Transcript Japan`s Triple Crisis - Peoria Public Schools

Japan’s Triple
Crisis
Last Friday, northeastern Japan experienced a
HUGE earthquake and ensuing tsunami. The
earthquake, along with damage from the
tsunami has caused at least two nuclear
power station reactors to come in jeopardy of
meltdown. Nuclear meltdown is an informal
term for a severe nuclear reactor accident that
results in core damage from overheating.
Earthquake
Tsunami
Nuclear meltdown
Where is Japan?
Japan is an island nation
in the western Pacific. It
Is made up of three major
islands and several smaller
islands
“…our worse crisis
since WWII.”
Japan’s Prime Minister on Sunday.
That’s saying a lot considering the only atomic bombs to every be
used against a nation were dropped on the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII.
Last week Japan
experienced the
largest earthquake
recorded in modern
history. Originally
rated as a magnatude
8.9 on the Richtor
Scale, as of Sunday,
March 13, many have
upgraded it to at least
a 9.0 earthquake.
Earthquakespeak
Tectonics
(it’s what causes earthquakes!)
• Tectonic refers to rock-deforming processes
and resulting structures that occur over large
sections of the upper crust of the earth.
The earth’s
Tectonic Plates.
Continental Drift
In 1915, the German geologist and meteorologist
Alfred Wegener first proposed the theory of
continental drift, which states that parts of the
Earth's crust slowly drift atop a liquid core.
Types of plates
• Continental crust (the
crust that on the surface is
dry land) is thicker and less
dense than Oceanic Crust.
• Oceanic crust (the crust
under the oceans) is
thinner and denser than
continental crust.
• Crust is constantly being
created and destroyed;
oceanic crust is more
active than continental
crust.
Plate boundaries
• The area where to of the tectonic plates meet
is called a plate boundary.
• The plate boundaries generally are one of
three types
– Transverse boundary
– Divergent boundary
– Convergent boundary
Transverse or lateral slip
boundary
• When two plates move
sideways against each
other, there is a
tremendous amount of
friction which makes the
movement jerky.
• The plates slip, then stick
as the friction and
pressure build up to
incredible levels.
• When the pressure is
released suddenly, and the
plates suddenly jerk apart,
this is an earthquake.
The San Andreas Fault in
California is a slip-fault of
transverse boundary.
Canal built
across a strikeslip fault.
Notice how the
canal no longer
aligns.
Divergent boundary
Two tectonic
plates that are
moving away
from each other.
Divergent
boundaries
within continents
initially produce
rifts which
produce rift
valleys.
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is
an Oceanic divergent plate
boundary.
Africa’s Great Rift
Valley is a divergent
continental plate
boundary
Convergent boundary
-an actively deforming region
where two (or more) tectonic
Plates move toward one
another and collide.
-pressure, friction, and plate
material melting in the mantle
causes earthquakes and
Volcanoes near convergent
boundaries.
-When two plates move
towards one another, they
form either a subduction
zone or a continental collision.
When plates
collide
Oceanic plates tend to “slip”
UNDER continental plates creating
Coastal mountain ranges.
One oceanic plate colliding with
another tend to create midocean island chains.
Continental plates colliding
tend to create VERY high
Mid-continent mountains.
Richter Magnitude Scale
– developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter
– logarithmic basis of the scale
• each whole number increase in magnitude represents a
tenfold increase in measured amplitude
• a magnitude 5.3 might be computed for a moderate
earthquake, and a strong earthquake might be rated as
magnitude 6.3
Epicenter
Earth’s surface
Below the surface of the
earth.
• The epicenter is the point on the earth's
surface vertically above the hypocenter (or
focus), point in the crust where a seismic
rupture begins.
What the experts say about Japan’s
earthquake.
• The latest Japanese earthquake was a
9.0!
• Parts of Northern Japan may have moved as
much as 8 FEET since the earth quake!
• This even may have caused the earth to
change the speed of its rotation by .0001
seconds (that’s a bunch)!
• This quake may also slightly shift the earth on
its axis!
The wave that followed.
• If you’ve ever thrown a rock into a pool of
water or watched rain drops hitting a puddle,
and noticed the “ripple effect”, you’ve
witnessed a miniature model of a tsunami.
How an earthquakes
creates a tsunami.
Tsunami
(improperly known as a a tidal wave)
5 hours
10 hours
15 hours
20 hours
Tsunamis
travel as fast
as 600 miles
per hour!
Facts about tsunamis
• In the open deep ocean, a tsunami’s wave
may be barely noticeable.
• Once the tsunami reaches shallow water, the
wave builds UP and creates a wave wall.
The earthquake in Japan last Friday
caused a tsunami because the
epicenter of the quake was off shore
(under water). The quake and the
following tsunami severely damaged
several nuclear reactors in the coastal
areas.
Scenes of the event
How tall do you think the waves were?
Ocean fishing boat left capsized, high and dry.
Before
After
New cars that
were to be
exported to other
countries waiting
to be loaded onto
ocean-going
cargo ships were
caught in the
tsunami.
Remains of a
Brewery three
miles away
ended up in a
residential
Area
devastated by
the wave.
Estimates are that 10,000
Japanese have died so far
due to the event.
Passenger ferry perched atop a
house after the tsunami.
Cargo containers were pushed into massive piles.
Cargo containers are the size of semi-truck trailers.
Sendai Airport
before
and after
Airport runway
littered with cars
and debris.
Tens of thousands of Japanese may be homeless and without food,
water or shelter for weeks. The night after the earthquake,
temperatures dipped to the 30’s while many spent the night on
their roof tops with no blankets.
Many have been left with NOTHING.
• One rare bit of good news was the rescue of a
60-year-old man swept away by the tsunami
who clung to the roof of his house for two
days until a military vessel spotted him waving
a red cloth about 10 miles (15 kilometers)
offshore.
Those who have been
exposed to radiation from
the nuclear power plant
damage have been isolated.
A mother tries to talk to her
daughter who has been isolated
for signs of radiation after
evacuating from the vicinity of
Fukushima's nuclear plants.
American soldiers and sailors
have already begun efforts to
assist Japan.
Experts think it will be over
a year before numbers can
be put to the total cost of
the destruction and the
loss of life.