The Kobe earthquake happened in Kobe is Japan (shown on the map to the right).
Kobe has the the sea on one side of the city and big mountains on the other side creating a lovely post-card views.
The most common nationality of Kobe is Korean, the second most common nationality is Chinese, third is Vietnamese and the forth is American
The city has an average temperature of 17.1°C.
Kobe currently now has a population of 1,533,852 with over 658,876 households. There is a population density of 2,769 people per square kilometre. The majority of the city (67%) is made up of people aged 15 to 64, 20% or aged 65 or over and the other 13% are aged 0 to 14 years old.
Kobe also has a very good economy with having one of the busiest shipping ports in that area. Kobe is also home to many headquarters of big companies such as Mitsubishi motors and industries.
**Why did it happen? **
The Kobe earthquake (also refereed/known as The Great Hanshin Earthquake), happened at 5:46am on Tuesday, January 17th 1995. It had a magnitude of 7.2 which is nearly twice as powerful as the earthquake in Dover 2 years ago. Below is a diagram showing the tectonic plates under/near Kobe.
Kobe is right on the edge of the Eurasian plate which clashes with the Philippine plate and the Pacific Plate which makes it in the danger zone.
The focus of the earthquake was less than 20 km below Awaji-shima, an island in the Japan Inland Sea. The earthquake was particularly devastating because it had a shallow focus. The earthquake had a "strike-slip mechanism." The resulting surface rupture had an average horizontal displacement of about 1.5 meters on the Nojima fault. This fault which runs along the northwest shore of Awaji Island.
** The Effects **
The death toll of the Kobe earthquake was estimated at least 5,100. The reason why there was so many deaths was because of the city is highly populated Some researchers say that if the earthquake occurred in the rush hour the death toll could of multiplied by at least 3 times.
About 300,000 people were made homeless by the Kobe earthquake. This was made worse by the time of year; winter. Temperatures would reach on a average winter day of -2*c Any form of shelter was used as a rescue centre where people could stay, some of these places included; town halls, schools, parks etc.
Local buildings and business also were effected after the earthquake with shops and headquarters being destroyed with a total of 200,000 buildings being totally destroyed.
Also the businesses that had been destroyed were closed due to the fright of aftershocks and also there were broken gas pipes and electrical wires.
Fires quickly spread over Kobe with wooden houses be burnt very quickly. These fires were started mainly by broken pipes underground. At some points extended flames reached more than 400 meters high!!
** After the quake **
6 months after the quake all the eletricity, water and gas services were working fully. The railways were fully working by 7 months after the quake.
After 3 weeks all the telephone lines were working. A year after the quake 80% of the port was up and running again.
By January 1999, 134,000 housing units had been built After 14 months all the bridges that had collapsed were now repaired.
The Kobe earthquake taught the authorities what to do encase this happens again. Also buildings have been developed to withstand another earthquake of that magnitude encase it happens again.
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Advantages: For a newly rebuilt city it is remarkably pretty Disadvantages: There isn't a great deal of history left and the reconstruction was only recently finished
ickkate 10.10.2004 ·
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Mar 14th, 2009
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