Table of Contents
What are the main dangers of an earthquake?
Earthquake Hazards
- Ground Shaking. If an earthquake generates a large enough shaking intensity, structures like buildings, bridges and dams can be severley damaged, and cliffs and sloping ground destabilised.
- Tsunami.
- Landslides and Rockfalls.
- Subsidence and Lateral Spreading.
- Liquefaction.
What is the greatest risk during an earthquake?
The primary earthquake hazard is surface rupture. It can be caused by vertical or horizontal movement on either side of a ruptured fault. Ground displacement, which can affect large land areas, can produce severe damage to structures, roads, railways and pipelines.
What is the greatest danger for loss of life in an earthquake?
FACT: Earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings and their contents do. The greatest risk in an earthquake is the severity of the shaking it causes to manmade and natural structures and the contents within these that may fail or fall and injure or kill people.
How do earthquakes affect people’s lives?
Earthquakes can have immediate and long-term impacts on health. Immediate health impacts include: trauma-related deaths and injuries from building collapse; trauma-related deaths and injuries from the secondary effects of the earthquake, like drowning from tsunamis or burns from fires.
What happens when there is an earthquake?
The tectonic plates are always slowly moving, but they get stuck at their edges due to friction. When the stress on the edge overcomes the friction, there is an earthquake that releases energy in waves that travel through the earth’s crust and cause the shaking that we feel.
Effects of an earthquake
| Social impacts | |
|---|---|
| Short-term (immediate) impacts | People may be killed or injured. Homes may be destroyed. Transport and communication links may be disrupted. Water pipes may burst and water supplies may be contaminated. |
What are hazards associated with earthquakes?
Learn more about earthquake hazards in your area. Because Cascadia has a rich history of seismic activity, all residents and businesses should be familiar with and prepared for the primary hazards associated with earthquakes. These include ground shaking, landslides, liquefaction, and in some areas, tsunamis.
What are the risks of earthquakes?
Major earthquake hazards include building collapse due to improper structure support, landslides or sinkholes created by an unusual mixing of soil and water during and after the quake, floods caused by the destruction of natural or man-made dams, and fire.
What damage can an earthquake do?
The violent ground-shaking of earthquakes by itself can cause damage to homes, roads, and bridges; shake products off shelves; and lead to injuries and death, but earthquakes can also lead to other natural disasters: Avalanches and landslides: Earthquakes can shake snow, soil, and rock right off a sloped surface.
How can earthquakes cause damage?
Earthquakes cause damage as a result of the different waves that they produce as the earthquake energy moves through and on the Earth. The way that the ground responds to the energy of earthquake waves as they pass through depends on the geology of the area.