Earthquakes - A daily fact of life in Japan
From GeoClasses
In the early morning of January 17, 1995, I was awoken from a deep sleep to the ground trembling. I was a 14 years old eighth grader living in Nagoya, Japan with my family, and this was not the first earthquake we had felt. Indeed, living in Japan since 1989 (and we would continue to live there until my father resigned his job in 1997) we had felt may earthquakes throughout the years. However, as I awoke and felt the ground shake, I knew something felt different. In fact, something was different. I was feeling what would become known as the Great Hanshin Earthquake, or the Kobe Earthquake. Though Nagoya is over 100 miles away from Kobe, we were able to feel the earthquake very well. Now considered the tenth most destructive earthquake in recorded history, the Hanshin quake measured 6.9 on the Richter scaled and killed upwards of 6,000 people and causing over $100 billion dollars of damage. The enormous amount of property loss makes the Hanshin earthquake history's most costly.
Destructive earthquakes of the Hanshin magnitude are relatively rare in Japan, however, an earthquake is recorded almost daily in Japan though most are not strong enough to be felt by human beings. Earthquakes in Japan should come as no surprise. As mentioned elsewhere in this project, the USGS says that earthquakes happen in Japan more so than anywhere else in the world relative to the country's size. Earthquakes can occur away from plate boundaries, but the boundaries make conditions ripe for earthquakes because plates colliding and moving past each other can create a great deal of pressure. In addition, volcanos can be a cause of earthquakes as the movement of magma can cause trembles.
The incredible amount of tectonic activity converging on and acting on Japan makes the nation ripe for earthquakes. The image shows earthquakes (and their depths) from around the world, and one can see the numerous amount of deep earthquakes Japan has endured and continues to endure.
