Tokachi Oki Earthquake

The definition of an earthquake is a sudden shaking of the earth’s surface that often causes a lot of damage and kills innocent people, another definition of the term earthquake is that it is a series of vibrations included in the earth’s crust. We humans have invented a machine to help warn ourselves about whether an earthquake will occur or not, this so called machine is called a Richter scale. The purpose of this machine is to indicate the intensity or the amount of energy released by the earthquake ranging it from 1 to 10.

A terrible earthquake occurred 4 years ago, in the year 2003 on Friday September 26th at around 4:50 a.m and 6:08 a.m. This earthquake hit the northern island of Japan, Kushiro Oki, Hokkaido. It was a devastating earthquake which put many innocent lives in danger. This earthquake is known as the Tokachi Oki Earthquake, and is also known to be the strongest earthquake of that year, 2003.

(http://iisee.kenken.go.jp/special/20030926japan.htm)

The first earthquake with a measurement of more than 8.0 magnitudes (measured by the Richter scale) struck the southeastern part of Hokkaido. It was located at latitude 41.9° north and longitude 114.1° east at the depth of 42 kilometers. Shortly after (about 2 hours) another earthquake occurred with a measurement of about 8.2 magnitudes. Both these earthquakes occurred because Japan is located on a minor fault on the North American plate which is the continental crust and the Pacific Ocean plate which is the oceanic crust. Destructive margin occurs when 2 plates move towards each other. In this case, the Pacific Ocean plate and the North American plate moved towards each other, having the Pacific Ocean plate slide under the North American plate causing the earthquake. The Tokachi Oki Earthquake led the northern island of Japan, Kushiro Oki, Hokkaido towards more danger. The earthquake caused other hazards to occur including landslides, tsunamis, and buildings to collapse.

(http://www.absconsulting.com/resources/Catastrophe_Reports/Hokkaido%20EQ_FIN.pdf)
(http://www.eeri.org/lfe/pdf/japan_tokachi_eeri_preliminary_report.pdf)

Luckily millions of people were able to evacuate in time, but sadly a total amount of 59 people were seriously injured, 696 were slightly injured, 2 were missing, and there were no deaths reported and many homes were destroyed by the earthquake. If people know that living in Hokkaido would be dangerous because it’s situated in a hazard prone area then why do they still want to live their? Well this is because living here means easy money because of what the city produces and its culture.

(http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/09/25/japan.earthquake/)

After the 2 earthquakes settled down and everything became calm, a tsunami occurred. A tsunami with a height of 3-4 feet, roads also broke in half causing traffic, rail roads derailed, bridges collapsed, landslides occurred, and so much more but because Japan is one of the most economically developed countries (MEDC), it didn’t take long until Japan rebuilt collapsed buildings and recovered from the damage caused. They decided to have flexible steel for the builds and have flexible pipes, so that pipes won’t break and because more damage and so that buildings won’t fall apart again.

Sources:

• http://iisee.kenken.go.jp/special/20030926japan.htmhttp://www.eeri.org/lfe/pdf/japan_tokachi_eeri_preliminary_report.pdf
• http://www.absconsulting.com/resources/Catastrophe_Reports/Hokkaido%20EQ_FIN.pdf
• http://www.stvincent.ac.uk/Resources/EarthSci/Tectonics/images/destruct.gif
• http://www.gps-solutions.com/develop/kushiro/images/eq_map.jpg
• http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/09/25/japan.earthquake/