Earthquakes And Hurricanes

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Earthquakes and hurricanes

An earthquake typically occurs along some fault lines in the earth's surface. It takes

less than five minutes and may be felt in a wide area. Earthquakes differ in strength as they

can be strong or weak. Strong earthquakes can cause the collapse of buildings, falling of

objects and people. The power of an earthquake can be measured by a device known as a

seismometer. There is no 100% proved the way of predicting an earthquake, but since the

scientists are still working on this, there is hope that efficient devices will be available in

future. These devices will have the potential of detecting movement is the earth’s crust and

sending the earthquakes’ warnings before they take place. Traditionally, people were able to

predict earthquakes shortly before the main wave could be felt by detecting the force waves

that precede the main waves hence locate safer locations and minimize casualty. Earthquakes

occur in a series of waves where weaker waves can be felt before the main wave and after the

main wave. These waves, however, are not guaranteed to be considered as they might be too

weak to be felt or be missed if one does not expect such a thing. Some areas were also more

prone to earthquakes than others hence people could predict by use of observed frequencies

and existing data. Currently, some scientists use the rain patterns where it is believed than the

center of a rain region also serves as the earthquake epicenter (Earthquakes).

Hurricanes refer to the intense storms accompanied by strong winds and heavy

rainfall and are destructive in nature. Some areas are prone to hurricanes more than others as

noted that the rarely happen within 5

latitudes. Traditionally hurricanes could be predicted

by observing the formation of cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea where

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hurricanes’ prevalence is high. Since hurricanes are accompanied by the high speed of the

wind over the water surface, high speed of wind could send some warnings to those

concerned with predicting hurricanes. Hurricanes are also associated with a high temperature

of water surface, and this could traditionally be detected by observing the clouds visibility

where when the temperatures are high, evaporation is high interfering with the cloud

visibility. Hurricanes could also be predicted by use of the existing data where the frequency

of occurrence could be determined and used to make rough guesses. Currently, satellites and

Doppler radars are used to observe the clouds and the formation of cyclones in the oceans and

seas, while scientists interpret the images and warn the community where necessary. After

the formation of hurricanes, their movement can be tracked by use of the satellites. Formation

of cyclones does not guarantee the existence of a hurricane as the speed of the cyclone can

reduce when it encounters cold water or decrease in the rate of the wind. It is expected that

scientist will come up with devices for predicting the hurricanes as the existing ones are not

accurate as required. The accuracy of these devices increases as the Hurricanes approaches

the land which may increase the chances of property destruction due to delayed warning

(Samost).

The first precursor of hurricanes is the inability to see through the clouds. This shows

high temperatures over the water surfaces causing intensive evaporation and hence the clouds

become darker. Satellites have displayed colorful images indicating the process by which

water vapor ascend and condenses to form clouds losing the latent heat of evaporation.

Higher water temperature is another precursor as the hurricanes mostly happen when high-

speed wind passes over warm water surfaces. The top water surface temperature can be

measured by the use of satellites to produce microwave images that produce different colors

for different water surface temperatures. Currently, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission

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(TRMM) satellites are used to look through the clouds to determine the visibility precursor

(NASA).

Earthquakes precursors include foreshocks as previously discussed. The foreshocks

were employed in China as early as in 1975. Technologies will play a bigger role in future to

aid detection of other precursors. For instance, use of lasers can help in detecting faults on the

earth surface and movements in the earth’s crust before it translates into an earthquake.

Before an earthquake takes place other factors can be used to predict it such as detecting a

change in magnetic fields, change in groundwater levels, rainfall epicenters, emission of

radon gas and radio waves. All those factors mentioned above require technological devices

to be detected. These precursors can be more accurate in detecting potential disasters and

their intensities as compared to the traditional precursors (Young).

Earthquakes have impacted the United States of America in its different states, and

Puerto Rico has been affected by hurricanes. Among the America's states, California and

Alaska have been more negatively impacted as compared to other countries. There are

various cases of earthquakes in the United States of America such as the San Francisco’s

earthquake of April 18, 1906, that claimed more than 3000 lives and others that will be

mentioned below. Another earthquake incident is the Long Beach earthquake that happened

on March 10, 1933 in California claiming 120 lives. Heutian Island earthquake of April 1,

1946 that claimed 165 lives, Alaska earthquake of March 27, 1964, claiming 143 lives in

Alaska and South Napa earthquake of August 24,year 2014, in California. Other states have

also been impacted by earthquakes, but I have chosen California and Alaska because they

have suffered most from earthquakes. The Alaska earthquake took place on March 27, 1964,

at 5:36 pm local time. This earthquake was the strongest attaining a magnitude of 9.2. It

occurred in the southern region of Prince Williams. The earthquake began about 25 km under

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the earth’s surface with an epicenter of about 10 km. This highest recorded earthquake only

lasted for 4.5 minutes (USGS).

Puerto Rico has been adversely affected by Hurricanes. These hurricanes mostly take

place between June 1 and November 30 in Puerto Rico. Some of the storms that have

happened in Puerto Rico include the Hurricane Hugo of 5

September 1989. The Hurricane

Marlyn of 15

September 1995. The Hurricane Bertha of 8

July 1996. The Hurricane

Hortence of 9

-20

September 2996. Hurricane Georges of 21

-22

September 1999. The

Hurricane Leny of 17

November 1999. Another hurricane that affected Puerto Rico is the

Hurricane Debby of 22

August 2000 and finally Hurricane Irene of 14

July 2014. I now

wish to cover the Hurricane Luis of 1995 mentioned above in details. Hurricane Luis was

under category 4 of hurricanes. It originated from the Eastern Atlantic Ocean where it

reached the Northern Leeward Island under 135 mph speeds. There were various warnings

issued previously about the hurricane, and this minimized the casualty and harm. Its average

eye width was between 30 nautical miles and 40 nautical miles. Its storm caused deaths,

erosion and other damages in the North-Eastern side of Puerto Rico. The damages caused

chaos in the country concerning the preparedness of the Puerto Rico's government to handle

such cases. There was damage to property worth about 2.5 billion dollars and claimed lives of

16 people in Luis. The property was replaced, but the lives were ultimately lost (The Puerto

Rico Hurricane Center).

The United Nation’s approximate population of Puerto Rico was approximately

3,674,347 people as of January 2017. The trend available is that the people of Puerto Rico are

decreasing gradually while that of the United States of America is increasing. Therefore the

estimated population of the United States of America was 326,529,814 as of July 2017. Other

disasters are facing Puerto Rico such as Flooding as was the case for North Dakota on 23

March this year. There are also straight line wind, tornadoes, storms, and flooding as it

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happened on 26

April this year. The fire has led to the loss of property in Puerto Rico due to

the rampant cases of fires destroying properties. There are also different storms such as

winter storms and snowstorms as it was the case of Kansas on 28

April 2017.

The United States of America faces floods in different areas, hurricanes, typhoons,

drought and earthquakes (Ono). The disaster with the highest prevalence in Puerto Rico is

flooding. The United States of America is frequently affected by drought compared to other

natural disasters. The population of Puerto Rico in the year 1995 when Hurricane Luis hit it

was 3,689, 648 people. The population of Americans in the year 1964 at the time of Alaska

Earthquake was approximately 191.81 people. The individuals in the United States of

America is increasing gradually, and other factors held constant the population is projected to

438 million inhabitants by the year 2050 (Passel & Cohn). On the other hand, the people of

Puerto Rico is decreasing gradually and is expected to be a total of 2.98 million individuals in

the year 2050 other factors held constant (Krogstad).

United States’ population trend

438 Million

326,529,814

3,674,347

2.98 M

Population

2017 2050 Time in years

Puerto Rico’s population trend

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The hurricane Luis did not cause a huge destruction, and indeed the moderate damage

that resulted from this hurricane was fully recovered. The recovery did not take long as the

owners collaborated with the government in restoring the losses. The hurricane also claimed

the lives of 16 people which cannot be recovered by financial means. On the other hand, in

Alaska Earthquake 131lives were lost where more deaths were caused by tsunamis rather

than the earthquake. The United States government responded by sending corps engineers

who had participated in the third world war to help in reconstructing Alaska. They, therefore,

assisted in the construction of damaged sewer lines, power lines, damaged roads, and rails.

They cleared the infrastructural remains restoring the City as it was. This was facilitated by

foreign aid from countries such as France. However, the tectonic uplifts could not be reversed

by their effort. The 131 lives lost also were not recovered after the Alaska earthquake.

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Works cited

Center, The Puerto Rica Hurricane. "Hurricanes and Tropical Storms in Puerto Rica from

1980 to 2005." (n.d.). < http://huracanado1.tripod.com/history3.html >.

"Earthquakes." (n.d.). < https://www.ready.gov/earthquakes >.

"Historical Vignete 047- The Corps Helped Rebuid Alaska Following Disastrous." (2002).

< http://www.usace.army.mil/About/History/Historical-Vignettes/Relief-and-

Recovery/047-Alaska-Earthquake/ >.

Krogstad, Jen's Manue. "Historic Population Losses Continue Accross Puerto Rico." (2016).

< http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/03/24/historic-population-losses-

continue-across-puerto-rico/ >.

NASA. "Scientific Visualization Studio." (n.d.).

< https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/stories/hurricanes/index.html >.

Ono, Arito. "How Do Natural Disasters Affect Economy." (n.d.).

< https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/02/how-do-natural-disasters-affect-the-

economy/ >.

Samost, Aubrey. "Predicting Hurricanes." (n.d.).

<http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2010/teams/neworleans1/predicting%20hurricane

s.htm >.

USGS. "The Great M9.2 Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami of March 27, 1964." (n.d.).

< https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/events/alaska1964/ >.

Young, Jennifer. "Earthquake Precursors: Signs of a Coming Tremor." (2013).

<https://www.decodedscience.org/earthquake-warning-signs-of-a-coming-

tremor/30536>.

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