Introduction
The first floor of a 7 story apartment complex was pancaked in Bhuj, India
during the 2001 earthquake. The 2nd floor wall is sitting on the toilet
and the bathtub (right) of the 1st floor apartment. Buildings often "pancake" in earthquakes, where the floors collapse on top of each other, squishing anyone inbetween.Imagine trying to do jumping jacks in the back of an old pick up truck that is cruising along at 70 miles per hour on a backwoods gravel road. You’d probably have a lot of trouble keeping your balance and not falling out of the truck. The truck would be bouncing up and down, the truck would be swerving back and forth, and the wind would be pushing you back. Well, this analogy can give you an experience of what an earthquake is like—suddenly the ground starts putting on some dance moves that make it nearly impossible to stand up straight or walk. (To those of you own a truck, remember, I said imagine).
Most Americans associate earthquakes with southern California—so in Indiana we don’t worry about them. But earthquakes happen everywhere, in every state, and major earthquakes have impacted Missouri, Tennessee, and South Carolina in American history. We will take a look at what causes earthquakes, why they are hazardous to humans, why they cause so many deaths, and look at a few case studies of earthquake events.
Earthquakes cause devastating losses outside of Hoosierland. A major earthquake paralyzing southern California could impact Indiana’s economy, just like an event in September 2001 in a far away place like New York City impacted our economy. Outside the U.S., earthquakes cause enormous loss of life in foreign countries—a major earthquake in India on January 26, 2001 killed over 20,000 and barely made a blip in America. Similar earthquakes killed as many people recently in 2004 and 2005 in Bham, Iran and northern Pakistan. Even more recently, reports indicate that over 80,000 people were killed in the May 12, 2008 earthquake near Sichuaun, China.
To understand the issues of earthquakes, we will take a look at the science behind how they happen, and take a look at ways to prevent them from causing catastrophic losses.