Comparing Two Earthquakes

Comparing Two Earthquakes

In 1989 an earthquake hit San Francisco, on the west coast of USA,

killing around 200 people. Twelve years later an earthquake hit

Gujarat, in India. This time it killed approximately 30,000 people.

In this report I will be comparing the two earthquakes, giving reasons

why the Gujarat earthquake was so much more deadly than the one in San

Francisco.

An earthquake is a movement or tremor in the earths crust. Earthquakes

happen all the time, but some are so weak that they cannot be felt. We

know when there is an earthquake by using a seismometer, which is an

instrument used to measure the earthquakes vibrations. The San

Francisco earthquake and the Gujarat earthquake were so powerful that

the shaking of the ground caused the buildings to collapse and

landslides to occur. Earthquakes are much more common in some places

than others, for instance there is a long narrow belt of earthquake

activity that goes down the Atlantic Ocean. Another follows the west

coast of North and South of America and then goes all the way round

the edge of the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand. Earthquakes occur when

two plates suddenly jolt past each other, which produces shock waves

called ‘Seismic Waves’ An Earthquakes focus is the point at where the

waves started, an Earthquakes epicenter is the point directly above it

on the Earths surface, an Earthquakes magnitude is the amount of

energy it gives out and the Richter Scale is a scale of measuring the

magnitude.

Tuesday 17 October 1989 an earthquake hit the Californian City

of San Francisco. At least 200 people were killed and 3,000 injured

in this incident. I...

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...in a few hours, the Golden Gate bridge suffered

no damage and £10 billion was spent on repairing damage and preparing

for the next quake. Whereas, in the densely populated city of Gujarat,

India; badly designed and poorly built houses collapsed, crushing

people inside, emergency electricity supplies and telephone links

failed to work, local rescue workers were poorly prepared and arrived

too late to save many lives, collapsed bridges and blocked roads

hindered rescue teams, many people died of their injuries due to

limited medical facilities, lack of food and unhealthy living

conditions caused further deaths by starvation and disease and over a

million homeless people had no shelter, warm clothing or food. These

are the reasons why I think the San Francisco earthquake killed so

fewer people than the Gujarat Earthquake.