Early Warning One World Essay (science)

Tsunamis are series of tidal waves; it can also be called a tsunami wave train. Tsunami’s leave huge marks back. People struggle living, their homes get destroyed and they don’t have food. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake had a huge effect on people and the city. It occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. More than 230,000 people were dead by the first day of this tragedy. This was the sixth deadliest tsunami in recorded history. Science could be applied to prevent the damages of tsunami. Scientist could use physics. The best way to apply physics is to build strong buildings so the waves wouldn’t destroy the buildings. No matter how strong the buildings are, people would still be in risk. So they should be informed by the news. The news could inform the people by using warning systems that detect the tsunami before it comes. Building stronger buildings and detecting the tsunami before would help prevent the damages of tsunami.

The buildings could be made stronger by having a solid base. When the bottom of the building is strong the rest of it would also get the strength from there. If it doesn’t have a solid base the building would collapse no matter how strong the rest of it is. During tsunami the buildings would stay in shape and wouldn’t collapse. After tsunami the damages would be less on a strong building than a weak building. But there are limitations to building strong buildings. The water could get in the building and people could drown. Also water could react with some chemicals if the building had a science class or lab in it and this could possibly cause explosions. So this method has good sides but has limitations to what it prevents.

Tsunami could be detected by alarms and machines which see any volcanoes or earthquakes. When the scientists detect an earthquake by using these monitors and detecting machines they could inform the people. The people could hear this by the newspaper or from television. Not everyone has access to television and internet this could be a limitation to the method. This could also take so much time and couldn’t inform the people at time. Also people don’t have somewhere to go in a case of emergency in that panic. And not everyone owns a car to drive away. Informing people could be something bad because they would panic and this could make everything harder.

Building these strong buildings could cost a lot. Since these countries had tsunami before they had to pay to cover the damage. This could be connected with economics because if the country doesn’t have the money to builds strong buildings they won’t be able to prevent tsunami.  Countries such as India and Indonesia aren’t as rich as other countries in Europe or the States. To pay for the buildings the people would have to pay taxes and the country’s people would be poor.  Damages of the tsunami could affect the country in politics and the country would become weaker because of tsunami. This could end up in crises and less people would be working. The income and outcome of the country would be less.

Tsunami also has moral effects on people. The effects are seen before and after tsunami. Before tsunami they start to panic and think that they will die. Most moral effects are on the people which cannot drive away from tsunami. After the tsunami some people do survive and seeing that view of dead people and destroyed buildings is not very nice. Imagining that it could be your own family is even worse. All of your memories are in your house and your belongings. When they are gone it affects a person morally. It is very hard to recover from an accident like that.

Science could be used to prevent the damages of the tsunami. Buildings and detectors sure prevent some of the damages but has limitations. These methods could be used but they cannot solve every problem that the tsunami makes. Nobody can erase the damage but it could be prevented by using similar methods to these. Everything that could be done to come against the damages of the tsunami has limitations and effects on people. Time could help the country become as strong as it used to be. By the time it develops the country and its people will have a hard time making money and living but they have no choice. Other countries would help them after such accident but even those are limited. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.How Big Tsunamis Get. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. <http://robbie-colin.tripod.com/id2.html>.

2.Wikipedia. "Historic Tsunamis." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. 

     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_tsunamis>.


               3."2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami." wiki. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. 
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_and_tsunami>.

Earthquakes in Turkey

The latest earthquake in my hometown Ankara was in Karaali-Bala.It happened today.The date is 2/7/2011.
The time this earthquake happened was 23:22:24. It was 2.7 MI. This was far from my house because it was near the border to another city.

Questions Ch. 2-3

1.a. What is a seismograph?

Seismograph is an instrument which records the movements of a wave.

b.How does a seismograph record seismic waves?

Seismic waves cause the seismograph's drum to vibrate.Scientist understand when it vibrates.A seismograph's heavy weight resists the motion during a quake.

c.How would the se seismograph for the two earthquakes compare?

 The seismograph shows lower ridges along the drawing for the weaker Earthquakes and higher ridges or the stronger Earthquakes.

2 a.What four instruments are used to monitor faults?

Tiltmetre, Creepmetre, Laser-Ranging Device and GPS Satellites.

b.What changes does each instrument measure?

 Tiltmeter has up and down movements.Creepmeter has horizontal movementLaser-Ranging Device has horizontal movement. 

GPS has horizontal and elevation movement

c.A satellite that monitors a fault detects an increasing tilt in the land surface along the fault. What could this change in the land surface indicate?

 It indicates  a Mountain Range or a Valley is being formed.

3. a.What are three ways in which geologists use seismographic data?

Mapping Faults, Monitoring Faults and Predicting Earthquakes.

b.How do geologists use seismographic data?

The higher a risk area and the lower the greater the difference in fault.

c.Why do geologists collect data on friction along the sides of faults?

 Because the greater the friction the more volatile the earthquake will be.

Locate An Epicenter Discovery Lab

Finding The Epicenter

Guiding Question:

How can you locate an earthquake’s epicenter?

Skills Focus

interpreting data, drawing conclusions

Materials

• drawing compass with pencil
• outline map of the United States

Procedure 

1. Review the data table showing differences in earthquake arrival times.

2. The graph shows how the difference in arrival times between P waves 

and S waves depends on the distance from the epicenter of the 

earthquake. Find the difference in arrival time for Denver on the y-axis 

of the graph. Follow this line across to the point at which it crosses the 

curve. To find the distance to the epicenter, read down from this point to 

the x-axis of the graph. Enter this distance in the data table.

3. Repeat Step 2 for Houston and Chicago.

4. Set your compass at a radius equal to the distance from Denver to the 

earthquake epicenter that you recorded in your data table.

5. Draw a circle with the radius determined in Step 4, using Denver as the 

center. Draw the circle on the map. (Hints: Draw your circles carefully. 

You may need to draw some parts of the circles off the map.)

6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 for Houston and Chicago. 

Data Table

City	Difference in P and S Wave Arrival Time	Distance to Ecpicenter
Denver, Colorado	2 min 40 s	1,600
Houston, Texas	1 min 50 s	1,000
Chicago, Illinois	1 min 10 s	600

Analyze and Conclude

1. Observe the three circles you have drawn. Where is the earthquake’s 

epicenter?

The epicenter of the three cities is located at south-west of Nashville, Tennessee.

2. Which city on the map is closest to the earthquake epicenter? How far, in 

kilometers, is this city from the epicenter?

Nashville is the closest city from the epicenter location. It is nearly 40-50 km.

3. In which of the three cities listed in the data table would seismographs 

detect the earthquake first? Last?
 I think that Chicago, Illinois which is the closest (600 km away). It think that is the first place that the earthquake happened.

4. About how far from San Francisco is the epicenter that you found? What 

would the difference in arrival times of the P waves and S waves be for a 

recording station in San Francisco?

The distance from San Francisco to the epicenter will be around 2800 km. If you round it up to 3000 km.The difference in P and S wave arrival will be 4 and 2/3 minutes (4 min 40 sec).

5. What happens to the difference in arrival times between P waves and 

S waves as the distance from the earthquake increases?

I think that the P waves get much faster and start getting stronger through time.

6. Review the procedure you followed in this lab and then answer the 

following question. When you are trying to locate an epicenter, why is it 

necessary to know the distance from the epicent for at least three 

recording stations?
It is good to know three locations to find the epicenter since it forms a triangle.We can see that locating an earthquake epicenter produces more accuracy when reading.


 vital to citizens health.