The Kobe Earthquake - an earthquake affecting an MEDC
Background
Effects
Responses
Solutions
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Videos
Background
Kobe is located in the south east of Japan, near a destructive plate margin. It is a megacity and has one of the largest container ports in the World. Although further from a plate margin than most of the cities in Japan, Kobe is still found on a fault line. The earthquake that hit Kobe during the winter of 1995 measured 6.9 on the Richter scale. At this plate margin, the Pacific plate is being pushed under the Eurasian plate, stresses build up and when they are released the Earth shakes. This is known as an earthquake happening along a subduction zone. The focus was only 16km below the crust and this happened on the 17th Jan 1995 at 5.46am. 10 million people live in this area.
Plan using this target diagram
Try a liquefaction experiment at home!
Try this Hot Potatoes quiz
Watch a BBC video of the disaster
View a flash movie at Geography at the movies
Kobe Earthquake - basic Revision notes
Detailed Kobe Earthquake site with photos
Have a go at the annotation exercise at the base of the page
The effects of this earthquake were catastrophic for an MEDC. despite some buildings having been made earthquake proof during recent years many of the older buildings simply toppled over or collapsed. A lot of the traditional wooden buildings survived the earthquake but burnt down in fires caused by broken gas and electricity lines. Other effects included
The worst effected area was in the central part of
Emergency aid for the city needed to use damaged roads but many of them were destroyed during the earthquake.
Raised motorways collapsed during the shaking. Other roads were affected, limiting rescue attempts.
Many small roads were closed by fallen debris from buildings, or cracks and bumps caused by the ground moving.
The earthquake occurred in the morning when people were cooking breakfast, causing over 300 fires, which took over 2 days to put out.
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Responses
to the quake
Water, electricity, gas, telephone services
were fully working by July 1995
The railways were back in service by August
1995
A year after the earthquake, 80% of the port
was working but the Hanshin Expressway was still closed.
By January 1999, 134,000 housing units had
been constructed but some people were still having to live in temporary
accommodation.
New laws were passed to make buildings and
transport structures even more earthquake proof.
More instruments were installed in the area to
monitor earthquake movements.
Most new buildings and roads have, in the last 20 years, been
designed to be earthquake proof, schools and factories have regular
earthquake drills, etc. Despite this, many older buildings still collapsed
or caught fire. This led to many blocked roads and massive problems of
homelessness.
Telephones and other communication services were put out of action
making communication slow and difficult.
Electricity and water supplies were badly damaged over large areas.
This meant no power for heating, lights, cooking, etc. Clean, fresh water
was in short supply until April 1995. The government and city authorities
were criticised for being slow to rescue people and for refusing offers of
help from other countries.
Many people had to sleep in cars or tents in cold winter
conditions
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Preparation – A lot of the buildings in Kobe and Japan made after the 1960s are earthquake proof (necessary by law) with counterweights on the roofs and cross steel frames. Many of the damaged buildings in Kobe were built before this period and were made of wood, which caught fire. People are educated on earthquake preparation in Japan.
Prediction – Japan has the world’s most comprehensive prediction programme with thousands of seismometers and monitoring stations in Japan designed to give warning. Kobe hadn’t had an earthquake in 400years and had less prediction equipment than other areas of Japan.
Aid – The Japanese rejected international offers of aid and dealt with the earthquake itself. All of the homeless people were dealt with reasonably quickly and the city recovered thanks to government money.
