Causes of Earthquakes

Most earthquakes are causally related to compressional or tensional stresses built up at the margins of
the huge moving lithospheric plates that make up the earth's surface (seelithosphere). The immediate
cause of most shallow earthquakes is the sudden release of stress along a fault, or fracture in the earth's
crust, resulting in movement of the opposing blocks of rock past one another. These movements cause
vibrations to pass through and around the earth in wave form, just as ripples are generated when a
pebble is dropped into water. Volcanic eruptions, rockfalls, landslides, and explosions can also cause a
quake, but most of these are of only local extent. Shock waves from a powerful earthquake can trigger
smaller earthquakes in a distant location hundreds of miles away if the geologic conditions are favorable.

Earthquakes: collateral effects

The energy released from an earthquake can be up to 10,000 times more powerful than
the first atomic bomb. Its side-effects can be:

Ground shaking
Shaking of the ground caused by the passage of seismic waves, especially surface
waves near theepicentre of the earthquake are responsible for the most damage during
an earthquake

Faulting and Ground Rupture

When an earthquake event occurs, ground rupture is only where the fault zone moves

Landslides and ground subsidence

Avalanches, landslides, slumps and rock slides are triggered by ground shaking. These
landslides are often more destructive than the earthquakes

Damage to man-made structures

Damage to man-made structures, such as roads, bridges, dams and buildings from
ground motion depends on the type of construction:

concrete and masonry structures are brittle and thus more susceptible to
damage and collapse;
damage to wood and steel structures is far less because of its flexibility.

Nepal's earthquake destruction

More than 3,000 dead as magnitude 7.9 earthquake hits Himalayan nation of 27
million.

Al Jazeera and Agencies |

| Natural disasters, Asia, Earthquake, Nepal

An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the perceptible shaking of the
surface of the Earth, which can be violent enough to destroy major buildings and kill
thousands of people. The severity of the shaking can range from barely felt to violent enough
to toss people around. Earthquakes have destroyed whole cities. They result from the

sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that Death

and destruction in

Nepal
BY KEVIN RAFFERTY

SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

OSAKA Death and destruction have dominated recent news. Mass media deserted the
tragedy of migrants fleeing conflicts in the Middle East and being smuggled to Europe in
overladen boats. They had found a more powerful disaster, and rushed to earthquakesavaged Nepal.
Heart-wrenching scenes in Kathmandu of bewildered homeless people amidst the
rubble of ancient temples were vividly beamed into comfortable living rooms thousands
of miles away, showing how ruthless is the destructive power of nature. Three days after
the quake, confusion still reigned: one man said sadly that he had received a single
packet of noodles to eat but did not know whether it had been provided by the
government or by some NGO.