How do people protect themselves during an eruption or earthquake?



Eruption
Planning for a volcanic eruption includes:
  • creating an exclusion zone around the volcano
  • being ready and able to evacuate residents
  • having an emergency supply of basic provisions, such as food
  • funds need to be available to deal with the emergency and a good communication system needs to be in place
Earthquake
Planning and preparing for an earthquake is therefore very important.
The skyline of San Francisco showing the Transamerica Pyramid
The skyline of San Francisco showing the Transamerica Pyramid
  • People living in earthquake zones need to know what they should do in the event of a quake. Training people may involve holding earthquake drills and educating people via TV or radio.
  • People may put together emergency kits and store them in their homes. An emergency kit may include first-aid items, blankets and tinned food.
  • Earthquake-proof buildings have been constructed in many major cities, eg the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco. Buildings such as this are designed to absorb the energy of an earthquake and to withstand the movement of the Earth.
  • Roads and bridges can also be designed to withstand the power of earthquakes.

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 13, 2018 at 11:51 AM

    Fascinating stuff. I can’t even imagine living in a volcano or regular earthquake zone!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do earthquakes and eruptions happen?

Image
The earth is made up of layers. It is quite like a peach. The three layers are the core (which is solid iron like the peach stone). The next layer is mantle (which contains molten rock called magma like the peach flesh). The last layer is the crust (which is a thin layer of rock like the peach skin). Sometimes, the magma bursts through the Earth's crust to make a volcano. The magma is now called lava . Mount Etna is Europe's tallest and most active  volcano. Watch Mount Etna explode here The Earth's crust is split into tectonic plates which fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. There are  seven tectonic plates. An earthquake happens when the Earth's crust shakes and vibrates because of movement in the plates.  Click here to find out more about the tectonic plates, earthquakes and eruptions.
Read more

Britain's earthquakes

Image
There are no active volcanoes in Britain but there have been some earthquakes. The largest earthquake in Britain happened in Dogger Bank in the North Sea in 1931. It measured 6.1. on the Richter scale and caused damage to buildings on the East coast of England. In 2007, there was an earthquake in Folkestone, Kent. There was even an earthquake earlier this year (2018). Learn about Britain's earthquake which happened in February 2018
Read more