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The earthquake field is reactionary, altering current techniques after each earthquake around the world. There are successes and failures in every earthquake; each is an opportunity to improve the future.

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Earthquakes

Earthquakes are caused by the movement of the Earth's plates. Discover how to measure the strength of an earthquake and the effects that major earthquakes have had.

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Case study: Tohoku, Japan

On 11 March 2011, a massive 9.0 earthquake occurred off the Japanese coastline at 14:46.

The epicentre was 43 miles east of Tohoku at a depth of 20 miles.

The earthquake lasted 6 minutes and caused a tsunami wave that reached heights of over 40 metres.

Earthquake destruction in Japan

The plates involved

Japan is located in one of the most active earthquake zones on earth.

The Philippine plate and the Pacific plate are moving towards the much bigger continental Eurasian and North American plates.

The movement can be up to around 9cm each year.

This is a destructive plate margin where a subduction zone has formed.

The thin, oceanic Pacific plate is being forced (subducted) underneath the much thicker continental Eurasian plate.

Friction has built up over time and when released this caused a massive ‘megathrust’ earthquake.

The amount of energy released in this single earthquake was equivalent to 600 million times the energy of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb.

Short-term impacts

Long-term impacts, gcse subjects gcse subjects up down.

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Lombok Indonesia Earthquake 2018 Case Study

Lombok is one of the 17508 islands that make up Indonesia. The island is approximately 4,500 sq km (1,700 sq miles) and is located to the east of Bali and west of Sumbawa part of the Lesser Sunda Island chain. It’s known for beaches and surfing spots, particularly at Kuta and Banko Banko (in south Lombok).

In the first in the series, on 29 July, a 6.4 magnitude quake triggered landslides in the mountain region of the island and killed at least 16 people. Following this a shallow, magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck Lombok and Bali on August 5th, 2018, killing over 555 people, injuring 1300 and leaving at least 353000 homeless. The most severe damage was in North Lombok close to the epicentre.

Location of the August 5th 2018 Lombok earthquake

The main quake struck at 19:46 local time (11:46 GMT) on Sunday, August 5th at a fairly shallow depth of 31km (19 miles).

Earthquakes are common in Indonesia because it lies on the Ring of Fire – the line of frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions that circles virtually the entire Pacific Rim.

More than half of the world’s active volcanoes above sea level are part of the ring.

The recent earthquakes have occurred along a specific zone where the Australian tectonic plate meets the Indonesian island plate, Sunda.

Tectonic plates are slabs of the Earth’s crust that move very slowly over our planet’s surface. Indonesia sits along the “Pacific Ring of Fire” where several tectonic plates collide and many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

The Earth’s tectonic plates

Some of these earthquakes are very large, such as the magnitude 9.1 earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra that generated the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. This earthquake occurred along the Java-Sumatra subduction zone, where the Australian tectonic plate moves underneath Indonesia’s Sunda plate.

Both earthquakes occurred along faults in an area where tectonic plates are colliding, with one diving beneath the other.

The Sunda Plate

In this area, there’s subduction, so the Australian plate is moving under the Sunda plate, and the Australian plate is moving to the north underneath the Sunda plate.

The earthquake destroyed tens of thousands of homes, mosques and businesses across Lombok on August 5 2018. More than 1,300 people were injured and nearly 353,000 have been internally displaced.

It is estimated that 80% of the region had been damaged by the earthquake. Lombok suffered more than 5 trillion rupiah ($342 million; £268 million) in damage following the 5 August earthquake, authorities said.

Hundreds of tourists were stranded on the island and hotels were filled to capacity. No tourists were reported killed, but the earthquake was felt as far away as the neighbouring island of Bali, where two people died. The quake was followed by more than a dozen aftershocks, with one registering magnitude 5.4 on the Richter Scale.

According to scientists from NASA and the California Institute of Technology’s rapid-imaging project, the earthquake lifted the island as much as 25 centimetres in some areas. In other places, the ground dropped five-15cm.

Emergency teams in East and North Lombok reported that in some villages 75% of homes were damaged.

More than 500 hikers, most of whom were foreigners, were stranded on Indonesia’s Mt Rinjani when a deadly quake triggered landslides. The earthquake triggered landslides around Mount Rinjani, cutting off escape routes. The volcano , which rises 3,726m (12,224ft) above sea level and is the second-highest one in Indonesia, is a favourite among sightseers.

The region was hit by more than 350 aftershocks. Some measured up to 6.2 on the Richter Scale and brought down some buildings.

The area around Mount Rinjani increasingly relies on tourism, the earthquake and aftershocks led to the closure of mountain to hikers leading to many hotel cancellations by international tourists.

Hundreds of British citizens and European citizens were stuck in Lombok airport before flights could resume.

Aftershocks killed at least a further 13 people as the region recovered from the main event.

The Indonesia Government declared a three-week long state of emergency. “The most important thing is the emergency response, after that rehabilitation and reconstruction,” said Indonesia’s second-in-command, Vice President Jusuf Kalla. The government mobilised the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) and the national military, directly deploying personnel in response to the earthquake.

Two helicopters were deployed to assist in emergency operations and the military sent troops and medical personnel, as well as medical supplies and communications equipment. Five planes carrying food, medicine, blankets, field tents and water tankers left the capital, Jakarta, for the island early on Wednesday 8th August.

Supplies for those made homeless were distributed with about 30,000 tents and 100 wheelchairs sent to affected areas.

As hospitals and clinics were affected by the earthquake many of the injured were treated in the open air or in makeshift clinics.

Rescue efforts were hampered by power outages, a lack of phone reception in some areas and limited evacuation options. A lack of heavy lifting equipment also affected the relief effort, with some rescuers forced to dig by hand. Other obstacles in the mountainous north and east of Lombok included collapsed bridges and electricity and communication blackouts. Debris blocked damaged roads.

In Sembalun the community pulled together to repair damaged buildings, including the town’s only health clinic. Electricity and clean water had to be being restored to villages in Sambalia that were cut off.

Emergency workers gradually reached more remote areas of Lombok having focussed their initial efforts in urban areas.

More than 500 hikers who were stranded on a mountain on the Indonesian island of Lombok after the earthquake were safely evacuated. Most of the hikers and guides were able to walk down after a safe route was found for them but some were flown out by helicopter.

The UK Foreign Office worked with the Indonesian authorities to provide assistance to British people caught up in the earthquake. Extra flights were added to help people who want to leave Lombok. Airport authorities requested that additional flights be added on Monday 6th August 2018 , to accommodate the influx of tourists trying to leave the island.

Charity, Plan International, provided counselling for children and supported those who were unable to go to school, by distributing emergency school kits and helping teachers continue educating while schools remain closed. The charity also provided humanitarian assistance to 2,500 families in six villages in Lombok. The organisation dispatched 500 emergency shelter kits, containing 1,000 tarpaulins, 1,000 sleeping mats and 2,000 blankets.

The Salvation Army in Indonesia also provided medical and other assistance to people who were affected by the earthquake on Lombok. The team immediately distributed a small supply of rice, noodles, sugar and bottled water to the affected population.

The Indonesian Red Cross (Palang Merah Indonesia) disaster responders provided first aid and assessed immediate needs in remote villages, arranging for bottled water and rice to be delivered by motorbike.

British-based charity Oxfam said it was providing clean drinking water and tarpaulin shelter sheets to 5,000 people and planned to intensify aid delivery.

A French military transport plane delivered 25 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the earthquake-hit island of Lombok on behalf of the Indonesian government.

On the 14th August 2018, The EU announced a further €500 000 to step up its emergency response to meet the most pressing needs of those affected by the devastating earthquakes that struck the Indonesian island of Lombok in late July and early August. The allocation came in addition to the initial €150 000 delivered earlier in August, thus bringing the EU’s contribution to €650 000. The EU humanitarian funding complemented the Indonesian government response and focussed on the most vulnerable groups and communities in the affected area. The EU aid supported the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in providing relief assistance and protection to the most vulnerable among the affected population. It is estimated that the aid directly benefited 80 000 vulnerable people in some of the worst hit localities in the northeast and west Lombok districts. The aid was also used to assist the IFRC in reuniting families that were separated by the earthquakes. Aid was also offered by other countries including Australia.

Allegedly, authorities on Lombok were demanding money from tourists before they would let them onto rescue boats. However, around 5000 tourists who wanted to be evacuated from three outlying holiday islands had left by boat.

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8 Questions With an Earthquake Expert About the Turkey-Syria Disaster

Earthquakes are a fact of life, so how can we learn to live with them and avoid terrible outcomes?

While the Turkey-Syria quakes shocked the world, geologists who study earthquakes knew that, sooner or later, a major event would occur in this region. That’s because it sits above three dueling tectonic plates in Earth’s crust: the Arabia, Africa, and Anatolia plates, which grind against each other over time. When tightly wedged plates build up enough stress, one of them either slips sideways or slides beneath another, releasing a massive amount of energy that shakes the earth above.

In the 20th century alone, 42 quakes shook Turkey; the last “big one” took place in 1939, a 7.8-magnitude event that killed about 32,700 people. Historical records and paleoseismology (plate tectonics history) of Turkey and the surrounding region have recorded many earthquakes over the centuries, stretching back to the year 17 A.D. Including the latest events, 17 earthquakes have impacted this region since 2000.

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Know Your Terms : Magnitude is a measure of the amount of energy an earthquake releases. A seismograph instrument captures the waves of movement. Then, scientists measure the amplitude , or top-to-bottom height, of the waves, taking into account the distance between the epicenter of the quake—the spot where the earthquake originated underground—and the instrument.

Following a fatal quake in western Turkey in 1999, the country implemented stricter building codes designed to withstand earthquakes—though in our reporting on the most recent disaster, Popular Mechanics has learned that those building codes aren’t strictly followed .

To learn more about the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, we recruited Chris Goldfinger , an oceanographer at Oregon State University and one of the world’s leading experts on subduction-zone earthquakes. He discussed how scientists are learning from these quakes, and how earthquake-prone zones around the world can better prepare for them in the future.

The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Popular Mechanics : Why was this earthquake so massive? How did it play out underground ?

Chris Goldfinger: Where the main shock occurred is at a place called a triple junction, where three plates come together. And there are lots of [triple junctions] around the world. But it’s fairly common for them to be a complicated mess. One section of this triple junction is essentially a mountain belt collision zone. The other two are strike slip faults, where the two blocks move side-by-side. And so the rate of earthquakes in places like that is super high.

What combination of circumstances led to this much destruction in Turkey and Syria?

Older infrastructure combined with a lack of code compliance. New structures also collapsed, which was unexpected. And so that was basically not complying with the code, for whatever reason.

It happens, and it’s not exclusive to Turkey. Non code-compliance has actually happened in the U.S. in a few cases. [For example], some of the welds were skimped on, and that played into damage in the Northridge earthquake in Southern California in 1994. But that was on a relatively small scale compared to Turkey, where entire buildings were collapsing.

So in the case of Turkey, one of the many factors that went into the destruction was that they had the unreinforced masonry buildings, lift-slab-type buildings , and what are called non-ductile concrete buildings, which are buildings that contain brittle concrete and little reinforcing steel . In Turkey, people not only work in such buildings, they live in them. You can’t win, because both workplaces and homes collapsed.

How close are we to being able to predict earthquakes?

Well, not close at all. In our field, and other fields too, there is a gulf of difference between forecasting and predicting. Let’s say you know there’s a high probability of an earthquake. That’s just like saying there’s a high probability of rain in January. Versus predicting, which is saying there is going to be an earthquake on Thursday or Friday at about this spot at about this magnitude. Prediction of an earthquake just doesn’t exist at all.

The basic problem starts with the fact that we didn’t have a theory about how Earth works—about plates and faults, and fault motions—until 1964. The first proposition of what’s called Plate Tectonics today was really in 1912, [but] it was roundly rejected by geologists for many decades. Other sciences have roots that are hundreds of years old. So we’re still learning really big lessons. And unfortunately, we’re learning in very difficult, hard ways, because these big earthquakes are often surprises—where they happen, how they happen, how big they were. People will be swarming all over [the Turkey-Syria earthquake] to understand the details of it. And then later on ... we can begin to be able to forecast earthquakes and say, “well, the probability of an earthquake at this spot is high, medium or low based on past history and statistics.”

Has an earthquake ever been predicted?

severely cracked and lifted concrete footpath

Predictions have only happened two times that I’m aware of. One was in China , in 1975, when there were lots and lots of small foreshocks, and all the animals went crazy. ... They evacuated a city in China . And the very next day, the city was destroyed, and more than 100,500 lives were saved.

The only other example—and that was only sort of a forecast—was the Loma Prieta earthquake in the [San Francisco] Bay Area in 1989. A geologist’s idea was that if he could find records like [an unusually high number of] ads in the newspaper for missing pets, and other records of animals going crazy, that might be a basis for predicting an earthquake (along with other factors such as tides). He forecasted the Loma Prieta earthquake a few days ahead of time. But this is hardly ever mentioned by the science community ... perhaps [because] it was just a coincidence.

After the Loma Prieta earthquake, it was discovered that Earth had been emitting ultra-low frequency (ULF) radio waves ahead of the earthquake. … It sort of makes sense, because radio signals are generated by quartz crystals , and the Earth is full of quartz.

What would it take to improve earthquake forecasting and even start forming predictions?

It is potentially doable. People have tried to do this, but not yet successfully. There was a famous experiment in Parkfield, California, where they had a series of earthquakes that were equally spaced apart through the 20th century. They thought, we’re going to just wire this fault with every kind of sensor we can think of, and then record all the precursors ... But the [next] earthquake didn’t arrive on schedule, and it didn’t have the precursors that people hoped for. So that was a monumentally expensive failure.

On the other hand, we’ve also detected other things after the earthquake, like water chemistry changes that preceded the 1995 Kobe, Japan earthquake , things that no one has set up a sensor array of some kind to detect ahead of time—yet. But I think that’s coming, so it’s not completely hopeless. But, where do you start, where do you go, and with what sensors?

What part of the world is best equipped to handle earthquakes?

earthquake seismogram recording by a seismograph image

Japan. There’s no question about it. Japan is, in a very literal way, 1,000 years ahead of everyone else, because they’ve had a [recorded] history with so many earthquakes. Each time a Shogun’s castle got knocked down, they would rebuild it a little better. And by the time you get to the present day, things are in very good shape.

We can just emulate Japan, because they’ve already done it all. Chile is actually quite good as well. ... For example, I saw a place where they base-isolated a pedestrian bridge over a highway and a railroad, so that when the trains weren’t running after the big earthquake, people could still walk over the bridge to get home. After the 2011 earthquake, thousands of Japanese businessmen walked home. … There are some buildings in Tokyo that have noise-cancelling windows, similar to the way a noise-cancelling headset works. These windows take the seismic signal and vibrate the window [the opposite way] to cancel out the earthquake vibration and keep the windows from shaking and falling out onto the streets, even while the building vibrated. … There was a good, [successful] test of those buildings and windows in the 2011 earthquake, which was about magnitude 9.

The Japanese approach has an additional advantage: It doesn’t really matter that much what day of the week, or what year, or what month, an earthquake happens; if the society is resilient, it won’t really make much difference.

What should earthquake-prone areas ideally do to prevent extensive damage and protect people from the next “big one”?

earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above rocked turkiye over last 125 years

That’s the toughest question. There’s a famous saying that earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings kill people. If you’re outside and you have an earthquake, it’s nothing but an exciting day. … And so it’s about how society responds to these risks that determines the outcome. When you start a building from scratch [as Japan was forced to do historically], it isn’t that expensive to add on earthquake resilience. About 3 to 5 percent of the cost of a new building goes into bringing it up to earthquake-proof standards, where it not only won’t collapse, but it can be used again, a useful goal.

We shouldn’t think of Turkey as an anomaly. They have good, international building codes. Actually, they have started requiring hospitals to have base isolation [for stability]. That is a requirement that no other country that I know of—except Japan—has. The problem is that they have hundreds and hundreds of years of old building stock, and there is no requirement to retrofit that. The idea of retrofitting entire countries, let alone just a single city, is so daunting that almost nobody even considers it, anywhere.

Now layer on another basic issue—non-compliance with building codes—and you have a recipe for disaster. … China had this problem in the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008; they had one school district where there was a lot of corruption. ... All the neighboring districts that didn’t suffer from this particular problem had schools that survived the earthquake.

What action is the U.S. taking to shore up earthquake zones, like in the Northwest?

We’re in the middle ground between Turkey and Japan. We’ve had excellent building codes for quite a few years in the Pacific Northwest and other parts of the west since about 1994. In some places, retrofitting has been underway for many years, mostly in California. …which gets regular reminders of earthquakes every few months or years. But we have yet to have our first successful requirement for retrofitting anything in any city in the Pacific Northwest. It’s simply not required. That leaves it up to building owners to retrofit at their discretion. … Schools and hospitals are an obvious place to start, so some of that is happening. But it’s a daunting, expensive process, and it’s not mandated by anyone, so it’s very patchwork.

How To Help Victims of The Turkey-Syria Earthquakes: The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies , which is coordinating humanitarian efforts in the region, now estimates it needs up to $700 million to help victims in both Turkey and Syria. You can visit its website for more information and donation instructions .

Before joining Popular Mechanics , Manasee Wagh worked as a newspaper reporter, a science journalist, a tech writer, and a computer engineer. She’s always looking for ways to combine the three greatest joys in her life: science, travel, and food.

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Nepal Earthquake Case Studies

About the Project

On April 25, 2015, Nepal and its people experienced a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. On May 12, another major earthquake of 7.2 magnitude hit the country. In practice, his means that millions of Nepalis have lived and died under the weight of falling buildings, landslides, floods, hunger, and homelessness brought about by massive seismic shifts across the Himalayan belt. Most will refer to this as an earthquake, singular. But this is no singular disaster. The country has experienced more than 300 seismic events since April 25, 2015, and nearly 9000 people died as a direct result of the two most major earthquakes.

For most of Nepal’s approximately 30 million people, living uncertainty is old hat. Consider the legacies of civil war (1996-2006) followed by a decade of political instability and current struggles to write a viable constitution. But the spring of 2015 has cracked open new forms of vulnerability for most Nepalis. These quakes have caused enormous destruction to the nation’s rich cultural heritage, in the Kathmandu Valley and beyond. The countryside has experienced vast devastation. More than half a million homes have been destroyed or are precariously habitable. This equates to about 2.5 million internally displaced. More than 3,500 schools have been destroyed and nearly as many health posts. There has been widespread damage to highways and road networks; glacial lakes are in danger of bursting; landslides are a constant threat, and have continued to wipe out settlements; many hydroelectric dams have been damaged; water borne illness and other public health challenges loom as monsoon has arrived. Even so, Nepalis are showing incredible resilience, creativity, and deep commitments to helping each other through this suffering.

This project – in the context of ANTH 55: Anthropology of Global Health – explores the human impacts of these disasters by asking students to engage in collective research and writing of case studies focused on specific areas of inquiry related to the earthquake.

The assumption of this project is not that students will become “experts” either on Nepal or on the health effects of earthquakes, but that they will amass sufficient knowledge about their area of inquiry so that they can contribute to an effort to expand knowledge and understanding of this event to others, and expand in the process their own conceptualization of what “global health” is, where and how it occurs, and how it links to many other aspects of human life.

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Case Study on Earthquakes

Earthquakes case study:.

Slight seismic waves also can be caused by the raise of lava during the volcanic eruption. Every year there are more than a million of earthquakes occur on the planet but most of them are so insignificant that remain unnoticed.Serious earthquakes which can cause considerable damage occur approximately once a fortnight. Most of such strong earthquakes occur on the bottom of the oceans, that is why there are no serious destructions. On the other hand, if there is a strong earthquake in the ocean quite close to a continent or any land (island, subcontinent) there is a possibility of tsunami (extremely high and fast waves coming from an ocean to the land destroying everything on their way), which can be even more dangerous than the earthquake itself.

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The power of the earthquakes can be strong enough to ruin buildings and roads. The history knows very strong earthquakes which managed to destroy big cities and kill thousands of people. The power of earthquakes is measured with the help of the special appliances, called seismometers, so when there is a release of the energy in the crust of Earth, seismometers report its strength according to the scale from 1 to 12. The seismic waves up to the 5th point are considered to be slight and moderate, 6 and 7 – strong, 8 and 9 – destructive and devastating, from 10 to 12 – catastrophic.Earthquakes have always interested and scared people, so it is important to know at least basic information about their origin and the factors which cause them. A student who is asked to analyze a problem for the case study based on earthquakes should devote much time to collect enough data for the research.

It is important to know whether people were prepared for the earthquake and what their behaviour was. A student should learn the reason of the occurred problem and analyze its consequences. If one analyzes the effect of an earthquake, he should provide the professor with the strength of the earthquake, ruins and the number of victims. In the end one should try to think over the methods and techniques which could prevent the problem and solve it.An inexperienced student will never complete a successful case study without the direct example.

A free sample case study on earthquake in India written in the Internet can be a good piece of writing assistance for every student. If one looks through the structure, formatting and the manner of the presentation of data in a free example case study on earthquake in Gujarat, he will complete a successful paper himself.

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Earthquake case studies

Earthquake case studies Below are powerpoint presentations discussing the primary and secondary effects and immediate and long-term responses for both the Kobe, Japan and Kashmir, Pakistan earthquakes.

Effects of the Italian earthquake – http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/the-italian-earthquake-the-aftermath/6997.html Responses to Italian earthquake – http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/the-italian-earthquake-the-emergency-response/6998.html The Kobe earthquake – http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/the-kobe-earthquake/3070.html General effects & responses & Kobe (Rich) & Kashmir (Poor)

O Ltb Eartqaukes Cs from donotreply16 Kobe earthquake (Rich country)

Koberevision from cheergalsal Haiti 2010 – Poor country Picture Facts On 12th January, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale struck close to Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince The earthquake occurred at a destructive plate margin between the Caribbean and North American Plates, along a major fault line. The earthquakes focus was 13km underground, and the epicentre was just 25km from Port-au-Prince Haiti has suffered a large number of serious aftershocks after the main earthquake

Primary effects About 220,000 people were killed and 300,000 injured The main port was badly damaged, along with many roads that were blocked by fallen buildings and smashed vehicles Eight hospitals or health centres in Port-au-Prince collapsed or were badly damaged. Many government buildings were also destroyed About 100,000 houses were destroyed and 200,000 damaged in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area. Around 1.3 million Haitians were displaced (left homeless)

Secondary effects Over 2 million Habitats were left without food and water. Looting became a serious problem The destruction of many government buildings hindered the government’s efforts to control Haiti, and the police force collapsed The damage to the port and main roads meant that critical aid supplies for immediate help and longer-term reconstruction were prevented from arriving or being distributed effectively Displaced people moved into tents and temporary shelters, and there were concerns about outbreaks of disease. By November 2010, there were outbreaks of Cholera There were frequent power cuts The many dead bodies in the streets, and under the rubble, created a health hazard in the heat. So many had to be buried in mass graves

Short-term responses The main port and roads were badly damaged, crucial aid (such as medical supplies and food) was slow to arrive and be distributed. The airport couldn’t handle the number of planes trying to fly in and unload aid American engineers and diving teams were used to clear the worst debris and get the port working again, so that waiting ships could unload aid The USA sent ships, helicopters, 10,000 troops, search and rescue teams and $100 million in aid The UN sent troops and police and set up a Food Aid Cluster to feed 2 million people Bottled water and water purification tablets were supplied to survivors Field hospitals were set up and helicopters flew wounded people to nearby countries The Haitian government moved 235,000 people from Port-au-Prince to less damaged cities

Long-term responses Haiti is dependent on overseas aid to help it recover New homes would need to be built to a higher standard, costing billions of dollars Large-scale investment would be needed to bring Haiti’s road, electricity, water and telephone systems up to standard, and to rebuild the port Sichuan, China 2008 – Poor country case study Picture On 12th May at 14:28pm, the pressure resulting from the Indian Plate colliding with the Eurasian Plate was released along the Longmenshan fault line that runs beneath. This led to an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale with tremors lasting 120 seconds.

Primary effects · 69,000 people were killed · 18,000 missing · 374,000 were injured · between 5 -11 million people were missing · 80% of buildings collapsed in rural areas such as Beichuan county due to poorer building standards · 5 million buildings collapsed

Secondary effects · Communication were brought to a halt – neither land nor mobile phones worked in Wenchuan · Roads were blocked and damaged and some landslides blocked rivers which led to flooding · Fires were caused as gas pipes burst · Freshwater supplies were contaminated by dead bodies

Immediate responses · 20 helicopters were assigned to rescue and relief effects immediately after the disaster · Troops parachuted in or hiked to reach survivors · Rescuing survivors trapped in collapsed buildings was a priority · Survivors needed food, water and tents to shelter people from the spring rains. 3.3 million new tents were ordered.

Long-term responses · Aid donations specifically money – over £100 million were raised by the Red Cross · One million temporary small were built to house the homeless · The Chinese government pledged a $10 million rebuilding funds and banks wrote off debts by survivors who did not have insurance

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This PowerPoint Presentation (PPT) is a case study of the Bhuj Earthquake 26th January 2001, prepared by my friend Nitin. I'm uploading this PPT inly because it may useful to some one in their study.

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What Turkey’s earthquake tells us about the science of seismic forecasting

Shannon Hall

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Civilians look for survivors under the rubble of a multi-storey collapsed buildings

The magnitude-7.8 earthquake in Turkey last month destroyed many buildings, such as this one in the city of Kahramanmaraş. Credit: Adem Altan/AFP via Getty

Two decades ago, John McCloskey drew a red line on a map of southeastern Turkey to pinpoint where a large earthquake would probably strike. The only question was when.

The answer came last month, when a magnitude-7.8 shock hit the precise location that McCloskey and his team had identified. It struck at 4.17 a.m. local time on 6 February, when most people were asleep, and killed more than 50,000 residents in Turkey and neighbouring Syria .

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McCloskey’s work shows both the promise — and limitations — of the science of earthquake forecasting. Although geologists have long attempted to provide warnings of the location, magnitude and exact time of future quakes, decades of research have shown that it’s probably impossible to predict when a geological fault will start to shake. “When you try to winnow it down to know what’s going to happen next, it tends to be a lesson in humility,” says Susan Hough, a geophysicist in the Earthquake Hazards Program at the United States Geological Survey (USGS). “The real focus in most of the world is not on prediction, but on assessing the hazard and the long-term rates of earthquakes.”

Today, researchers work on forecasting: identifying which fault segments are most dangerous and what size earthquakes they are expected to produce. Armed with that knowledge, policymakers can take steps to reduce death and destruction by, for example, requiring better building practices or urging local residents to prepare. Some regions of Japan, the United States and Turkey have developed early-warning systems that alert residents when an earthquake has started nearby. “In principle, you can get rid of seismic risk,” McCloskey says.

Danger zone

Turkey is a seismically active junction at which several pieces of Earth’s crust meet and grind against each other. In southeast Turkey and northern Syria, the Arabian plate is pushing north against the Anatolian plate, squeezing it to the west. But the shift isn’t one smooth movement. Instead, friction holds the plates in place, sometimes for centuries. When the stress overcomes the friction, the plates on either side of the fault line will shudder past each other, releasing tremendous energy in the form of an earthquake.

This has happened time and time again in Turkey — a history that allowed McCloskey and his colleagues to map the stresses along one of its major quake sources, the East Anatolian fault. Like other faults, it is divided into segments that slip at different times. When one segment shifts and shakes, it alters the stress on neighbouring sections of the same fault and other faults nearby. That increases the stress in some places, bringing them closer to failure, but relaxes stress on others — making them safer for the time being.

An aerial view of the left-lateral fault showing a road offset after 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes in Kahramanmaras, Turkey

A fracture cuts across a road in the Kahramanmaraş region of Turkey after two strong earthquakes on 6 February. Credit: Utku Ucrak/Anadolu Agency via Getty

“They are not just randomly occurring earthquakes,” says Ross Stein, chief executive of Temblor, a company specializing in seismic hazard and risk assessment. “They are in a conversation. And that conversation is carried out through stress transfer.”

In 2002, McCloskey (now a geophysicist at the University of Edinburgh, UK) and his colleagues used this technique to diagnose regions on the East Anatolian fault that were highly stressed. With the help of historical records, the team incorporated the stress changes caused by ten earthquakes since 1822 into a model of ongoing plate movement. The modelling suggested that a region of the fault line south of Kahramanmaraş — the precise location and length of the fault that ruptured on 6 February — was at a heightened risk of giving way at some point in the future 1 . The team even knew that it would be devastating, forecasting a quake of magnitude 7.3 or higher. “The correspondence is remarkable,” McCloskey says.

It isn’t the first time that this method, technically known as Coulomb stress transfer, has accurately pinpointed an upcoming trembler. In 1997, Stein and his colleagues analysed the earthquakes that had already struck Turkey’s North Anatolian fault to estimate that the next might occur near the city of Izmit 2 . Two years later, that quake arrived — killing more than 17,000 people. In 2005, McCloskey and his colleagues calculated that the shift in stress after the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman quake in Indonesia might cause one in the Sunda trench west of Sumatra 3 . It came 12 days after the study was published. And in 2008, Shinji Toda from the Geological Survey of Japan in Tsukuba and his colleagues projected that the Wenchuan earthquake earlier that year in China would increase the stress of three adjacent faults 4 . In the following decade, two of those faults unleashed powerful earthquakes.

Added stress

It isn’t possible to use the technique everywhere. Because this model requires some knowledge of previous earthquakes, often centuries in the past, researchers can use it to assess only regions where the seismic history is well known. So it is most successful in forecasting aftershocks, which are typically smaller than main shocks. Still, there are many unknowns, and scientists are working hard to evaluate the model further.

In 2002, Tom Parsons, a geophysicist at the USGS, analysed more than 2,000 earthquakes with magnitudes of greater than 5.5 that occurred after — and near — quakes larger than magnitude 7. He found that 61% of the later quakes were associated with an increase in stress caused by the earlier ones 5 . The findings suggest that Coulomb stress transfer can accurately identify faults that are more likely to cause damaging quakes, he says. Then, in 2008, Parsons and his colleagues published a forecast following the Wenchuan earthquake with the intention of later evaluating the model’s performance 6 . That work is ongoing.

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Today, Stein, one of the researchers who developed the theory about how forces shift after earthquakes 7 , estimates that the method has been used in 30,000 papers to explain two-thirds of our planet’s recent aftershocks and progressive main shocks. “That tells us this is not the only game in town,” Stein says. “Faults are grungy, messy features and they don’t behave as we would like them to.”

McCloskey’s model, for example, anticipated the location of the recent Turkey earthquake, but the shaking started on a much smaller branch of the fault and then spilt over to the main part, a pattern that Stein finds baffling. Another complication is that the main earthquake was also much larger than anticipated, probably because it re-ruptured a segment to the south that broke in 1822 and a segment to the north, which broke in 1893.

“This really underlines the problem of earthquake forecasting,” McCloskey says. “Even when we identify the place that is most dangerous, every earthquake is unique.”

Not long ago, seismologists thought they might be able to predict some quakes days or hours before they strike. Such hopes emerged from Parkfield, California, where earthquakes had rocked a small part of the San Andreas fault nearly every 22 years. Each of these quakes followed a smaller shock to the north. And hours before a strong quake near Parkfield in 1966, precursory movement had broken an irrigation pipeline that crossed the fault.

“In 1966, earthquake prediction looked like it was ours to have,” Stein says. Before the next anticipated earthquake, geologists wired the area with hundreds of seismometers — hoping to find some harbinger that could be used to forecast future quakes. But when the next quake hit, researchers saw no warning signs.

Other precursors have similarly vanished. Over the years, scientists have analysed increasing amounts of radon in local water, electromagnetic signals from Earth’s crust and even odd animal behaviour. But none of these potential precursors stood up to statistical tests. “Despite all kinds of startling, promising shreds of evidence, we haven’t made an iota of progress toward actually predicting earthquakes,” Stein says.

McCloskey doesn’t think that it will ever happen. And Hough, who wrote a book called Predicting the Unpredictable (2009), argues that most geologists in the West don’t even work on it — at least, not any more. “We know how unlikely it is that suddenly something is going to show up that we can see before every big earthquake,” Stein says.

Even though geoscientists can’t predict quakes with any precision, many researchers say it is possible to prevent much of the death and destruction from these natural disasters.

After the 1999 earthquake in Izmit, Aykut Barka, a geologist at Istanbul Technical University, warned that the increased stress could trigger a similar rupture near Düzce, a town roughly 100 kilometres east 8 . His work persuaded the authorities to close school buildings that had been damaged by the Izmit shock. When a magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck the city 2 months later, the buildings collapsed.

Early warnings

Earthquake forecasting could help in other regions as well. California, for example, which is home to the massive San Andreas fault, has implemented the beginnings of an early-warning system that relies on networks of seismometers to detect the very start of a quake. That can provide seconds or minutes of advance notice to Californians to ‘drop, cover and hold on’ while automatically triggering life-saving measures such as slowing trains to a stop.

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In 2002, Turkey implemented an early-warning system in Istanbul that will slow trains, open lift doors and shut down critical processes in factories in the case of an earthquake. The country has also implemented building codes, but many scientists were concerned that they weren’t being enforced rigorously enough. Mustafa Erdik, a retired civil engineer at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul and president of the Turkish Earthquake Foundation, agrees that this was the case — arguing that ignorance, incompetence and implicit collusion between architects, inspectors and builders were at fault.

That makes February’s aftermath particularly painful for those researchers who have been sounding the alarm for years. “You put a red line on a map, and you understand that means lots of people are going to be killed and their houses destroyed,” McCloskey says.

“The Turkey earthquake to me is, of course, a complete tragedy,” he says. Yet McCloskey is hopeful that we will learn from it. If we do, the next red line he draws on a map will not necessarily equal a catastrophic loss of lives.

Nature 615 , 388-389 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00685-y

Nalbant, S. S., McCloskey, J., Steacy, S. & Barka, A. A. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 195 , 291–298 (2002).

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McCloskey, J., Nalbant, S. & Steacy, S. Nature 434 , 291 (2005).

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Gujarat Earthquake 2001: Case Study

Introduction

Gujarat is a state in the north western part of India. Beneath India, the Indo-Australian and the Eurasian Plate are moving towards each other at about 2cm per year. Both plates are continental, so this is a compressional boundary where both the plates are pushed up to form fold mountains The Himalayas are the most obvious result of this collision. Along with the creation of fold mountains, the movement of the plates creates stress within the rocks. When the stress is suddenly released by rocks slipping past each other, we experience an earthquake.

The epicentre of the Gujarat earthquake was a small town called Bhuj. At 08:46 local time, on Friday 26th January 2001 it was struck by an earthquake that measured 7.9 on the Richter Scale It turned out to be one of the two most deadly earthquakes in the recorded history of India, with almost 20,000 people confirmed as dead, and another 166,000 injured. Add to that a further 600,000 left homeless, almost 350,000 homes destroyed and another 844,000 damaged and it becomes obvious that this was a major humanitarian disaster. The Indian government has calculated that in one way or another, the ‘quake had an effect on 15.9 million people – nearly half the population of India!

The cost of the damage varies depending upon who’s figures you use, but it was between 1.3 billion and 5 billion US dollars. In built up areas modern buildings were shaken but mostly survived. Others, however, including several multistory concrete buildings collapsed. Because only some of the new buildings collapsed, the government suspected that dodgy building methods may have been the cause. Investigations led to a number of builders, architects and engineers being charged with culpable murder and criminal conspiracy.

Before the quake this was a rather dry area often affected by drought. After the quake there were many reports of the water table rising, sometimes to surface level. In a number of places new springs appeared, some with fresh water and others, more surprisingly, with salt water. Some desert rivers, that had been dry for over a century, began to flow again, and there was evidence of liquefaction in many places.

Transport and Communications

Access to the sites of earthquakes is always likely to be restricted by the damage caused by the quake, because ground movements damage roads and railways. Damage to roads affected the transportation of goods to the 40 or so ports along the Gujarat coastline.

Bhuj was no exception and suffered from very limited transport after the earthquake. Even days after the quake, the rescue services had not managed to gain access to all the remote villages that suffered during the earthquake. Roads were cracked, lifted and warped, but most obstructions in built up areas were caused by debris that fell onto roads. Where there was a possibility of survivors under the debris, it was out of the question to just bulldoze the rubble out of the way; it had to be carefully and slowly removed, leaving roads blocked until there was no hope of finding survivors.

Telephone lines were broken, exchanges damaged and power lost to the telephone system. In many remote areas mobile telephones don’t work, so all forms of communication with ‘difficult to reach’ places were out of order. Repairing phone lines took time, and the process wasn’t helped by blocked roads, damaged buildings and the loss of workers killed or injured in the event.

Gujarat was the second most industrialised state in India, with well developed diamond, pharmaceutical, chemical, textile and steel industries. Although most survived the quake with little or no major structural damage, they were disrupted by the destruction of communications, transportation and electricity / gas supplies. Immediately after the quake, industry was losing about 200 million dollars every day.

The huge loss of life also had an impact on industry because many of the dead were workers in local businesses.

” The lives lost would impact the (businesses) as many employees would have been a victim of the tragedy,” the Confederation of Indian Industry said in a statement.

General Services

As with many large earthquakes, services like water, gas, electricity and sewerage provided through a network of underground pipes and cables were damaged when the ground flexed and moved. Broken pipes and cables led to loss of fresh water, sewerage discharges and no power in many areas. At the epicentre, in Bhuj, 95 percent of the town was left uninhabitable, with no water, electricity or shelter.

Why is an earthquake dangerous?

What are earthquake waves, how is earthquake magnitude measured, where do earthquakes occur.

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Over the centuries, earthquakes have been responsible for millions of deaths and an incalculable amount of damage to property. Depending on their intensity, earthquakes (specifically, the degree to which they cause the ground’s surface to shake) can topple buildings and bridges , rupture gas pipelines and other infrastructure, and trigger landslides , tsunamis , and volcanoes . These phenomena are primarily responsible for deaths and injuries. Very great earthquakes occur on average about once per year.

Earthquake waves, more commonly known as seismic waves , are vibrations generated by an earthquake and propagated within Earth or along its surface. There are four principal types of elastic waves: two, primary and secondary waves, travel within Earth, whereas the other two, Rayleigh and Love waves, called surface waves, travel along its surface. In addition, seismic waves can be produced artificially by explosions.

Magnitude is a measure of the amplitude (height) of the seismic waves an earthquake’s source produces as recorded by seismographs . Seismologist Charles F. Richter created an earthquake magnitude scale using the logarithm of the largest seismic wave’s amplitude to base 10. Richter’s scale was originally for measuring the magnitude of earthquakes from magnitudes 3 to 7, limiting its usefulness. Today the moment magnitude scale, a closer measure of an earthquake’s total energy release, is preferred.

Earthquakes can occur anywhere, but they occur mainly along fault lines (planar or curved fractures in the rocks of Earth’s crust ), where compressional or tensional forces move rocks on opposite sides of a fracture. Faults extend from a few centimetres to many hundreds of kilometres. In addition, most of the world’s earthquakes occur within the Ring of Fire , a long horseshoe-shaped belt of earthquake epicentres , volcanoes , and tectonic plate boundaries fringing the Pacific basin .

Read a brief summary of this topic

earthquake-damaged neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti

earthquake , any sudden shaking of the ground caused by the passage of seismic waves through Earth ’s rocks. Seismic waves are produced when some form of energy stored in Earth’s crust is suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one another suddenly fracture and “slip.” Earthquakes occur most often along geologic faults , narrow zones where rock masses move in relation to one another. The major fault lines of the world are located at the fringes of the huge tectonic plates that make up Earth’s crust. ( See the table of major earthquakes.)

Little was understood about earthquakes until the emergence of seismology at the beginning of the 20th century. Seismology , which involves the scientific study of all aspects of earthquakes, has yielded answers to such long-standing questions as why and how earthquakes occur.

About 50,000 earthquakes large enough to be noticed without the aid of instruments occur annually over the entire Earth. Of these, approximately 100 are of sufficient size to produce substantial damage if their centres are near areas of habitation. Very great earthquakes occur on average about once per year. Over the centuries they have been responsible for millions of deaths and an incalculable amount of damage to property.

The nature of earthquakes

Causes of earthquakes.

Earth’s major earthquakes occur mainly in belts coinciding with the margins of tectonic plates. This has long been apparent from early catalogs of felt earthquakes and is even more readily discernible in modern seismicity maps, which show instrumentally determined epicentres. The most important earthquake belt is the Circum-Pacific Belt , which affects many populated coastal regions around the Pacific Ocean —for example, those of New Zealand , New Guinea , Japan , the Aleutian Islands , Alaska , and the western coasts of North and South America . It is estimated that 80 percent of the energy presently released in earthquakes comes from those whose epicentres are in this belt. The seismic activity is by no means uniform throughout the belt, and there are a number of branches at various points. Because at many places the Circum-Pacific Belt is associated with volcanic activity , it has been popularly dubbed the “Pacific Ring of Fire .”

rain. Child in the rain, wearing a rain coat, under a yellow umbrella. April Showers weather climate rain storm water drops

A second belt, known as the Alpide Belt , passes through the Mediterranean region eastward through Asia and joins the Circum-Pacific Belt in the East Indies . The energy released in earthquakes from this belt is about 15 percent of the world total. There also are striking connected belts of seismic activity, mainly along oceanic ridges —including those in the Arctic Ocean , the Atlantic Ocean , and the western Indian Ocean —and along the rift valleys of East Africa . This global seismicity distribution is best understood in terms of its plate tectonic setting .

Natural forces

Earthquakes are caused by the sudden release of energy within some limited region of the rocks of the Earth . The energy can be released by elastic strain , gravity, chemical reactions, or even the motion of massive bodies. Of all these the release of elastic strain is the most important cause, because this form of energy is the only kind that can be stored in sufficient quantity in the Earth to produce major disturbances. Earthquakes associated with this type of energy release are called tectonic earthquakes.

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Rapid estimation of earthquake fatalities in mainland china based on physical simulation and empirical statistics—a case study of the 2021 yangbi earthquake.

1. Introduction

2.1. strong ground motion numerical simulation, 2.2. earthquake fatality estimation model, 3. case study: 2021 ms 6.4 yangbi earthquake, 3.1. background and data, 3.2. numerical simulation results, 3.3. fatality estimation results, 4. discussion, 5. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Li, Y.; Zhang, Z.; Wang, W.; Feng, X. Rapid Estimation of Earthquake Fatalities in Mainland China Based on Physical Simulation and Empirical Statistics—A Case Study of the 2021 Yangbi Earthquake. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022 , 19 , 6820. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116820

Li Y, Zhang Z, Wang W, Feng X. Rapid Estimation of Earthquake Fatalities in Mainland China Based on Physical Simulation and Empirical Statistics—A Case Study of the 2021 Yangbi Earthquake. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health . 2022; 19(11):6820. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116820

Li, Yilong, Zhenguo Zhang, Wenqiang Wang, and Xuping Feng. 2022. "Rapid Estimation of Earthquake Fatalities in Mainland China Based on Physical Simulation and Empirical Statistics—A Case Study of the 2021 Yangbi Earthquake" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 11: 6820. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116820

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Earthquake Case Study

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This activity is a multiple case study analysis of different earthquakes that leads to student interpretation of claims, evidence and prediction/recommendations.

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Students work in a jigsaw format, they start in an expert group analyzing one particular aspect of the earthquake that occurred (e.g., tsunami, geologic maps, damage assessment). After analyzing the data/information provided, students get into their new groups, which are a "consulting team" to make recommendations to key governmental officials about the earthquake they studied and implications for future development. These are presented in a poster session style event, which then leads to individual papers that are written about the same topic, which are peer reviewed and revised. Students are asked to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses in the process and to consider changes for future opportunities, as well as connect the curriculum to the overall process of science.

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Earthquake Case Study

Earthquake case study discussion have you ever felt an earthquake summary what is an earthquake why do earthquakes occur how is size quantified – powerpoint ppt presentation.

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Case Study Hub | Samples, Examples and Writing Tips

Case study on earthquakes, earthquakes case study:.

An earthquake is a number of the underground seismic waves, which are caused by the natural factors (primarily, tectonic processes), and sometimes artificial processes (explosions, the filling of the water reservoirs, collapse of the deep mines, etc). Slight seismic waves also can be caused by the raise of lava during the volcanic eruption. Every year there are more than a million of earthquakes occur on the planet but most of them are so insignificant that remain unnoticed.

Serious earthquakes which can cause considerable damage occur approximately once a fortnight. Most of such strong earthquakes occur on the bottom of the oceans, that is why there are no serious destructions. On the other hand, if there is a strong earthquake in the ocean quite close to a continent or any land (island, subcontinent) there is a possibility of tsunami (extremely high and fast waves coming from an ocean to the land destroying everything on their way), which can be even more dangerous than the earthquake itself.

We can write a Custom Case Study on Earthquakes for you!

Earthquakes have always interested and scared people, so it is important to know at least basic information about their origin and the factors which cause them. A student who is asked to analyze a problem for the case study based on earthquakes should devote much time to collect enough data for the research. It is important to know whether people were prepared for the earthquake and what their behaviour was. A student should learn the reason of the occurred problem and analyze its consequences. If one analyzes the effect of an earthquake, he should provide the professor with the strength of the earthquake, ruins and the number of victims. In the end one should try to think over the methods and techniques which could prevent the problem and solve it.

An inexperienced student will never complete a successful case study without the direct example. A free sample case study on earthquake in India written in the Internet can be a good piece of writing assistance for every student. If one looks through the structure, formatting and the manner of the presentation of data in a free example case study on earthquake in Gujarat, he will complete a successful paper himself.

At EssayLib.com writing service you can order a custom case study on Earthquake topics. Your case study will be written from scratch. We hire top-rated PhD and Master’s writers only to provide students with professional case study help at affordable rates. Each customer will get a non-plagiarized paper with timely delivery. Just visit our website and fill in the order form with all paper details:

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