Force of Nature, Japan Earthquake

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Learn more about earthquakes

What causes an earthquake?  Is Brazil at risk? The answers are below

   Recent earthquakes in Haiti (January-2010), Chile (February-2010), and Japan (March 2011) have not only chocked the world but have also raised a lot of concern [1] in other nations in South America and Central America. The ground has shaken [2] in a number of regions in Brazil in recent years, but they were low [3] intensity shakes. Experts say that Brazil’s chances of suffering from a major earthquake are minimal. Earthquakes are caused by geological cracks [4]. Major shakes happen when two underground [5]  tectonic plates [6] collide. The most affected countries are those located on the edge [7] of such plates. Brazil has been lucky. It is located in the middle of a huge plate, away from a dangerous “contact zone” between two major plates. However, in some cases, an earthquake may also be caused by a volcanic eruption. The most common scale used to measure the intensity of an earthquake is Charles Francis Richter’s. His scale ranges from 0 to 9 degrees.   

Chile and Haiti

Every year, thousands of shakes strike [8]  the ground around the globe, but most of them are of such low intensity that they are not even felt by people. The higher [9] the intensity of the earthquake and the closer the epicenter is to a major city, the higher the risk of great tragedies. In Chile, the earthquake reached 8.8 on the Richter’s scale, which was higher than the one recorded in Haiti (7.7). However, the tragedy in Haiti was much more intense. In Chile, the epicenter was 115 km away from the city of Concepción, but in Haiti, it was only 25 km away from the capital Port-au-Prince. This is one of the factors that explain why over 220,000 people died in Haiti and “only” a little over 700 died in Chile. There are other factors that made the consequences worse, such as the quality of constructions and the depth [10]  of the earthquake. In Chile, the epicenter was in the sea at 35 km depth, while in  Haiti it was only 10 km below the surface.  

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Picture - Vehicles are crushed by a collapsed wall at a carpark in Mito city in Ibaraki prefecture onMarch 11, 2011 after a massive earthquake rocked Japan AFP PHOTO / JIJI PRESS

Vocabulary

1 to raise a lot of concern – aqui = deixar preocupada (s)

2 the ground has shaken – a terra tremeu

3 low - baixo

4 geological cracks – aqui = falhas geológicas

5 underground - subterrânea

6 tectonic plates – placas tectônicas (gigantescos blocos de terra)

7 on the edge – nas bordas

8 to strike – sacudir

9 the higher the – quanto maior for

10 depth - profundidade