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Earthquakes

Living on the edge

Learn about the work of Oxfam Australia1 in Nepal2 in 2015 and in Haiti3 in 2010.

Image showing collapsed temple in Nepal, shows how rubble and destruction was produced by the quake. Text from image: Tragically, more bodies are being pulled from collapsed buildings every hour. Communication is down in many areas. Widespread destruction, rubble and landslides are preventing access to provide aid in many villages. Australian Red Cross statement.4

the earthquake that struck Haiti late in January 2010, and from which more than 200,000 people have died, highlights the precarious nature of living on the edge of a tectonic plate. The earthquake in Haiti caused huge human and physical devastation. Two years later, reconstruction had hardly begun.5

Tectonic plates

Learn about the tectonics of the 2010 Haitian earthquake6.

Simplified map of the Caribbean on the ScienceBlogs website, showing Caribbean plate and points of convergence.7

Compare earthquakes in different countries this century using Wikipedia’s list8 of significant global earthquakes. Compare information about 2011 earthquakes.

Maps at Geology.com show the contours of the depths of the oceans and tectonic plate boundaries around the world.9

The Science of Earthquakes

Visit the How Stuff Works website to find a well sourced article on How Earthquakes Work10. To see animations that will help you explore the concepts behind plate tectonics and earthquakes visit the United States Geological Survey page Animations for Earthquake Terms and Concepts.11 More

Over the past 100 years, hundreds of earthquakes have claimed tens of thousands of lives despite improvements in technology. See the Timeline: a century of killer quakes.12

Read a simple explanation of P and S waves13 and then view seismic graphs of earthquake waves to determine their epicentres14. Scrutinise the Geoscience Australia Richter Scale magnitude of earthquakes15 table and maps of Recent Earthquakes16.

Information on how this topic can be related to syllabuses

Links

  1. http://www.oxfam.org.au/
  2. https://www.oxfam.org.au/nepal-earthquake/
  3. https://www.oxfam.org.au/what-we-do/emergencies/past-emergencies/earthquake-in-haiti/
  4. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-12/nepal-earthquake-strikes-near-everest-basecamp/6464556
  5. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-13/haiti-struggles-to-rebuild-6-years-after-earthquake/7085174
  6. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122531261
  7. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Caribbean_plate_tectonics-en.png
  8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_21st-century_earthquakes
  9. http://geology.com/plate-tectonics.shtml
  10. https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/earthquake.htm/printable
  11. https://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/animations/
  12. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/01/13/2791266.htm
  13. https://byjus.com/physics/p-wave/
  14. http://www.sciencecourseware.com/virtualearthquake/VQuakeExecute.html?x=83&y=56
  15. http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/hazards/earthquake
  16. http://www.ga.gov.au/earthquakes/