Japan Earthquake
Hello friends, on January 1, 2024, when the beginning of the New Year was being celebrated all over the world, a terrible 7.6 magnitude earthquake occurred in Japan within a day, due to which waves about 1 meter high arose in the sea and on the West Coast of Japan. Japan’s Metrology Agency had also issued a warning of a huge tsunami, although this warning was later downgraded, but very substantial damage was seen due to the earthquake itself. Dozens of buildings were completely destroyed.
Thousands of houses lost electricity. Many places were engulfed in flames and the Edge of Second January. About 55 people have been killed so far. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kisida says that this situation is a battle against time. Rescue operations are going on and efforts should be made as soon as possible. Efforts have been made to save the stranded people but on January 2, another one unfortunately collided with a Japan Coast Guard plane at Tokyo airport and both the planes are engulfed in flames.
Japan Alliance plane course fire at Tokyo airport. Need to end All runways at the airport have been closed. This airplane of Japan Coast Guard was getting ready to help the people stranded in the earthquake. Luckily all the people sitting in the other plane were evacuated safely but this airplane of Coast Guard Five out of six crew members are killed in Japan. The 29-year-old plane captain is the only one who escapes alive. Two big questions arise here. Firstly, why so many earthquakes and tsunamis are seen in Japan itself and secondly, why? How is Japan able to deal with these disasters because if the same earthquake had hit any other country, perhaps thousands of people would have died.
The death toll in Japan is less than 100. Age of Now How is Japan able to save itself from these things? Let us understand in today’s article that the recent Sir Earthquake has been named 2024 Sea of Japan Earthquake or Noto Pennines Sula Earthquake. You can see its exact location on the screen here in the map of a Noto Pennines Sula in Japan. The region is Pennines. You must have read in school, what is Sulala? Any land which has water on three sides. The epicenter of this earthquake was located here. Sea of Japan is present on the west side. It is about 500 km away from Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Area but still this earthquake was felt even in Tokyo.
Now our first question is that why so many earthquakes are seen in Japan, the answer to this is also hidden in the map. Look at this map, these are the 16 major tectonic plates of the world. Map of What are tectonic plates? This is the outer most layer of the earth which is formed from the earth’s crust and upper part of the mantle. Due to the heat being generated in the earth’s core, convection currents emerge due to which these Tectonic plates keep on moving slowly, so these are the 16 main tectonic plates which keep on moving very slowly.
Throughout the year, when they collide with each other, earthquakes are seen. So, countries and areas of the world are affected by these tectonic plates. Most earthquakes are seen there and the special thing about Japan is that it is situated at a place where four different tectonic plates are meeting each other, the Pacific Plate, the Philippine Plate, the Eurasian Plate. Plate and North American Plate, this is the biggest reason behind seeing so many earthquakes in Japan. Now the Pacific Plate has its own special thing that if maximum tectonic activity was seen in the Pacific Plate, then we would call the boundary of the Pacific Plate as the Pacific Ring of It is called firing because the highest number of earthquakes are seen here in the world and at the same time the highest number of volcanoes are also seen here.
To some extent, the same thing is applicable for other plates also, the countries which are present on their boundaries, there are more The frequency of earthquakes can be seen, like if you see the boundary above India, you will see the boundary of Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate, it passes through Nepal where there are Himalayan mountains, hence very terrible earthquakes are seen in Nepal and Earthquakes that occur in North India and in the regions around Delhi, in most cases their epicenter is located between these two plates.
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Compare this with regions like Australia, Russia and Europe where rarely any earthquake is seen. See you when was the last time you heard about a terrible earthquake in Australia? It is not that no earthquakes ever occur there, but in the regions that exist between these tectonic plates, the frequency of earthquakes is very low and when Even if earthquakes occur, they are not that dangerous and the reason behind them is that inside these major tectonic plates there are small minor tectonic plates and sometimes when these big tectonic plates also collide with each other, then its effect is moderate. Can also be seen, but depending on the way these main tectonic plates collide with each other, different types of boundaries can be formed, such as convergent boundary when one plate collides and goes under the other or divergent boundary where Both the plates move away from each other or the transform boundary is when two parallel plates move against each other. Out of these, the most terrible earthquakes occur in the convergent and transform boundaries and the boundary of the Pacific Plate is a convergent boundary and in that too There is a specific type of subduction zone.
The most powerful earth quakes are seen in the subduction zone because in this type of closure, when one plate collides with another, it goes completely under the other and goes inside the mantle and this happens when What happens is that, look at the diagram, a crater is formed inside the sea at the boundaries of those two plates, which is called a trench. These trenches inside the sea are often the deepest parts of the sea.
They are 3 to 4 km deeper than the surrounding seabed. This could be the deepest point of the earth. Mariana Trench is also a trench inside the sea which goes down to 10.9 km. Challenger Deep inside the Mariana Trench is the deepest point of the sea. You must have heard about it many times. But one thing about which you probably do not know is that there is a very big trench next to the country of Japan which is called Japan Trench. Here also the sea is 8.4 km deep. There are very few countries in the world which are so deep. It is located so close to the sea. Look at this map.
This map shows you what is the depth of the sea at different places in the world. The lighter the color, the lesser is the depth of the sea and the darker the color, the deeper is the sea. Look around most of the countries, the coastlines of India, the coastlines of Africa, the coastlines of South America are light colored, but now zoom in and look near Japan, there is a huge dark area on the very right side of Japan, here this is the Japan Trench and others. Our Imaginary Ring of Fire passes through the Pacific Ring of Fire. Due to the movement of this tectonic plate, so many terrible earthquakes occur here. Such a deep sea is present here.
The highest number of volcanoes are found here and this is the reason for this. Since tsunamis are seen most anywhere, they are seen in the country of Japan. The coast line of Japan is very close to this trench, which means that tsunami waves have to travel a very short distance and also have more time for warning. It is not from this region that only Japan gets affected by tsunami. The word tsunami also comes from the Japanese language.
Tsunami is formed from su and from Nami, su means harbour. Nami means wave, i.e. harbour, wave harbour. It means a port in Hindi because so many tsunamis were seen in Japan itself. When the news of Japan’s tsunami spread across the world, the word tsunami became popular and from there itself people started using it in almost 90 countries of the world. Earthquakes occur only in this Pacific Ring of Fire and approximately 75 active volcanoes are also found here.
Now because the geography of this place is like this, the country of Japan has always been in danger in history, but perhaps because of this only. Japan has also been at the forefront in controlling the damage caused by earthquakes and tsunami disasters. Before talking about exactly what Japan is doing here, I would like to tell you. If you want to know more about the history of Japan, then Cook FM. But there are good audio books available such as this one and a half hour audio book on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which tells the story of this nuclear bomb. Apart from this there is also an audio book on Open Hymer Father of the Atom Bomb. Lots of audios on Cook FM.
You will get books on different topics, be it fiction, history, geography, politics, overall it is a good audio learning platform where you can listen to the books. If you do not know yet then definitely go and check it out. There is a big discount in the description. Now coming back to the topic, the buildings built in Japan have to meet very strict earth proof standards.
There are three standards, the lowest one is Tasin standard. In this, the requirement is given that what should be the minimum thickness of the buildings. The beams of the walls of the pillars so that when an earthquake occurs and shaking is seen, the building can resist. Another thing is the SAI standard which is recommended for tall buildings where it is said to install dampers so that To absorb the energy of an earthquake, that is, place large thick rubber mats under the foundation of the building.
These rubber mats often absorb the vibrations of an earthquake very well, but they are also stricter than this. There is a third standard, which is their most advanced standard, Main Sheen Standard. In this, the entire structure of the building is isolated from the ground. Different layers of lead steel and rubber are applied so that the building shakes completely independently. The ground remains shaking in comparison to the ground. If the building is stable then the building should be stable.
This iconic tower named Sky present in Tokyo city has also used the same standards in it. This is one of the most earthquake resistant buildings of the entire city. When the terrible earthquake occurred in 2011, the magnitude in Japan was 99.0. On the other hand, Japan has also adopted many methods to avoid tsunami, although they have not been as successful as those for earthquakes.
They have created tsunami control forests, planted a lot of trees, and built coastal dikes to stop the force of tsunami, which These things look something like these, made of very long stones. These dykes are very expensive to make but they are successful in reducing the impact of tsunami. Apart from this, tsunami evacuation towers have been built in the places where many people live and There is a big risk of tsunami. There is not much time for evacuation, so people should go to these towers.
They will be safe from tsunami after reaching a high point. They have improved their warning systems. Evacuation drills are conducted and regular drills are conducted for the local people. What to do in case of Tsunami, how to prepare for rescue operations and finally they have built walls near the sea. Sea Walls are the 22000 mile long coastline of Japan, 40% of which is surrounded only by these concrete seawalls but this Walls unfortunately do not always work, like what happened in 2011. Read this article.
The earthquake that caused this tsunami was the most powerful earthquake in the history of Japan and due to this tsunami, the Fuka Shima nuclear disaster was also seen. Nuclear reactors damage. Due to which there was radiation leak which spread over the entire Pacific Ocean. This earthquake and tsunami of 2011 was very dangerous in the history of Japan, about 20000 people died in it. After this, their government made its standards more strict. Thankful this year. The disaster turned out to be not so dangerous and deadly. If you found this article informative then click here to read the article of Chano Bill Nuclear Disaster. The most dangerous nuclear disaster in the history of the world has been explained in this article. Thank you very much.
