National Kids - Witness to Disaster - Earthquakes

“It is amazing how the Earth tells us that it is alive, that it moves and changes like any living organism.”

Dr. Alberto M. Lopez-Venegas, United States Geological Survey

Text copyright © 2008 Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin

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Fradin, Judith Bloom.

Earthquakes: witness to disaster / by Judy and Dennis Fradin.

p. cm.—(Witness to disaster)

Includes bibliographical references.

1. Earthquakes—Alaska—Anchorage region. I. Fradin, Judith Bloom. II. Fradin, Dennis B. III. Title.

QE535.2.U6F68 2008

551.22—dc22

2007044164

ISBN: 978-1-4263-0979-3

National Geographic Society

John M. Fahey, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer;

Gilbert M. Grosvenor, Chairman of the Board;

Tim T. Kelly, President, Global Media Group;

Nina D. Hoffman, Executive Vice President; President, Books Publishing Group

Staff for This Book

Nancy Laties Feresten, Vice President, Editor-in-Chief of Children’s Books

Amy Shields, Executive Editor

Bea Jackson, Director of Design and Illustration

Jim Hiscott, Art Director

Lori Epstein, Illustrations Editor

Jean Cantu, Illustrations Specialist

Carl Mehler, Director of Maps

Jennifer A. Thornton, Managing Editor

Priyanka Lamichhane, Assistant Editor

R. Gary Colbert, Production Director

Lewis R. Bassford, Production Manager

Maryclare Tracy, Nicole Elliott, Manufacturing Managers

Photo Credits

cover, Reza / NG Image Collection; back, Emory Kristof / NG Image Collection; spine, Bill Roth/ Anchorage Daily News/ Associated Press; 2-3, James Balog/Getty Images; 5, Koji Sasahara/ Associated Press; 6, Ward W. Wells/ Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center; 9, Pratt Museum; 10, Stan Wayman/Life Magazine, Copyright Time Inc./ Time Life Pictures/Getty Images; 11, Central Press/Getty Images; 12, Chiaki Tsukumo/ Associated Press; 13, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Reproduced with permission. c2000 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. All Rights Reserved; 15, NG Image Collection; 16 up left, Susan Sanford/ NG Image Collection; 16 up right, Susan Sanford / NG Image Collection; 16 lo left, Susan Sanford / NG Image Collection; 16 lo right, Susan Sanford / NG Image Collection; 18, Ann Johansson/ Associated Press; 19, Kashuhiro Nogi/ AFP/ Getty Images; 21, J.R. Stacy/ USGS; 22, Library of Congress; 23, National Information Service for Earthquake Engineering, EERC, University of California, Berkeley; 25, USGS; 26, Newspaperarchive.com; 27, Library of Congress; 28, J. B. Macelwane Archives, Saint Louis University; 29, USGS; 31, T. Kuribayashi, National Information Service for Earthquake Engineering, EERC, University of California, Berkeley; 32, Chris Sattlberger/ Photo Researchers, Inc.; 33, Banaras Khan/ AFP/ Getty Images; 35, Mike Poland/ USGS; 37, Commander Emily B. Christman/ NOAA; 38, Chuck Nacke//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images; 39, C.E. Meyer/ USGS; 40-41, Farzaneh Khademian/Corbis; 42, Jim Holmes/ Axiom/ Getty Images; 43, Reza / NG Image Collection; 44, Keystone/ Getty Images;

Version: 2017-07-06

Introduction: Japan Earthquake

Chapter 1: “The Ground Would Not Stop Shaking”: Alaska, 1964

Chapter 2: “As If a Giant Foot Had Stepped On It”: Why Does the Earth Quake?

Chapter 3: “The Heart of This Old Earth Was Broken”: Famous Earthquakes

Chapter 4: “Only a Matter of Time”: Predicting and Preparing for Earthquakes

Glossary

Bibliography

Further Reading and Research

Interviews by the Authors

Acknowledgments

Index

As one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, Japan is well prepared for such disasters. Buildings on the island nation are designed to withstand large earthquakes. Schoolchildren are taught how to protect themselves when they occur. Drills are held regularly to make sure citizens react safely when the ground shakes.

But nothing could prepare the Japanese people for what occurred on March 11, 2011. At 2:46 on that Friday afternoon, giant slabs of the Earth’s crust nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) long and 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide fractured and were thrust beneath Japan’s northeast coast. The result was the fourth biggest earthquake to strike our planet over the past century. It was so powerful that it pushed northeastern Japan 13 feet (4 meters) to the east and dropped the island’s coastline two feet. Buildings toppled as if they were children’s toys, and people were buried beneath the rubble.

But the quake wasn’t done with Japan. The upheaval lifted the sea floor and sloshed the ocean water, spawning giant waves known as a tsunami. Walls of water moving as fast as a jet plane struck the Japanese coast and pounded it with waves as tall as a three-story building.

The earthquake and the tsunami waves it created killed an estimated 25,000 people. In addition, the disaster damaged a cluster of nuclear reactors, leaving survivors without electricity. Leaking radioactive fumes from the reactors forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate the area. Many fear that radioactive contamination from the reactors may prove harmful to people who lived nearby.

It could take years for Japan to recover from this disaster. As spectacular as it was, the Japanese earthquake was just one of many thousands of large earthquakes that have rocked our planet and that will continue to do so as long as there is an Earth.

Alaska, 1964

“I turned and watched my house squirm and groan, as though in last mortal agony. It was as though someone had engaged it in a gigantic taffy pull, stretching it, shrinking it, and twisting it.”

Robert B. Atwood, then editor and publisher of the Anchorage Daily Times

The afternoon of March 27, 1964, seemed to be shaping up as a pleasant time for thousands of Alaskans. In Anchorage and other cities, people were heading home from work, preparing dinner, or getting ready for Easter weekend. But then something happened to make that Good Friday a day that Alaskans will never forget. At 5:36 p.m., 13 miles below ground in southern Alaska, massive blocks of rock suddenly shifted and snapped, causing a gigantic earthquake.