Friday, February 26, 2010
REPORT ON A DESTRUCTIVE EARTHQUAKE IN CAIRO, EGYPT
An earthquake which made many victims shudder and suffer- the 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Cairo, Egypt. 12 October 1992 was the fateful day when the quake struck Cairo at 3.10p.m. It lasted for 20 seconds. This quake was described to be the strongest quake ever that is recorded near the Egyptian capital.
Earthquakes with magnitudes of less than 8.5 tend to have transform faults so this earthquake was most likely linked to the crustal plate movement of transform faults in the African Plate.
As far away as Jerusalem which is 250 miles northeast of Cairo, the quake was felt. With 127 dead and 2139 injured, Cairo was the hardest hit. While to the south, in Giza, 128 were found dead and 700 injured. Throughout Egypt, 116 buildings had been badly damaged or destroyed. In the northern suburb of Heliopolis, ruins were left from a 14-story apartment building. From this apartment building, 75 apartments had collapsed. In a downtown kebab shop in Cairo, another wall collapsed, killing a worker. The director of the Egyptian Museum, Mohammed Saleh, mentioned that two large statues among more than 100,000 display pieces were damaged. They were limestone statues of Pharaoh Amenophis III and his consort, Queen Tive.
People were dazed. People wept. They were victims, losing loved ones but there was nothing they could do. Many victims were trampled on, some were stuck under ruins of collapsed buildings. Some survived but some did not.
In the city of 14 million people, authorities declared a state of emergency, sending out rescuers who struggled into the night to dig out for survivors.
I think having fire extinguishers, interior building protection can help to minimize damage from such events. We cannot prevent earthquakes but we can help to minimize damage.
Bibliography(websites):
1) The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/13/world/earthquake-in-egypt-kills-370-and-injures-3300.html?pagewanted=1, extracted 12-02-2010
2) http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/plate-tectonics.html, extracted 12-02-2010
Bibliography(pictures):
1) http://images.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=map%20of%20cairo&imgurl=http://www.world-guides.com/images/egypt/egypt_map1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cairo.world-guides.com/cairo_maps.html&usg=__mivt94yIK3pCXwU7V1BZ-wRcwVA=&h=375&w=450&sz=14&hl=en&itbs=1&tbnid=H9FEA9LcXa7VoM:&tbnh=106&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmap%2Bof%2Bcairo%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1&tbs=isch:1&start=0#tbnid=H9FEA9LcXa7VoM&start=3, (map) extracted 12-02-2010
2) http://images.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=cairo%20egypt&imgurl=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9709/18/egypt.attack.730/egypt.cairo.map.lg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9709/18/egypt.attack.730/&usg=__-EfHZXITTvzcSzrUBRxkgjNYrFM=&h=390&w=325&sz=29&hl=en&itbs=1&tbnid=Wxk32qCzWpWX5M:&tbnh=123&tbnw=103&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcairo%2Begypt%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1&tbs=isch:1&start=6#tbnid=ZirvLlu2bXC-wM&start=18, (Cairo,Egypt) extracted 12-02-2010
3) http://images.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=transform%20faults&imgurl=http://www.sema.go.th/files/Content/science/k4/0035/F01/images/Th/03/4_1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sema.go.th/files/Content/science/k4/0035/F01/s12.htm&usg=__Y660UHnROcTdCVHibmPXs2PHsZQ=&h=350&w=349&sz=34&hl=en&itbs=1&tbnid=S3SJ9Z2AzQaTBM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtransform%2Bfaults%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1&tbs=isch:1&start=0#tbnid=S3SJ9Z2AzQaTBM&start=0, ( transform faults ) extracted 12-02-2010
REPORTED BY: RACHEL
by Rachel at 2:13 AM |
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home