The Kobe The Kobe earthquakeearthquake

19951995

Made by:Made by:

Mohamed Fawzy 9AMohamed Fawzy 9A

On Tuesday, January 17th 1995, at 5.46 a.m. an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 on the Richter Scale struck Kobe. This region is the second most populated area after Tokyo, with a population of 10 million. The ground shook for only 20 seconds but in that short time over 5,000 people died, over 300,000 people became homeless and damage was £100 billion was caused to roads, houses, factories and infrastructure.

Why did the earthquake happen here?Three plates meet near to the coast of Japan. Close to Kobe, the heavier oceanic Philippines Plate is being pushed beneath the lighter continental Eurasian Plate. Earthquakes are very common along this boundary.

The great destruction which resulted from the 1995 Kobe Earthquake was due to the shallow depth of the focus which was only about 16 kms. below the surface and the fact that the epicentre occurred close to a very heavily populated area.

The Effects of the Earthquake:The immediate effects of the earthquake included the collapse of buildings, bridges and roads resulting from the shaking of the crust.

►The earthquake caused massive damage to all the transport facilities. Many sections of motorway collapsed sideways.

►Railway lines and many stations were damaged. A 130 kilometre section of the 'bullet train' rail network had to be closed.

Before

After

Most roads suffered some damage

Many of lower floors of office blocks crumpled by the weight above

The Kobe Port was also damaged

Cranes tilted or fell

Modern buildings designed to be earthquake proof suffered little damage, although some were left standing at an angle when the ground beneath them liquefied

Fire, triggered by broken gas pipes caused a huge amount of damage, destroying at least 7,500 wooden homes.

►Almost 300,000 people were made homeless by the earthquake. The severe winter weather (-2°C.) made this a serious problem.

•Water, electricity, gas services were fully working in six months

•The railways were back working in 7 months

•After three weeks most phones lines were working

•A year after the earthquake, 80% of the port was working

•By January 1999, 134,000 housing units had been built.

•After fourteen months all collapsed bridges were repaired.

Putting things right after the earthquake