Friday, October 2, 2009
Avalanches
An avalanche is a quick flow of snow on a slope. It usually happens on mountains but it can also happen on gentler slopes too. There are a few ways to prevent avalanches or to lessen their power. One way to prevent them is snow fences as the snow builds up around the walls and doesnt roll down the hill. They also plant trees as it slows the avalanches down. It is said that avalanches can be triggered by shouting, although these are just myths and are not true as the sound waves are not big enough.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Hurricane Katrina
On the August 29th 2005 Hurricane Katrina passed east of New Orleans. New Orleans is situated along the Mississippi river. All though the harshest part of Katrina missed the city the results where dreadful. It ended up being one of the worst engineering disasters in history due to the flooding of the levee breaches. Over 75% of New Orleans was flooded within 2 days of the flood. Around 90% of people evacuated due to the floods but people such as the elderly and the poor didn’t want to move. Many of these people who didn’t evacuate had to swim for there lives or get trapped on the roofs of their houses. Most of the main roads traveling in and out of the city where damaged by the hurricane so the traffic out of the city was terrible. It is said that the cost of the damages is around $200 billion, which made hurricane Katrina one of most expensive hurricanes ever in the United States.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Earthquake-Los Angeles
On the 18th of May 2009 Los Angeles was hit with an earthquake of a magnitude of 4.7. It happened at around 8:30 pm local time and was around 10 miles south-west of downtown Los Angeles. There were three aftershocks after this earthquake with a magnitude of 3.1. Books and items fell crashing to the ground and windows where smashed. This was a light earthquake compared to some of the ones Los Angeles face as sometimes bridges and houses are knocked down. If you are ever somewhere and there is an earthquake drop to the ground. Crawl under a sturdy table and don’t come out until the shaking as stopped. If there is no table crawl into a corner away from windows or stand under a doorway. You have to do these things because the doorway is a lot more sturdy so it will be more likely to stay standing during the shaking.
hondo-tsumani
On the 15th of June 1896 the main island of Japan known as Hondo was struck with a tsunami. It was caused by an earthquake out at sea. The earthquake was formed by two plates colliding 90 miles off shore. It took 35 minutes to reach the Japanese shore. The coast line for 175 miles was hit by this great wave. It was 125 feet high. The tsunami only lasted 30 minutes but had devastating results as it killed around 27000 people and left over 9000 houses in ruins. Unfortunately there was many people on the shore as they where celebrating the home-coming of their soldiers. It destroyed property worth over 6 million yen and it left acres and acres of land turned to waste.
Monday, September 21, 2009
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