Mostrando postagens com marcador Earthquake. Mostrar todas as postagens
Mostrando postagens com marcador Earthquake. Mostrar todas as postagens

domingo, 20 de março de 2011

Japan’s Early Warning System One of the Best in the World

Source: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Japans-Early-Warning-System-One-of-the-Best-in-the-World-118258934.html access and promote VOA around the world, give opportunity to English learners practise and improve their English.


A man searches for a family member in the ruins of a tsunami-hit area in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A man searches for a family member in the ruins of a tsunami-hit area in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
A powerful earthquake struck the northeastern coast of Japan at two forty-six p.m. local time on March eleventh. Japan’s Meteorological Agency released its first tsunami warnings just three minutes later. The country has one of the best earthquake early warning systems in the world.
There are more than four thousand Seismic Intensity Meters in place throughout Japan to measure earthquake activity. These meters provide information within two minutes of an earthquake happening. Information about the strength and the center of the earthquake can be learned within three minutes.
There are also concrete sea walls around much of the Japanese coastline. But these measures proved no match for the powerful earthquake and tsunami.
Costas Synolakis is a tsunami expert with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
COSTAS SYNOLAKIS: "Japan is one of those most well-prepared countries on earth in terms of tsunami warning. They had a warning. I think what went wrong is that they had not anticipated the size of this event.”
He says there are two reasons for this. Japan has not had any event anywhere near as big as this one in the last one hundred fifty years. And scientists had not expected such a large earthquake happening off the coast of Japan.
The nine point zero magnitude earthquake was the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded worldwide. It was also the worst earthquake ever to hit Japan. The tsunami waves that followed were reported to have reached as high as thirteen meters in some areas.
Costas Synolakis says Japan’s concrete sea walls were not built to handle such high waves.
COSTAS SYNOLAKIS: "The concrete seawalls in many places in Japan are about 10 meters, that's about 33 feet. In Sendai, they were about three meters, that's about 10 feet. So that shows you that at least in that area they were not expecting such a sizeable wave because they would have built a higher seawall.”
A tsunami wave can travel as fast as eight hundred kilometers per hour. To get to higher ground people would often have to travel for many kilometers. This can take more time than a fast traveling tsunami will permit. This is especially true in cases like Japan, where the center of the earthquake struck so close to the coastline. The tsunami waves followed almost immediately.
Experts say early warning systems will continue to be limited by these facts until earthquakes and tsunamis can be predicted
And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. You can find more news about the disaster in Japan at our website, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports. And you can find us on Facebook and YouTube at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember.

quinta-feira, 17 de março de 2011

Force of Nature, Japan Earthquake











Source: www.maganews.com.br acessem e assine, recomendo, access and got a wonderful magazine, recommend.
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.  


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
to raise a lot of concern – aqui = deixar preocupada (s)
the ground has shaken – a terra tremeu
low - baixo
geological cracks – aqui = falhas geológicas
underground - subterrânea
tectonic plates – placas tectônicas (gigantescos blocos de terra)
on the edge – nas bordas
to strike – sacudir
the higher the – quanto maior for
10 depth - profundidade

sexta-feira, 11 de março de 2011

Earthquake and Tsunamis


Source of the picture http://ja-seeyum.tumblr.com/post/3787276606/what-if-ronnie-parksunmin-dooholove-the

Written by Carlos' Tour guide
The earthquake and Tsunamis hit the Japan is recorded in history, I decided to write something in memory of those who lost their lives in the tragic Natural event who marked that country. Remind the horror of the biggest Asia's Tsunamis hit Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka in 2004. We cannot figure out the pain of the people who lost their homes, parents disappeared, and the victims of the tragedy. English tips' homage Japanese' family and respect all readers who visit and appreciate this blog, my sincere condolences. Let's pray for Japan and don't forget to love each other and always supporting for peace and justice. Even, though have a blessed weekend friends.