disastrous earthquakes over the past few decades. In 2011, a very powerful earthquake began from Northeastern Japan and gave rise to big Tsunami waves which struck other parts of Japan. This was a magnitude 9.0 earthquake which had devastating consequences, including a death count of 10,000 people with many people reported missing and presumed dead.

The most dangerous earthquake in Japan occurred on September 1, 1923 though, which came to be known as the Great Kanto earthquake. It was a 7.9-magnitude earthquake but was more deadly because it gave rise to landslides, firestorms, and tsunamis and about 40,000 were reported missing. 100,000 people were reported dead.

Other than these two, the Japanese also suffered because of the Sanriku earthquake in 1896 and Hoei earthquake in 1707. The former was an 8.5-magnitude quake which killed 22,000 people while the latter was an 8.6-magnitude quake which killed 5,000 people. Both of these were quite powerful and were one of the many earthquakes which have shaped the resilience of the Japanese against such adversities.

Resources

  1. Earthquakes – British Geological Survey. (2021, December 9). British Geological Survey. https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/earth-hazards/earthquakes/
  2. How Are Earthquakes Measured? (2019). Caltech Science Exchange. https://scienceexchange.caltech.edu/topics/earthquakes/earthquakes-measured
  3. Helmenstine, A. (2023, July 19). Richter Scale and Earthquake Magnitude. Science Notes and Projects. https://sciencenotes.org/richter-scale-and-earthquake-magnitude/
  4. USGS. (n.d.). Which country has the most earthquakes? Www.usgs.gov. https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/which-country-has-most-earthquakes#:~:text=For%20which%20country%20do%20we
  5. ‌Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. (2024, February 2). What were the world’s deadliest earthquakes? Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/the-worlds-deadliest-earthquakes
  6. Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 – Aftermath, Recovery, Rebuilding | Britannica. (2024). In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-of-2011/Aftermath-of-the-disaster
  7. ‌Harvey, A. (2023, September 2). The Great Kantō Earthquake Of 1923, Japan’s Deadliest Disaster. All That’s Interesting; All That’s Interesting. https://allthatsinteresting.com/1923-great-kanto-earthquake

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