Hot spots for earthquakesEarthquakes can happen all over the world from Australia to Greenland. The country that has the most earthquakes each year is Japan. It has more than 1500 earthquakes each year. This is because Japan is located on the 'Ring of Fire'. It starts in New Zealand and goes through Japan, up to Alaska, and then all the way to the coasts of North and South America. This is a circle of all the active volcanoes that erupt frequently. Volcanic eruptions cause earthquakes as magma from underneath the Earth's crust rises into the magma chamber, inside the volcano. Japan is located on the ends of two tectonic plates. These plates move frequently, and this makes Japan an earthquake hotspot. As you can see in this picture, earthquakes in Japan are deadly. They kill up to 19000 people each year. But people have learned to live with it. They have built stronger buildings and new technology is being made so that we can know when an earthquake is coming. This will help greatly during earthquakes. It will help lower the list of casualties after the earthquake.
Word count: 184 words |
Above: All the earthquakes that have occurred in Japan.
|