The Effects Of Earthquakes On The Earth

Every year, the Earth is rocked by thousands of earthquakes that causes damage ranging from non-existent to severe. These severe earthquakes can cause major damage to the cities ' buildings and infrastructure around the world, but more importantly many innocent people are injured and killed in these disasters. On average, 13 300 people are killed and over 4 million people are affected each year as a result of earthquakes. Also, earthquakes costs the world economy US$12,106,198,000 per year on average, with most expenses coming from Japanese earthquake damage. The highest magnitude earthquake was recorded in Alaska in 1964, measuring in at 9.2 on the Richter scale. One of the most recent devastating earthquakes occurred in Nepal in March, 2015, killing just under 6000 people and costing the Nepalese economy almost 20 billion dollars in the rebuilding process. There are a number of ways an individual and a country can prevent the amount of fatalities and damage to society.
Earthquakes come as a result of faults sliding past or against each other, which creates a large amount of pressure releasing a considerable amount of seismic waves causing the …show more content…
In the recent Nepalese Earthquake, it was reported that over 200 000 buildings were damaged during the quake, some of these damaged buildings caused the 6000 fatalities resulting from the disaster. Similar damage statistics have been recorded in other developing countries such as Pakistan, Haiti and Indonesia. On the other hand, developed countries are struck by earthquakes of the same magnitude but the damage and fatalities are significantly lower. For example, Chile was struck by a whopping 8.8 magnitude earthquake in 2010 but lost only 600 lives, 90% lower compared to the Nepalese of a 7.5 magnitude. This proves that deaths and injuries can be significantly reduced through building structures with a better ability to withstand powerful