Earthquakes

I’ve lived in Bellevue my entire life, and usually, nothing out of the ordinary happens.  When I was in first grade, I sat through my first earthquake.  At first, I heard this almost loud tapping sound, which was followed by the ground quivering beneath me.  I followed my instinct and got half way under the desk, but noticed no one else was ducking.  As I popped back up, my teacher reassured the class that there were workers on the roof, but when a more thunderous shake came about, we dove for the ground.  No one was expecting an earthquake in boring, old Bellevue.  Always anticipate the worst.

Even though that was ten years ago, the memory hasn’t diluted fro my memory.  Earthquakes are taken more seriously now that the people of the greater Seattle area have experienced a recent one.  There are more frequently earthquake drills in Bellevue district, and people are more aware that the Juan de Fuca plate Is right on the coastline.  Although the magnitude was 6.8, the quake was not detrimental dude to the focus depth being 51 feet.  The focus depth of an earthquake affects the severity of the tremors; the deeper it is, the less violently the ground shakes.  Another contributing cause that made the ground only shake, instead of making a thunderous roar, was that the Bellevue’s distance from the epicenter was 40.31 miles.  These two factors are what diluted the strength of the earthquake.

Earthquakes can happen unexpectedly somewhere that hasn’t had a quake in 300 years, or one could occur in the same area as one that hit a week before.  An earthquake happens when two or more tectonic plates collide and slip past each other.  When two hard substances grind against each other, there is going to be friction that causes shaking, which is also referred to as an earthquake.  Another result over time is mountains.  When the locations of many ranges are observed, they are either on or near the fault line of two plates.  When they collide, the top layer of the earth is forced upward, and over millions of years it continuously gets larger.  People that live in high-risk areas for earthquakes are prepared for the worst.  In Chile, the majority of their buildings are designed with earthquakes in mind, and the Chilean citizens have been trained to stay put and get under cover.  Washington is similarly prepared for these situations, even though they don’t happen as frequently as in Chile.  Being prepared for an earthquake ensures order, and Bellevue was not in panic when the earthquake hit because of this.  But, for places that earthquakes are not as prominent in, are les prepared and therefore the outcomes are more severe.  Haiti faced this dilemma in 2010, and lost more than 230,00 lives.

Moving is an option to avoid earthquakes in total.  Avoiding coastlines and fault lines, can help prevent ever enduring a tremor.  Even following these tactics, if an earthquake’s magnitude is high enough, the seismic waves can still create aftershocks that are far from the epicenter.

            The severity of the earthquake can also be based on the type of the fault.  Normal faults are the crack where one plate is sliding away rom another.  These faults are common where a plate is slowly splitting apart or where two plates are pulling away from each other.  Reverse faults are cracks that are formed when one plate is thrust against another.  They also occur when a plate is being folded up because it’s getting compressed by another one.  Strike-slip faults are known as the cracks between to plates that are sliding past each other. 

            After experiencing a significant earthquake, I was more aware of the reasons that Washington prepares for them.  No one saw it coming, and neither did anyone else that has experienced one.  The only think that humans can do is anticipate and be ready.