What Can Earthquakes Do?
3/24/15
By: Kaitlynne Connors
Have you ever experienced an earthquake? They can be very deadly and life changing at times. An earthquake has many effects on the Earth, the people, and on property. Earthquakes are caused by the rock underground moving and rubbing together causing a release of energy. Some earthquakes are just small but others can be very dangerous.
The amount of damage an earthquake can do to the Earth is phenomenal. An earthquake on December 26 2004 in Indonesia was so destructive, it changed the planet in its shape, it slightly moved the North Pole 1 inch East. Scientist even found that the Earth even spins a little faster than it did before! 2.68 microseconds was decreased from our day. Another example of what earthquakes can do to the Earth was on March 11, 2011 a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck offshore about 80 miles east of Sendai creating a tsunami. devastating more than 1 million Japan residents. Some of these cases are actually the worse. This not always the case but it can happen. There are different levels of earthquakes.
The effects an earthquake can cause for people all differ. There is a wide variety from being completely homeless, to just not being able to drive your car on a certain road so you have to take the long way around. Many lives can be lost during an earthquake if the magnitude is very high, and the people are around buildings, they could fall and kill you. Even your house can be highly damaged and cause very expensive repair bills. The Loma Prieta earthquake killed more than 60 people, injuring almost 4,000.
An earthquake can be a very costly situation. If its bad enough, prices can range all the way to $55,000 on your insurance claim. In the Loma Prieta incident, the final repair bill for the earthquake there, the total was $6 billion dollars! That is a very large amount of money. The span of the bay bridge collapsed, tens of thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed.
The overall effects of an earthquake are very substantial. All earthquakes are all different and vary. The outcomes of earthquakes are all very different as well. The effects of such an earthquake could be emotional, physical, and you can lose a lot in such a catastrophe. Knowing all of this information is important because you should always be fully aware of the effects of this. This gives you a good image of the effects. In as little as 15 seconds your world could be turned upside down.
