To What Extent is the Impact of an Earthquake Related to Its Strength

To what extent is the impact of an earthquake related to its strength? Many factors determine the impact and severity of an earthquake ranging across both human and physical. The strength of the earthquake may determine how powerful the shockwaves are but if other factors such as the depth of the focus, location of the epicentre and the preparedness of the area hit are in our favour, the strength of the earthquake will have a more limited impact on how severe the earthquake is overall.  The strength of an earthquake earthquake will always have some some impact on how severe an earthquake is overall. This is because the strength will have a large impact on whether certain structures are to collapse and the damage as a result. A magnitude 6 on the Richter scale is enough to cause buildings to sway and weaker structures to partially collapse or at the very least l east debris to come o regardless of the wealth of a country. country. !vidence for this is the "##$ %A earthquake which totalled a 6.& magnitude causing '"( billion in damage and killing (" people. %A is a well prepared location for an earthquake to strike as advanced warning would have been in place and emergency services on full alert to help those that are in)ured to get them to hospitals. This shows that even an earthquake located in an M!*+ can cause large economic damage even with a relatively mild strength that if it was higher in strength, would have caused more large scale damage and deaths. owever this e-ample also shows how the location of where the earthquake strikes is key to how many people are killedin)ured. This is because some locations will be far less prepared than others and so emergency services will not be as quick to come and rescue those in danger meaning death tolls will be higher. /n %!*+ nations such as /ndia and aiti to name some e-amples, the emergency services will be far slower to react especially in aiti where no signi0cant earthquakes previously occurred limiting the areas knowledge of how to prepare.  Therefore the preparedness preparedness of a nation is crucial crucial as a factor in determining the severity of the impact of an earthquake. +omparing the 12"2 earthquake in aiti and the "##$ earthquake in %os Angeles provides evidence for this. The aiti earthquake measure &.2 on the Richter scale a very similar strength to that of %os Angeles yet aiti3s death toll was in e-cess of 122,222 people compared to the tiny (" suered by %A. Therefore strength cannot be a factor in determining such a gulf in death tolls and has to be determined by other factors, the largest being how prepared both the areas were. aiti3s building structure contributed largely to its death toll as the buildings were not resistant enough to the power of  the earthquake and the resulting collapses trapped many underneath. 4ith homes completely destroyed over " million people were left homeless, compared to none in the %A % A earthquake because the buildings were more resistant and were damaged far less as a result. 4ith such large damage, disease began to spread as the provision on clean water and medicine was limited due to blocked transport routes and generally being unable to aord the amount needed for those in desperate need and so an aid appeal was needed to provide the funds needed to supply vital supplies. The earthquake in %A had no aid appeal and the provision of clean water was never an issue. This meant disease and hygiene

was kept under 0rm control and shows how the wealth of a nation in addition to how well it is prepared can drastically reduce the number of impacts resulting from an earthquake. Another large factor in determining an earthquakes impact is the location of the epicentre. 4here an earthquake is located in terms of a country i s one thing but where an earthquake occurs within that country matters hugely. This is because an earthquake3s epicentre that is located in a populous area underneath a city is more likely to cause more widespread damage than an epicentre located in a rural area. 5airing this factor with strength largely determines how severe the damage is caused by the earthquake because a strong magnitude & earthquake in which its epicentre is located beneath a densely populated and built up area is likely to cause large economic damage and death depending on its location. The location of the epicentre also has an impact on whether a tsunami will occur. !picentres located out to sea will produce shockwaves that carry in the form of sea waves causing a tsunami resulting in a high chance of ooding and more death and destruction as the power of the wave causes buildings to be swept away, trees to be uprooted and power stations to be damaged. This again shows how strength is limited as a factor in determining how severe an earthquake is because the location of an epicentre can determine whether a tsunami occurs with the strength contributing to how powerful the tsunami is.  The impact of tsunami3s are huge as the e-tra power of the wave can cause more damage and longer lasting eects than an earthquake can. This is because the shaking of an earthquake may only last a few seconds but a tsunami can last up to an hour as a series of waves ood over the land. The Asian Tsunami of 7o-ing *ay 122$ shows the power of a tsunami causing aecting a number of countries including 8ri %anka, /ndia and /ndonesia. The death toll alone in /ndonesia was over a """,222 and the combined death toll of all countries aected will never be known e-actly. A huge appeal was launched globally to help provide food, water and medicine to those aected as disease threatened to kill many. The additional threat posed by tsunamis created by the location of the epicentre of an earthquake is massive and more signi0cant than strength alone9 however the strength of an earthquake still has an impact on how powerful a tsunami can be. This is because the Asian tsunami measured an enormous #.2 on the Richter scale. The power this earthquake possessed no doubt contributed to the enormity of the tsunami and its speed. The :apan Tsunami of 12"" also measured a #.2 destroying large communities, killing ;2,222 people and creating the world3s worst nuclear disaster since +hernobyl at
preparation of a country and where an earthquake strikes is more important than strength.  To conclude, the strength of an earthquake plays some signi0cance in determining the impact of an earthquake because it produces the power to create damage. owever unless paired with other factors such as the location of the earthquake by country and the location of the epicentre, strength as a factor alone is fairly insigni0cant because it is where the earthquake strikes that determines how well prepared a nation is and the location of the epicentre determines how much damage may occur in addition to the added threat of a tsunami. /t is the combination of these factors that determine the severity of the earthquakes impact not one factor alone.