What were the primary and secondary effects of the kobe earthquake?? Please tell me in deatil
Chosen Answer:
PRIMARY
The immediate effects of any earthquake are known as the primary effects. In Kobe the primary effect of the Hanshin quake includes the destruction of lifelines, buildings and utilities/services. At 5:46 a.m. the earth began to shake, sand grains within Kobe’s abundant water-saturated soil began to loose contact and friction with other grains, causing liquefaction. Soil began to flow apart and the ground reacted by moving 7 inches horizontally and 4 inches vertically. Liquefaction was the beginning of the end for the city of Kobe. Japanese buildings that where built prior to enforcement of the 1981 seismic building code, could not withstand the force of the quake and the liquefaction of the ground. The result was 102,000 buildings collapsing. The cities lifelines also suffered a great deal. All three railway links to outside cities where destroyed. Kobe’s main elevated motorway had astonishingly collapsed for over a kilometer and those using it soared of into mid-air. Yoshio Fukamoto, a bus driver who had managed to escape his bus while the front half was 6 feet suspended in space, described the situation as, “Like watching a scene from a movie.” Many roads also where elevated from the ground. Most of the utilities and services within the city suddenly came to a halt. Water, gas and electricity ran through underground cables/pipes and so as the ground began to move rigid cables and pipes began to break. Kobe’s ever-important port also lost 120 out 150 of its quays. Within a span of 20 seconds 0 billions dollars of basic infrastructure was demolished.
SECONDARY
The secondary effects of the Hanshin quake were an outbreak of fires within the city and a plethora of socio-economic problems. Broken gas pipes and sparking electrical cables began to ignite fires across the city. At one point 300 fires were burning in different places. Since most lifelines came to a halt, the Kobe fire department had no way of reaching the sudden outbreaks. The fires burnt down 7500 homes. The earthquake and fires killed 5,250 people and left over 400,000 people homeless. Those that did survive the quake were freezing because there was no gas for heat. Also they were thirsty and starving due to the lack of food/water being circulated.
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~copeland/kobe.html
by: Ted H
on: 30th June 09