Why did the Kobe earthquake happen?

Answer 1

The earthquake of Kobe occurred at 5.46 am, on Tuesday January 17th, 1995. the earthquake was caused by a destructive plate boundary; the much denser oceanic Philippine plate was forced underneath the less dense continental Eurasian plate causing a build up of a high amount of pressure in the earth's crust. Once that pressure is released then earthquakes occur like the one in Kobe.
The earthquake was caused by two of three tectonic plates colliding due to stress in the crust. The country wasn't prepared so this led to even more drastic damage to the large port and town of Kobe. 5000 people were killed in a 20 second earthquake this shows that all contras need to prepare for the worst if thy are at least a 45% chance of having an earthquake.The names of these plates are The Eurasian Plate, the Philippines Plate, and the pacific plate. The earthquake was caused by the pacificplate slipping under the philippines plate, however when the friction becomes to great, the pressure continues to build and one big push hgappens to overcome the friction this jolt is wwhat the earthquake is.

As you know that earthquakes are natural hazards, which occur on plate margins. Earthquakes are the result of plate movements. The strain builds up along the fault line between two plates until they move causing earthquakes. Japan is at a high risk to earthquakes. Unfortunately it lies above a destructive plate margin. Kobe is located above where the Philippines crust (oceanic crust) and the Eurasian crust (continental crust) meet. It was along this fault that the caused the earthquake that hit Kobe.

1. The Philippine plate went beneath the Eurasian plate (due to it's higher density) at a destructive plate boundry
2. This caused serious tension to build up
3. When the pressure was released the earthquake occured.

The focus of the earthquake was within 20 km of Down town Kobe

The epicenter of the earthquake was on Awaji Island, around 20 kilometers south of Kobe.

Answer 2

Kobe has so many earthquakes because it is on the edge of a continental plate. there is soo much pressure in the core of the earth that it pushes matter out and is cooled to create new "land" an when new "land" is formed there needs to be adjustments in the positions so the plates move

Answer 3

Kobe, Japan is near 3 tectonic plates (great big slabs of the earths crust that move around due to the convection currents massive circuits of lava under the surface of the earth.) When two of these plates collide it causes the ground to shake with the result of an earthquake. The fact that Kobe was not expecting the earthquake didn't help; despite several practises there were several reports of panic. The fire brigade weren't called out for about 5 hours because they were trying to clear the road so people could travel; also so they could go back to quickly get water.

Answer 4

Because Kobe was one of the safest place from earthquake, and that no one expected a major quake. Also, most of the houses were traditional Japanese buildings which has very heavy clay roof tiles that sit on weak timber, and has plaster boards and bamboo as support). The house itself was built for another natural disaster - typhoons. This make the houses collapse complete on top of each other which is also called a pancake collapse.

But little did they expect a major earthquake with 7.4 on the Richter scale, which had a very shallow focus. This means that the ground acceleration is twice as violent as the building code, which causes way more damage than a deeper focus.

Moreover, the violent shaking of the earthquake got gas pipes and water pipes into total meltdown, so whilst the gas pipes are leaking, and causing fire that's burning the city down, they don't have any water to stop the fire, and they have to use the sea water, which needs to be transported over the already collapsed roads and buildings.

Furthermore, the Japanese government refused help from other major countries, which means it took days instead of hours to rescue the victims. These people would've of easily died of blood loss, suffocation (because of the fire burning up all the oxygen), hypothermia (it was January at around about 0 Celsius), broken bones, pressured organs, starvation, dehydration, or the gases from a leaking gas pipe.

Answer 5

Most of the largest earthquakes in Japan are caused by subduction of the Philippine Plate or Pacific Plate, with mechanisms that involve either energy released within the subducting plate or the accumulation and sudden release of stress in the overlying plate. Earthquakes of these types are especially frequent in the coastal regions of northeastern Japan

Answer 6

well it started of as and little shake then it came out as a huge earthquake so there is ur awnser xx