Mexico+City,+Mexico,+September+19,+1985

=Mexico City, Mexico, September 19, 1985=

Team Members:Jessica Harkins, Christina Borak, Shawn Church
Directions: Answer the following questions using complete sentences.

1. Which areas of the world are more vulnerable to earthquakes and why? San Francisco, Delhi and India are most vulnerable because of their magnitude. Mexico City remains particularly vulnerable to earthquakes, as it sits on an old lake bed which tends to amplify seismic waves.

2. What are the major problems dealing with earthquakes in the different areas? It causes deaths and serious damage and long-term political consequences. The earth is a slow continuous motion. The plate tectonics is the motion of ridge plates at the surface of the earth and flow rocks within the earth. the plates cover the entire surface. Since all the plates are moving they rub up against each other and in some places or they can also spread apart from each other. As they hit, some of the places don't hit smoothly and they stick together at the edges while the rest of the plates that don't stick move. At that point the rocks can not withstand any more bending and the rocks breaks and the two sides move.

3. Is there a successful way to predict earthquakes? Explain. No, they can not predict earthquakes because they say that so many factors decide the weather and its unpredictable. They can only look at the signals including weird animal behavior and changes in the water table. The chinese government made a successful prediction based on precursors like foreshocks. The United States tried to make a prediction on quacks by nothing changes in the speed of seismic waves passing though at risk-fault.

4. What causes earthquakes to occur? Earthquakes are caused by a sudden, vertical movement of rocks of rupture surface.

5. What is your earthquake? Where is it found (Ex: northern China)? Our earthquake is Mexico City,Mexico, September 19, 1985. Our earthquake is Mexico City,Mexico, September 19, 1985. It’s found on a plateau surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. It’s found in the southern part of Mexico.

6. How long did the earthquake last? The earthquake only lasted for 50 seconds. It started at 7:19 AM local time. They never knew what time it officially ended.

7. What was the earthquake’s magnitude on the Richter scale? The magnitude on the Richter scale was 7.8.

8. What was the area like? (city, farmland, industrial, . . ) The damage was major in the city on an old lakebed. It cost four billion US dollars in damage because four-hundred buildings collapsed and another 3,124 serious damage in the city. It caused 10,000 deaths.

9. How large was the population of people living in the area at the time of the earthquake? 18,000,000.

10. What tectonic plate(s) were involved in this earthquake? (Use p664) The giant sea waves called tsunanis, and volcanic eruptions.

11. How many people were killed? Injured? Missing? 10,000 people killed. 14,000 injured. and

12. What is the estimated cost in damage? 2,147,483,647

13. What were the effects on the nearby community? Property damage? There was a gas smell. So they said no liting matches or anything. It caused between 3 and 4 billion U.S. dollars of damage. 412 buildings collapsed and another 3,124 were seriously damaged in Mexico City. 9,500 people were killed and about 30,000 were injured. More than 100,000 people were left homeless, and severe damage was caused in parts of Mexico City and in several states of central Mexico.

14. Have other earthquakes occurred at this location? There have been two more major earthquakes: in 1995 about 50 people died in Colima State, on the Pacific coast, and in 2003, 29 died in an earthquake to the west of Mexico City. Yes other earthquakes have occurred at this location.

15. Other interesting information I found: There were houses, factories, electricity systems, communictation systems, and hospitals damaged. There were houses, factories, electricity systems, communictation systems, and hospitals damaged.

16. What is the most effective way to prepare for an earthquake? Where is the safest place to be inside your house? Where is the safest place to be outside? The safest place to be inside your house is under a kitchen table intill everything settles down. Like all the shaking. The safest place outside is in the middle of the baseball field, not near any power lines or trees. The safest place to be inside your house is in the basement. The safest places outside is underground. The most effective way to prepare for an earthquake is to buy food before it comes and ration it. Don’t go upstairs stay low.

Websites:http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/earthquakes.html http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/earthquakes/html/sidebar2.html __http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/19/newsid_4252000/4252078.stm__