| On January 17th, 1995 a massive earthquake | | | | of the buildings from the 5th floor up. |
| hit the region of Kobe, Japan. This quake was | | | | |
| unique in that it occurred at the | | | | The social impact of this quake was |
| intersection of three tectonic plates. This | | | | devastating. The Japanese had considered |
| resulted in enormous damage to the area. | | | | themselves to be well prepared for such an |
| Buildings collapsed, roads were destroyed, | | | | event. It was thought that their buildings, |
| and utilities went offline for days. | | | | mostly made of wood, were better able to |
| | | | withstand the shaking and shearing forces |
| An earthquake will cause damage in two ways. | | | | brought on by quakes because of the |
| Initially damage is caused as a direct effect | | | | material's ability to flex, and bend. What |
| of the shift in the tectonic plates. In this | | | | they did not count on was the effect that the |
| incident the shifting plates resulted in | | | | heavy tiled roofs would have on their |
| ground displacements as large as 3 meters | | | | structures. The heavy weight of the roof, |
| along the fault line. Fortunately the actual | | | | placed on the lighter wood frame created a |
| fault line did not go through the heart of | | | | whiplash effect that turned these wooden |
| the port city of Kobe. In this case the | | | | structures into rubble. Making matters worse |
| direct effect damage was limited to the | | | | was the fact that roads where damaged, and |
| destruction of underground utility lines, | | | | those that where not damaged were covered in |
| fences, and drainage ditches. The rapid shift | | | | debris. The rubble strewn everywhere made it |
| in displacement of the ground along the fault | | | | very hard to navigate into the area and |
| line sheared the underground lines like | | | | render assistance, resulting in a much longer |
| butter, cutting off all major utilities. | | | | and more difficult recovery period. In all, |
| | | | 5000 people died as a result of this |
| Most of the damage caused in this earthquake | | | | disaster. |
| was the result of the secondary effects of | | | | |
| the quake which radiated out from the | | | | The economic effects of this earthquake where |
| epicenter. Secondary effects from a quake of | | | | just as devastating. The clean-up and repair |
| this magnitude may take many forms including | | | | of all the damage cost millions of dollars. |
| aftershocks, liquefaction, fissuring, and | | | | Local businesses, even those not located |
| possibly triggering additional quakes. Wooden | | | | directly in the areas of major destruction, |
| houses collapsed from the severe shaking of | | | | where unable to resume business, as local |
| the ground. Many buildings suffered extensive | | | | utilities had suffered major damage and |
| damage from the 5th floor and higher. This | | | | remained offline. In some cases it took as |
| was attributed to the building codes at the | | | | much as 2 months to effect repairs. |
| time that relaxed the structural requirements | | | | |