What is happening? Why is my pencil jar shaking? Well it might be a earthquake. Earthquakes are caused by tectonic plate movement that may lead to a fault. A fault is when some part of the world starts to move or shake leading to destruction. The destruction can be severe leading to buildings and bridges collapsing. Where do earthquakes occur most frequently and what do the governments from these countries do to prevent them from causing more destruction? Well in order to answer this question I had to research what causes earthquakes, the worst earthquakes in history,the government’s role when earthquakes happen, safety rules regarding earthquakes, and how to create structures that withstand earthquakes.

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Have you ever thought about what an earthquake is and how they are caused? Well earthquakes are a rumble or shift that tectonic plates cause leading to destruction or deaths. However, earthquakes have an epicenter. The epicenter is the center of the earthquake where the magnitude will be the highest. What is magnitude? Magnitude is a calculation used to determine the force or strength of the earthquake. Earthquakes can cause other problems such as landslides, avalanches, soil liquefaction, and tsunamis. The most common cause of earthquakes are when tectonic plates move in several ways. Tectonic plates can cause three types of faults that are normal fault, reverse fault, and strike slip fault. A Normal fault is when the block above the fault has moved downward relative to the block below. A reverse fault is one in which one side of the fault moves up and over the other layer. Finally the strike slip fault;  consists of blocks moving horizontally .Tectonic plates are pieces of land that divide earth’s crust. There are 7 major tectonic plates that are called Antarctica Eurasian, Indo-Australian, North American, African, south American, North American, and Pacific. Tectonic plates are differentiated by type and they are called divergent plates, convergent plates, and transform plates. “The Movement of tectonic plates shifts apart 1.5 centimeters a year,” resulting in tectonic plates to be the main reason why we have earthquakes.

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Have you ever wondered about the worst earthquakes and where they occur most frequently? Well earthquakes can be very severe and kill thousands of people. However others can be light. “An example of a strong earthquake is in Chile where they experienced the strongest earthquake in history recording a magnitude of 9.5  and destruction that would cost about half a billion dollars to repair!” “but there was an earthquake in china 1556 that killed about 830,000 people!” There have been hundreds of bad earthquakes but they all happen near the ring of fire. “The ring of fire is a nickname people use for the place where 80% of earthquakes occur.”Magnitude was invented by a famous American physicist called Charles Richter. Charles lived for 85 years but discovered the scale when he was 35. But his scale wasn’t such a good idea so other scientists changed some theories. On the Richter scale, anything below 2, humans cannot feel. Anything higher than 2, we can feel although it might not be very intense.  Finally, above 7, the earthquake is even more intense causing destruction and possible death. After starting the light earthquakes may take only seconds to finish but if strong it might be around for 45 seconds or 1 minute. But have you heard of an earthquake that took 32 years to stop in Indonesia? As you can see earthquakes happen near the ring of fire and they are very destructive. 

Sub#3 

 Are earthquakes a big problem for the governments? Yes they are. Governments pay millions of dollars per year to restore all damages earthquakes cause. This isn’t the only problem Because climate change can impact smaller earthquakes however this is impossible to know.” meaning that if the population keeps growing and polluting, small earthquakes will increase.”  This is not the only reason why earthquakes affect governments.such as in turkey and California the government had to increase the taxes to pay all the bills that earthquakes caused! However these taxes did not help in the friendliest way because people started leaving the state and country because they were not satisfied with the idea of paying more.However some people decided to stay because they have no where to go or couldn’t afford to leave.“ this is true because depending on your house it can take a whopping 50 to 800 thousand dollars to repair your home!” although there are other structures and monuments that can be affected. Earthquakes can destroy many things within a community that can cost a lot of money to repair including roads, bridges, monuments and homes.“An example is a wine company,  every company that sells an object has a factory but some factories create fragile objects like a bottle of wine that if destroyed can cause a decrease in product.” As can be seen, earthquakes cause a lot of money to repair but with the help of the government paying everything is possible..” 

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What procedures do people need to follow if there is an earthquake? First of all, if in an apartment, be ready to hold onto something. However if not possible never use the elevator because it might jam and stay in place. So instead go directly to the staircase where there will be many people going down. Follow them because when getting to ground stay away from tall structures like buildings and light posts. If not in a building but a house, stay away from the windows and find yourself somewhere you can hold on to. Even though the first thing is to look for somewhere to hold on, never forget to cover your neck with your arms because if something falls over you it won’t hit your neck decreasing the percentages of death. There are other things that can help prepare yourself for an earthquake and a part of it is to know if the country or state you live in are alerted to earthquakes. 

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What can make a building withstand earthquakes? As I’ve made clear, earthquakes are clearly very strong. But there are some ways to make buildings withstandable to earthquakes using materials like metal and wood. “After some years of using wood and metal some citizens didn’t think it was  enough so they needed other ways to think instead of only using construction materials. so instead people began to create methods to see if they could help withstand earthquakes.” What are these methods called and what is their effect? Well the first method is to create a flexible foundation. Because if there is a flexible foundation the earthquake wont reach the building  making it harder to collapse. The second method is to counter forces using vibration devices like using pendulum power and pistons. Pendulum power requires big and stretchy metal poles that are located on the four corners of the building and they all hold on to a big circle in the middle that will connect all the stretchy poles.”These pendulums must be very good because they cost approximately 51 million dollars to place!” Although pendulum power costs a lot of money, pistons are cheaper, rounding from 10 to 730 dollars. Pistons are used to calibrate the earthquake’s energy consuming it and and pressuring oil on the force. For the last method they reinforce the building using more metal poles as the building’s structure. The people that create methods and design the building are engineers and architects. Engineers are special mixed to choose materials and design as well as the architect. However the architect has a special job that is to decide which methods suit the best. Even though earthquakes are powerful there are some ways to protect people and structure.

In Conclusion earthquakes are a big disaster that will never stop occurring. But the best people can do is prepare themselves. By learning more about earthquakes, following safety procedures, and by making your home whitstable to earthquakes. So what can we do to build awareness of earthquakes and the potential harm they can cause?