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THE
RESTLESS EARTH
EARTHQUAKE
Earthquake &
shock waves
Seismograph
| Earthquake - Restless Earth Pic Gallery
Osho once said
Man has the capacity, the intelligence, the freedom to explore and if you have explored
the nature properly than you have come home. Nature is your Home. Nature affects
every dimension of our lives but than whoever build the Heavens must be looking down upon
the Earth and must be thinking Gosh! What a mess I have made! this
reviving the memories of Noah to feel the Ups and downs are just another part
of Life, anyway!
Gujarat was
struck with horrifying Earthquake terror on India's Republic Day and the fury of nature
yet continues in many parts of the world today with the Global warming & ozone hole.
The Earthquake conjure
images of appalling destruction, horrifying death and people made homeless in thousands.
Humans cannot abate the fury of the nature as it swirls around to engulf them with its
claws. When god made Eden, he created Man but then after, he has to perform endless jobs
to balance life on earth. The fate of many victims lies in his hands. Free souls
sympathize for the victims caught in the disaster and pray heavenly peace for the departed
souls. Lets build a ray of hope and support a mission to help the stranded people
where we can reach them with our little help in the best way we can. Maybe, our little
Prayers too, may heal the pain!
Keep the
Faith
-Editor,
Kidsfreesouls
KILLER
EARTHQUAKE WRECKS HAVOC IN MANY PARTS OF INDIA & PORTIONS OF HYDERABAD IN PAKISTAN -
WITH BHUJ AS ITS EPICENTRE, THE EARTHQUAKE HAS CREATED A PANIC AND HAVOC WITH MANY PEOPLE
KILLED, HOMELESS AND STRANDED. BHUJ IS WORST HIT FOLLOWED BY AHMEDABAD WHERE THOUSANDS OF
PEOPLE FACE THE FURY OF THE NATURE!
WHY
EARTHQUAKES? GLIMPSE INTO SCOOP INFORMATION ON EARTHQUAKES
THE
RESLESS EARTHQUAKE - NATURE UNLEASHES ARMAGEDDON!
Nothing seems more stable than the ground
beneath our feet and nothing more unchanging than the seasons. The Earths internal
heat keeps the tectonic plates that make up its surface in constant motion. Structural
changes are also due to changes in global scale as pollution threatens a dramatic and
irreversible warming of the atmosphere. The worlds weather goes to extremes and as
humans face the fury of nature, the wrath of gods leaves impressions on the Earth with
destructions in forms of Hurricane, Tornado, Earthquakes and so on. The earthquake has
wrecked terrible havoc and stranded many a thousands of people homeless to battle against
the fate. Scientists long believed the core of the Earth to be smooth, spherical mass of
iron, molten on the outside and solid but still astonishingly hot, within. However, 1980s
research techniques reveal that the earth is not smooth at all but features
valleys deeper than the Grand Canyon and peaks higher than the
Mount Everest. They are the oceans of molten rock. According to the theory of plate
tectonics developed over the last 30 years, the Earths crust is made up of a series
of interlocking, slowly shifting plates. Over millions of years the plates have moved,
diverging from, colliding with or grinding against each other, and in the process moving
and changing the outline of the continents, creating new areas of the sea bed, building
mountains and volcanoes and bringing about earthquakes. The constant moving of the
tectonic plates that make up the Earths crust builds stress deep underground as the
movement of the plate pushes or pulls rock, until eventually it gives way with cataclysmic
results. The earthquake involves phenomenal amounts of energy releasing 10,000 times as
great as that of the first atomic bomb.
Why Earthquakes occur
The plate tectonics theory says that the
earths outer shell consists of about 10 large, rigid plates and about 20 smaller
ones. Each plate consists of a section of the earths crust and a portion of the
mantle, the thick layer of hot rock below the crust. Scientists call this layer of crust
and upper mantle the lithosphere. The plates move slowly and continuously on the
asthenosphere, a layer of hot, soft rock in the mantle. As the plate move, they collide,
move apart or slide past one another. The movement of the plates strains the rock at and
near plate boundaries and produces zones of fault around these boundaries. The rock
becomes locked in place and cannot slide as the plates move. Stress builds up in the rock
on both sides of the fault and causes the rock to break and shift in an earthquake. The
focus of earthquake lies less than 70 kms beneath the surface though the deepest known
focuses have been nearly 700 kilometres below the surface. The point on the surface of the
earth directly above the focus is known as the epicenter of the quake where the strongest
shaking is usually felt. The violent breaking of rock releases energy that travels through
the earth is the form of vibrations called seismic waves which move out from the focus of
an earthquake in all directions.
Structural
hazards
Structures collapse during a quake when they
are too weak or rigit to resist strong, rocking forces. Skyscrapers vibrate wildly due to
impact of earthquake. Engineers for building structures should adopt the right techniques.
The simpler reinforcement techniques include bolting buildings to their foundations and
providing support walls called shear walls. Shear walls, made of reinforced concrete
(concrete with steal rods or bars embedded in it), help strengthen the structure and help
resist rocking forces. Shear walls in the center of a building, often around a lift shaft
or stairwell, form what is called a shear core. Walls may be reinforced with diagonal
steal beams in a technique called cross bracing. Also medium sized buildings should be
done with devices that act like shock absorbers between the building and foundation. These
devices, called base isolators are usually bearings made of alternate layers of steel and
an elastic material such as synthetic rubber. Base isolators absorb some of the sideways
motion that would otherwise damage a building. Skyscrapers need special construction to
make them earthquake resistant. They must be anchored deeply and securely into the ground.
They need a reinforced framework with stronger joints that an ordinary skyscraper has.
Such a framework makes the skyscraper strong enough and yet flexible enough to withstand
an earthquake. Earthquake resistant homes, schools and workplaces have heavy appliances,
furniture and other structures fastened down to prevent them from toppling when the
building shakes.
Devastating Earthquakes
Historical records of earthquakes before the middle of the
18th century are generally lacking or unreliable. Among the ancient quakes for which
reasonably trustworthy records exist are the one that occurred off the coast of Greece in
425 BC, making Euboea an island; one that
destroyed the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor in AD
17; one that leveled much of Pompeii in 63; and those that partly destroyed Rome in 476
and Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 557 and again in 936. In the Middle Ages, severe
quakes occurred in England in 1318, Naples in 1456, and Lisbon in 1531
The earthquake in 1556 in Shaanxi (Shensi) Province of China, which killed about 800,000
people, was one of the greatest natural disasters in history. In 1693, an earthquake in
Sicily took an estimated 60,000 lives; and early in the 18th century the Japanese city of
Edo (the site of modern Tokyo) was destroyed, with the loss of some 200,000 lives. In 1755
the city of Lisbon was devastated by a quake and about 60,000 people died, a disaster that
figured in the French writer Voltaire's novel Candide. The shock was felt as far
away as the English Midlands. Quito, now the capital of Ecuador, was shaken by an
earthquake in 1797, and more than 40,000 people died. In the 20th century, large areas of
India, Iran, Japan, Turkey, Armenia, and the Soviet Union have been hit by severe
earthquakes. In 1920, 200,000 people died as a result of an earthquake which struck Kansu
Province, China (and 70,000 in the same region in 1932); in 1976, 240,000 were killed in
T'ang-shan, China. In North America, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 caused extensive
damage and claimed about 700 lives. In 1988 a devastating earthquake struck northern
Armenia, killing 25,000 people, and in 1990 50,000 were killed by an earthquake that
struck Rasht, Iran. In 1995 the Kobe earthquake in Japan claimed the lives of over 6,000
people and more than 100,000 buildings were damaged |